‘House Of The Dragon’ Gets Weird With Feet And Mercy

Last night’s House of the Dragon started off thrilling, got weird, then was a bit confusing by the end, albeit we are now headed toward what is no doubt going to be a blockbuster season 1 finale.

Spoilers follow.

With the death of King Viserys “the Peaceful,” who mistakenly may have started a war with his misinterpreted final words, Alicent is now determined to install her moronic son Aegon as king, and does so with a swift takeover of King’s Landing, boxing Rhaenyra out of her claim as she, Daemon and her kids remain at Dragonstone.

For a while it was shrewd, political calculus with minimal violence (Ser Criston goes bonkers yet again on a member of the small council). Then it turned into uh, something with feet?

As it turns out, the relationship between Alicent and Larys is not simply Larys wanting to suck up to her for position and power. Somehow over these years they have developed an…exchange, where Alicent shows him her feet, and he…pleasures himself during and after he reveals information to her or promises to execute her wishes. It kind of brought the thrilling episode to a sudden, unsettling stop, and I’m just not sure it was necessary? It felt like weirdness for its own sake and it’s hard to believe both Alicent would do that, and that Larys would actually request that without concern for losing his head when Alicent gets grossed out enough. Just…deeply strange. And ultimately no, I don’t imagine that Larys actually was able to kill the White Worm with another firebombing anyway.

The other weird points of the episode were not about feet (thank god), but about two instances of mercy that had me wondering why the characters deigned to show any.

The first is Aemond hunting down Aegon with Ser Criston, and I genuinely thought his plan was going to be to reach his brother first in order to kill him and give everyone no choice but to crown him king instead. He talks about how it should be him, even the one Kingsguard brother seems to give up and resign Aegon to his fate, deeming him unfit for the throne. But that’s not what happens. Aemond just…kicks his ass and brings him back to their mom.

So why not kill him? Ultimately maybe it was just too much of a leap for Aemond. We know that Aemond is…kind of a dick. He stole a dragon and attacked his nephews when he was younger, albeit that resulted in him losing his eye and he took no further retaliation. He stirred things up last week with jokes about his nephews being bastards. But he hasn’t done anything truly evil yet. Aegon, a documented rapist, is clearly the more wicked brother, not just attending child-fights in back rooms of Flea Bottom, but apparently submitting his own illegitimate children as fighters. Aemond may be somewhat cruel and cunning but graduating to killing his own brother in the streets of the city may be beneath him. For now, at least.

Also, fans are pointing out an error that even though Aemond says he’s next in line for the throne, technically, his two nephews, Aegon’s children, should be in line before him, as that’s how succession lines work.

The second instance of confusing mercy was Rhaenys opting not to fry Alicent, Aegon, Aemond, Otto, Criston and really the entire force opposing Rhaenyra with her dragon, even though she was perfectly fine using it to burst through the floor and murder a few hundred random King’s Landing peasants.

Unlike the Aemond situation, I can find less justification for the mercy shown here, but I suppose we may just not know all of Rhaenys motivations or moral convictions. Aegon has official been crowned king so at that point, you’re just committing regicide and ushering in Rhaenyra as a bloody conqueror. You’re also killing multiple members of your own family which is a big no-no, even in murder-happy Westeros most of the time.

So I suppose the idea is that the play is to not assassinate all your rivals in public, but rather have a more traditional war to reclaim the throne. Still, I feel like it would have played better had she simply escaped on her dragon without blowing open the floor and growling at them menacingly. It feels like she has now both terrorized the public and also left all her enemies alive at the same time. Good for the show, I suppose, but a weird moment I’m not sure I liked.

Finale next week. Should be something to see.

Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram. Subscribe to my free weekly content round-up newsletter, God Rolls.

Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.