Ryan Shoots First: House of the Dragon (S1 Ep3) “Second on His Name”
We are now three weeks in and with this week we see our first time jump of the season. We will see a few of these as we cover this tale from the book Fire & Blood. We have jumped three years and we’re celebrating the 2 year birthday of King Viserys’ baby boy Aegon the second. Yes, this little bundle of joy has caused him all sorts of headaches as this brings his naming of Rhaenyra as his heir into question.
This week sees some more character work and some great performances but also a pretty awesome finale with dragons, ship warfare and Daemon doing his reckless thing in the battle with the Crab Feeder. One thing is clear is all the Targaryns could benefit from some family counseling because none of them handle stress in a healthy way. King Viserys played by Paddy Considine does a great job in this episode of portraying just how torn he is, a good man who wants his daughter to be happy but also weighed down by the burden of the crown and maintaining alliances and power. As I said next week good men don’t seem to make great kings in Westeros… I suppose mad ones do not either.
Milly Alcock continues though to steal the show as Rhaenyra and this week she has some standout moments but a scene with her and her chosen knight Ser Criston Cole was some great little bit of storytelling. Yes the “princess who doesn’t want to just be a pawn to be wed” might seem a little played out it is a factual situation women found themselves in and to any woman with dragon blood and a fiery spirit that had to be hell.
And yes the episode ends with some fiery battle that sees some of the Valaryon forces doing some nasty work with their hammer weapons. Let’s just say the crabs had plenty to eat.
Observations
- HotD > RoP
- Over the week there was some great breakdowns of the opening and how it is blood flowing down the family line
- Haha that was a great entrance by Caraxes
- Caraxes looks awesome all snake-like
- 3-year time jump
- HAHA, Rhaneyra got that song on repeat. I’m gonna tell myself Samuels’s last name is Ipaud.
- Man, named after the King who conquered all of Westeros, talk about pressure.
- A Lannister trying to say their rock is as high as the wall in the north… cmon man.
- Rhaneyra is like a 90’s Disney Princess she doesn’t want to marry some pompous prince.
- King Vis showing a little backbone for once.
- I like Strong, seems like he has some good takes.
- Them freaking Bores man their King Slayers
- Even in Westeros getting drunk by a barn fire is a great celebration.
- Nothing quite works out the way Vis wants it.
- Man that’s some powerful storytelling with the White Stag
- Like. A. Boss.
- Dang not only did he lose the finger but loss a bonus one too.
- Dude, how hard is it to say “I love you” to your daughter?
- Shot of the week on that pan out over the sea with all the ships burning
- Look up “Loose canon” in the dictionary and its a picture of Daemon
- Pulled the old “Anakin Skywalker fake surrender war crime” I see
