In HotD S2E5, the divine right of dragons is no more.
Targaryen myth-making is under threat, but that might be good news for the smallfolk!
The Short Take:
A meaty episode that suggests some exciting new directions for the story.
New Dragon Count: 0
Cumulative Dragon Count: 7
[SPOILER WARNING: Don’t be like a small council; listen to me when I say you should not keep reading if you have not seen House of the Dragon Season 2 through Episode 5, “Regent.”]
Image Credit: Collider
The Long Take:
We’re all just meat.
It was really tough to watch Meleys’ steaming severed head jiggle on a cart as Criston Cole paraded it through the streets of King’s Landing. It’s a grotesque echo of the similarly tasteless funeral procession for young Jahaerys three episodes ago, his head barely sewn back upon his body.
My only consolation was in the smallfolk’s reaction to the sight. In Episode 2’s public procession, they may have felt sympathy for Haelena, a grieving mother, but here they were disgusted and disturbed. No one cheered. No one’s esteem for Aegon rose. As Mysaria explains to Rhaenyra in a later scene, Criston Cole made a mistake. The people of King’s Landing did not see Meleys’ head as a rallying war cry or as a victory trophy; all they could see was a bad omen. Personally, I saw an uncouth disrespect for the rarefied, mythical creatures that dragons are.
Some, like Hugh Hammer, the blacksmith whose daughter has been ill since the season’s start, reacted to Meleys’ death with disillusionment. As if a rotting dragon corpse was proof that dragons are not in fact invincible gods but, as he says, just meat. That made me wonder how many people watching suddenly lost their sense of magic and wonder with dragons? For how many did a giant severed head ruin the illusion by making dragons mortal and more real? This episode could very well mark the beginning of the end of the Targaryen dragon mythos, paving the way for the smallfolk to not even believe dragons exist by the time Game of Thrones starts.
This isn’t necessarily that relevant to my review of this episode of House of the Dragon, but I can’t help but point out the parallel to Star Wars here since we just finished The Acolyte, a series which also marks the beginning of the end of The Jedi Order. In the Original Trilogy The Force is a hokey religion and Jedi are the stuff of fairy tales. In the Sequel Trilogy, Rey says to Han Solo, “The Jedi were real?!?” And now in The Acolyte we have gone back to see how the golden age of The High Republic warps and decays into what we see in The Phantom Menace. I suppose this is a fairly common fantasy trope, to have a mythical or mystical element believed to be unreal because it has died out or faded into legend that then shockingly returns. Frodo and Sam have the same reaction to the Elves they meet in The Lord of the Rings. If you can think of others, drop them in the comments! My overall point, I suppose, is that in franchise storytelling we inevitably have to tell the story of the rise and fall of what we love. That’s just the game you play when you’re dealing with prequels and sequels.
Regardless of how we got to this moment, killing dragons and showing off their dead bodies in this way does not help either side, Green or Black. It hurts all Targaryens because it takes away a bit of what makes them special, a bit of what makes them untouchable and therefore worthy of power over others.
Team Green isn’t the only one unwittingly trying to change the perception and status of dragons, however. We end this episode with a very provocative counterpart to the Meleys parade when Rhaenyra decides to increase her dragon power by expanding the pool of eligible dragonriders. As she frets about their inability to counter Vhagar, Jace points out that it’s not the dragons that are the problem. He says, ““We have no dearth of dragons. We have two large enough to stand against Vhagar. They are called Vermithor and Silverwing. And they sleep just beneath our feet.” When Rhaenyra counters with the question of who would ride them, Jace makes a suggestion that challenges the status quo of Targaryen tradition, and, more importantly, potentially closes that reverential distance between the elite, god-like Targaryens and the rest of the realm. If anyone not of pure Targaryen blood can ride a dragon, then the Targaryen blood line is a little less special. It loses some of its mystique.
And here’s the revelation I didn’t catch until I went back to rewatch this scene: Jace calls out the Targaryen’s historical bluff! When Rhaenyra states the current rules, that “A dragon will only accept a dragonlord to ride it,” she follows it with a seed of doubt — “Or so say the histories.” Jace accuses the histories of being more like Valyrian propaganda, “Written to gild us in glory.” He essentially admits that the Targaryens (and their ancestors, the Valyrians before them) have drawn a lot of their power from their own myth making. It’s so ensconced in the realm’s cultural consciousness that it takes some prodding to convince even Rhaenyra, a Targaryen herself, that this is even worth trying. Also ironic considering her own son standing before her, with brown hair and brown eyes, is proof that a dragonrider need not be of pure Targaryen blood. He is on paper the son of two Targaryens: Laenor Velaryon and Rhaenyra Targaryen, but biologically he is half House Strong.
If Team Black shows that now anyone can ride a dragon, how will that revolutionize the social order in Westeros? Are we talking a full on smallfolk rebellion? That would certainly answer my “why is this season spending so much time with the smallfolk” question. Now, to be clear, Rhaenyra and Jace only speak of other nobles, which would still imply a class divide. They are thinking of those who have Targaryen blood in them but “married into other noble houses.” Yet the general notion of recruiting anyone with any kind of Targaryen blood in them, if followed to its logical conclusion, could lead to Targaryen bastards riding dragons. And that would be huge.
If I may be facetious for a moment, this is really a big win for what ecologists would call biodiversity and what geneticists would call heterosis or “hybrid vigor.” If we can potentially break the incest trend on this series with a hybrid vigor dragonrider trend, it would certainly make talking about this series a little less awkward.
When Rhaenyra scours her genealogy books for lost Targaryen lines, who will come out of the woodwork? What obscure or less pure Targaryens might we see come out of the woodwork this season? The only candidates we have seen on this season so far have been the bastards and the smallfolk. Hugh Hammer is a pretty good candidate considering how white his hair is and how much screen time he has had thus far. And he’s primed to join Team Black with the right offer, especially since King Aegon gave him false promises he could not keep. The only issue would be getting him out of King’s Landing, since everyone there seems trapped at the moment.
And don’t forget our loquacious drinking buddy, Ulf, who brags about being the bastard son of Baelon the Brave. For those keeping track, this means he is Daemon and Viserys’ half-brother. It’s a little ominous that he says “men would take my head” for “the blood of the dragon” in his veins and that “a dragonseed must watch his own neck,” but I feel like his appearance in Episode 3 seems incredibly random if he never emerges as a dragonrider. Maybe this foreshadows Team Green’s counter to Rhaenyra’s new dragonrider recruitment program — murder all those they suspect of being illegitimate dragonseed. That would be very Team Green, wouldn’t it?
This conversation between Rhaenyra and Jace solidifies what I have suspected for several episodes now: that Alyn and/or Addam will rise to inherit Driftmark from Corlys, who is poised to go to Dragonstone to serve as Hand to Rhaenyra. And that one of them will claim Seasmoke, who is very lonely.
Dragon Watch:
This entire review turned into one big dragon watch. So, I’ll just, once again, say JUSTICE FOR MELEYS.
And I’m all for this more inclusive dragonrider policy if it means we get to see more dragons.