House of the Dragon - Seventh Episode Review

Time flies. The boiler is now boiling. It started overflowing in this episode. The cauldron is shaking so much that it’s almost time to topple. And for that overthrow, one last person has to die. You know who he is. The episode was like a Shakespearean play that brought the bitter but exciting taste of intrigue of Game of Thrones to the fullest. Now the parties and the persons belonging to these parties have become clear. The motivational uploads of the character are also over. We know who does what and why; who loves and hates who. From now on, everything will be about action.

I will divide the article into 6 titles and tell you about the latest character uploads. Now that the parties are clear, the characters were invested for the last time in this episode. After that, we will get a return on investment.

First Episode’s Review

Second Episode’s Review

Third Episode’s Review

Fourth Episode’s Review

Fifth Episode’s Review

Sixth Episode’s Review

We Are A Family

Viserys isn’t actually a bad guy. But in a land like Westeros, where intrigue is a daily sport, goodwill leads to graceless consequences. Viserys actually lived even well. The longer he lived, the greater the tension became. Funerals are a place where resentments reconcile in many cultures. But this funeral was the officialization of a family breakup. There was an ultra-tense environment where everyone couldn’t even look at each other and was uncomfortable with each other.

The longer Viserys lived, the greater the hatred and tension between the parties. If he had died early, perhaps nothing would have happened to the Targaryens. We see that over time, even children have become shy towards each other. Rhaenyra’s children now know that their father is Harwin. It’s actually quite a sad situation. Their mother sends their children to say something nice to the Velaryon daughters, even though their father has recently died. But they have to bury their pain inside because no one should know.

This sequence has 2 striking parts. First, the king calls Alicent Aemma. It was the dementia-induced emergence of love that was absent between them. We can deduce that Alicent is actually not loved at all. I genuinely feel sorry for her. As she admitted, she did what she had to do, yet nobody loved her. I saved the second striking part for the last topic.

Aemond the Mad

I wrote about Aemond’s interest in giant dragons in the last episode. I told you he’d take the biggest one. As we can understand from its vast jowl, Vhagar is one of the oldest dragons in the universe. Born when Aegon the Conqueror came to Dragonstone, he has been alive for over 100 years. The scene where Aemond goes to Vhagar and rides him was truly magnificent. Leo Ashten, who plays Aemond, also did a good job. Vhagar is such a powerful weapon of mass destruction it’s worth losing an eye, as Aemond said.

In the original text, Rhaenyra’s children appear before to keep Aemond from touching Vhagar. They know that Aemond has a penchant for Vhagar. Like in the show, Aemond insults them by calling them Strongs, which means bastards. They collide, and Lucerys cuts Aemond’s one eye with his blade, never to be opened again. Normally, the fight was only between Aemon, Lucerys, and Jacaerys, but writers wanted to tighten the ranks by adding the Velaryon girls to the conflict.

I laughed a lot in the scene where the kids were shouting at each other in the Driftmark hall. The way Daemon looked at them also made me laugh. It was actually a good scene. Because these children are the only people who will fight each other in the future and continue the civil war.

What Did I Do Other Than Expected?

It was actually a confession, a confession of being unhappy. Actually, I gave you a summary in the fourth chapter.

“My current paragraph is actually a summary of everything that will happen in the future. Rhaenyra, the king’s daughter. She embraces freedom and makes it a mantel to get what she wants with Daemon’s push. She’s got Valyrian blood in her and is also a dragon rider. Someone that many women would envy. Rhaenyra’s power and reputation are undeniable, although the public does not want a “female” leader, as we saw in the theater in the city. But Alicent is just a baby boomer machine that the king calls into his room to plant his seeds, as we saw in the episode, and like Rhaenyra said, stuck between the castle walls.”

Westeros history is full of families and individuals fighting each other over personal hatreds. Blackwoods, Brackens, Bittersteels, and many more. These people caused the death of the people they had followed for their own personal unhappiness. Alicent is no different from these people. She is still a manipulable little girl years later. Although the mother of three children is a queen, her father still sends her to the king to console him, just like many years ago. However, Alicent regretted her disgrace at night. But her father Otto again swung his poison-filled tongue at his daughter. And worst of all, everyone knows Alicent is controllable. Now, for example, every time I see Larys, I say alas, I start to wonder how he will deceive her this time.

Like Alicent, Criston Cole burns with great hatred. He was ready to attack one of Rhaenyra’s children at the Queen’s command. The cold tension between the guard commander Ser Herrold Westerling and Criston Cole does not go unnoticed. We don’t know how Herrold died, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Criston Cole was behind his death. Because the series fills between the lines wonderfully so far.

The best part of this episode was that we saw that the parties were officially announced. After Alicent cuts Rhaenyra’s hand off, the camera shows Rhaenyra’s hand in close-up, and right behind her, we see Corlys Velaryon holding her hand. The man who will be her hand in the future. Then the camera turns to Alicent, and we see him side by side with Criston Cole and Aemond. When the camera is turned, we see Rhaenyra, Corlys, and Daemon. These shots were specially made to show the parties, and Rhaenyra confirms that there is now a side by saying “the greens” in the next scene.

History Remembers Names

We saw that Corlys and Rhaenys, who we saw loved each other abysmal, also fell apart in this episode. It was actually a complete Game of Thrones episode. Corlys even confronted his wife Rhaenys and said he would fight for Rhaenyra and the throne. Rhaenys, on the other hand, believes that they should support the children of Daemon, who are her real blood. But Corlys answers with a sentence that will leave its mark on history.

History does not remember blood. It remembers names.

And it’s actually a trustworthy saying. History has written only the names and conquerors. Their ancestry and blood don’t matter to anyone as long as they achieve. One of the main reasons I like House of the Dragon so much is that it advances without diverting the characters’ motivations. Corlys has been after the throne since the first episode and still struggles. Rhaenys, conversely, has been saying that peace will be broken, and unfortunately, what she fears is about to happen. Because of Rhaenyra, whose face she didn’t look at at the funeral, the whole realm will soon fall apart into madness.

I Couldn’t Be A Good Husband To You

While all this was happening, Laenor was probably wandering around with the pain of losing his sister. It made me laugh when he entered the room and saw his wife with her hand cut off, and the kids were beaten. Here we also get the answer as to why they don’t have children, which is one of the gaps in the array. Despite trying, it didn’t work. Rhaenyra, however, did not say anything to him. E’en everything, she did not hesitate to say that she loved Laenor. But Laenor was now nothing more than an obstacle to Rhaenyra. Because Daemon was celibate now, Rhaenyra had to get her childhood crush one way or another.

We know that in the original text, Laenor was killed out of jealousy by one of his crushes. But instead of filling in between the lines this time, writers fooled us and wrote a completely different story for Laenor. They made him look like he had died and made him run away with his loved one. Does this radical change serve the series? No. But at heart, it both surprised me and made me overjoyed. At least someone will be happy. And that was HBO’s lecture to us about how to write an adaptation.

We Have Always Meant To Burn Together

At the dinner for Daemon’s Stepstones heroism, young Rhaenyra couldn’t take her eyes off him and followed him through the crowds. Of course, Daemon had his eye on her too. Even after 10 years, nothing has changed. At the funeral, Rhaenyra’s eyes were still on Daemon. Years passed, but her love for him never ceased. Hatta kocası Laenor’u gitmeye ikna etmeyi bile başardı. “The sea offers an escape,” Rhaenyra said. None of us could guess. Turns out she had already planned Laenor’s escape in her head.

My favorite part of this episode was the confrontation between Daemon and Rhaenyra. Their confession about why the Daemon run away back then. It was obvious that there was a spark, but it turned out that Rhaenyra’s being a child was a big obstacle. Although, if her father had given Rhaenyra in the castle that day, it wouldn’t have been a hindrance, right? Rhaenyra’s sentence, “I am no longer a child,” was one of the most striking parts of the episode. Our characters have grown, and their characters have settled down.

I admired the humble traditional marriage ceremony between them. Everything from the shooting to the movements of the actors was screaming art. According to David J. Paterson, the creator of the Valyrian language, the symbols the two drew in blood on their foreheads symbolize the Valyrian runes. The symbol on Rhaenyra’s forehead means fire, and Daemon’s means blood. Rhaenyra got what she wanted, as she always did. Alicent, on the other hand, returned to her lonely-cold castle with all her hatred ready to explode.

Some Beautiful Details

The camera captures a close-up of the dagger when Alicent attacks Rhaenyra. Behind the dagger, we see the fireplace fire. Meanwhile, Rhaenyra also glances at the dagger because she knows that when it gets hot, writing comes out on it.

The scene where Vaemond Velaryon prays for Laena made me laugh, as did Daemon. I told you about Vaemond. He will play an essential role in the future. He is someone who acts with his emotions like Alicent. So much so that he is so hateful that he insults Rhaenyra by saying, “our blood is pure” during the prayer. Both the king and Rhaenyra immediately realize that Vaemond is slamming Rhaenyra. Daemon gets a laugh when Vaemond continues and says that our lineage will never weaken.

What did I say? That we will see 9 dragons in the first season. Let’s see in order. Rhaenyra’s dragon Syrax. Daemon’s dragon Caraxes. Meleys, the dragon of Rhaenys. With Laenor gone, Seasmoke is idle. Aemond landed on Vhagar, idle from Laena. Jacaerys met Vermax last episode. And Dreamfyre in the Dragonpit, which Helaena will never use.

However, as the king’s ship returned to King’s Landing, three dragons were in the air. One of those dragons is most likely Aegon’s dragon, Sunfyre the Golden. During the episode, we had the opportunity to see it for 4 seconds. Only one dragon remains. That last dragon will likely be Arrax, spawned in the next episode and where Lucerys will ride.

There is not much detail about Aegon II’s youth in the book. The screenwriters designed him a little slack. He has no eyes on the throne. He is a spoiled and cocky boy who wants to do what he wants because he is from the royal family. He does not stop making fun of his sister Helaena and humiliating her. Aemond tells her, “she will be your wife in the future.” As much as Aegon reluctantly, the tradition is clear. The girl he calls crazy will become Aegon’s wife in the future.

I wanted to dedicate the last part to Laenor. The show actually made a good choice while making the Velaryons black. Understanding a Velaryon child is pretty straightforward. If he or she has black or white hair, it’s Velaryon. People can tell by their hair that Rhaenyra’s children are not hers. Likewise, in Game of Thrones, Eddard Stark understood that Cersei’s children were not from Robert. Hair is a decisive factor. That’s why Laenor shaved his head.

It is also apparent where the screenwriters came up with this idea. From Dunk and Egg, of course. A man named Dunken, who sets out to become a knight after the civil war, takes on an aide called Egg. Egg is a bald lad. After many adventures, we learn that Egg was actually Aegon V, with a claim to the throne. Wanting to become a knight, Aegon shaves his head, leaves the city, and embarks on an adventure. No one knows who he is without golden hair until he confesses that he is Aegon.

Finally, I want to say this. Although Aegon V has a claim to the throne, they do not want to choose him because Aegon had ideas of equality and rights for the peasants, which would sound insane to the nobles. In essence, Aegon was a good man, just like Laenor.

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