The smallfolk have a big part to play in HotD S2Ep2.
On stew and seasmoke.
The Short Take:
Big, exciting moments abound, but I think the quieter scenes may ultimately prove more important.
New Dragon Count: 2
Cumulative Dragon Count: 5
[Spoiler WARNING. I am establishing my own blockade here. Do not proceed without having seen House of the Dragon through Season 2 Episode 2.]
Image Credit: Screen Rant
The Long Take:
Aegon fired Otto. Criston Cole replaced him as hand. Rhaenyra sent Daemon packing. On Criston Cole’s orders, Arryk infiltrated Dragonstone and attempted to murder Rhaenyra. His twin brother, Erryk, defeated him in battle. Stricken with grief at what he had to do, he killed himself. Suffice it to say, a lot happened during this week’s episode.
And it all worked for me. I relished watching Otto react to Aegon and steadily push his buttons enough to make his grandson turn on him. I was on the edge of my seat as the twin v. twin plot unfolded. The longtime (and frequently mocked) confusion over which twin was which, compounded by their own names being nearly identical (I still have to look up which one is Arryk and which one is Erryk), ramped up suspense for both the characters in the scene and the audience.
And yet, my thoughts dwell on the smallfolk. They had scenes that comprised nearly half of this episode. In Driftmark, we meet Addam, the brother of Alyn, whom we only met last week. In that prior episode we learn that Addam saved Corlys’ life, pulling him from the sea. This week, we hear Alyn soliloquize the stew Addam makes, speaking wistfully about carrots. In King’s Landing, Hugh the blacksmith’s wife spends several minutes explaining how the chicken soup she has made for him and their ailing daughter took many hours of walking and far too much coin to make. At the end of the episode, we find Aemond curled up on the lap of Sylvi, a brothel madam. She delivers the thesis of this episode as she gently strokes Aemond’s silvery hair: “When princes loses their temper, it is often others who suffer. The smallfolk.” This line indicated to me that the other two stew-centric scenes, scenes that play up the domesticity and simplicity of everyday life, in contrast to the grander, bloodier problems of House Targaryen, had been deliberately placed in this episode in conjunction with this one.
I can’t help but wonder, “Why?” Why give the smallfolk so much screen time now? Why give them a space through which to air their grievances?
Image Credit: Collider
For the most obvious answer, I look to Tony Gilroy’s recent Star Wars series, Andor, especially in the context of what it contributed to Star Wars canon. One of the most striking qualities of this series was its focus on the “regular people” in the Galaxy far, far, away. We got to see how the tyranny of the Galactic Empire impacted not the special Skywalkers we had come to know and love, but the relatively nameless working class people of a planet like Ferrix. House of the Dragon could easily, this season, have a similar goal. To constantly contrast the petulant and petty drama of the princes and queens at the series’ center with the smallfolk who must suffer every time they have a tantrum or feud with the rest of their family. It’s easy for a viewer like me to get caught up in the importance of this Targaryen getting back at Targaryen, but I am now very interested in the context this season might build around that by focusing more on the smallfolk perspective.
I know it’s been a minute since I’ve watched Game of Thrones, but I don’t remember the smallfolk being this important in that series. The only small folk we spend time with in the original series is to later reveal that they are linked to an important family in some way or to support the journey of another named (and likely noble) character. Take Arya and Gendry, for example. Sure, Arya was kind of slumming it with him and other kids like Hot Pie, but then we learn later that Gentry is a bastard Baratheon, thus elevating him to Arya’s level in the class system of the story.
There are a few mentions of the smallfolk in Game of Thrones, but always as an amorphous entity that must factor into one’s political calculus. Cersei tells Sansei, for example, that “The only way to keep the smallfolk loyal is to make certain they fear you more than they do the enemy.” The story has always positioned public opinion or the people as a political game rather than a more character-driven concern. You have to curry favor with the people in order to get ahead in the game of thrones. In this episode of House of the Dragon, Otto is certainly in that mindset. The people are just a means to an end, but their support can help Team Green’s cause. He ghoulishly suggests that they can leverage Jaherys’ murder if Alicent and Halaena accompany Jaherys’ body in a very public funeral procession. This will garner sympathy for their cause and vilify Rhaenrya as the title of the episode: “Rhaenyra the Cruel.” While the sentiment is very different than Cersei’s -- ruling by sympathy rather than fear — the assumption that rulers should only care about the loyalty of the small folk rather than the smallfolk themselves.
Image Credit: Forbes
This manipulation of the smallfolk’s feelings is interestingly in contrast to the way that Aegon seems to briefly care about his people and about being a kind ruler when he starts to promise those guys their sheep back or reassure everyone that help is on the way. He even says to Otto, “Our victory depends on the efforts of the small folk.” Of course, in the wake of his son’s murder, he is blinded by rage and a thirst for revenge. But before that, he seemed interested in being a king of the people. We see how quickly he turns on the people, as he hangs all of the rat catchers to ensure that he punishes the one guilty one. As much as I think he will be an awful, war-mongering tyrant of a king going forward, I do think his words about the smallfolk being the key victory may prove true. By spending so much time with Addam/Alyn and Hugh’s family in this episode, I would say that the show wants us to think that. In the scene with Hugh’s family, Hugh tries to reassure his wife that their struggles are only temporary, as King Aegon promised him that they’d get some relief. She very pointedly asks if he ever mentioned when they would get relief. This point of tension could very well set up a future conflict. Could Hugh, hypothetically, lead a blacksmith strike, leaving Team Green without arms? That would be a dramatically satisfying retribution for whatever Aegon and Criston Cole are about to do.
The more tragic possibility, of course, is that the show gets us to care about these smallfolk characters as set-up for their tragic end. The takeaway by the end of the season, as we wade deeper and deeper into the murky waters of war, could be that the smallfolk have been and always will be disposable. We’ve already seen two loyal men just trying to be good at their jobs, Arryk and Erryk, become casualties. And Mysaria’s stance is that no amount of ambition and success as the White Worm would be able to cross that class-based threshold. As she very poignantly tells Rhaenyra, she kept trying to become invaluable but she learned the hard way — with Otto having her house burnt down and her being cast off back into poverty — that she would never be “one of them.” I do think the conversation she has with Rhaenyra establishes enough common ground that she could form a more equitable alliance with Rhaenyra. So I suppose I’m asking if the prominence of smallfolk will ultimately support social mobility and the unrealized strength of the smallfolk or prove that social mobility is impossible.
Image Credit: Collider
But maybe it’s more complicated than pro or anti smallfolk having access to power. Maybe it’s more a personality test for each individual ruler in the series. I say this because Corlys, whom I find to be the more likable and relatively “good” characters on the show (part of that is because his wife, Rhaenys, is awesome, I’m sure), is in a position to empower the smallfolk in his sphere. Other than all that talk about stew, Addam confronts Alyn about how he can benefit from his good deed. He very specifically says that Corlys “owes” Alyn. In a very Jon Snow way, Alyn humbling changes the subject back to the stew, implying that he has no interest in moving up the ranks or pressing his advantage. He would rather cling to the modest domesticity of his smallfolk status. But then — but then! Addam looks up to the skies and sees (spoiler for Dragon Watch later) SEASMOKE! For those who don’t remember, Seasmoke was the dragon of Laenor Velaryon, Corlys’ son who was married to Rhaenyra in Season 1 and faked his own death so that he could be free of royal duties that forced him to hide his sexuality and so that Rhaenyra could marry Daemon. They can only maintain this rouse, though, if Laenor no longer rides his dragon, Seasmoke. The appearance of Seasmoke in this episode could foreshadow Laenor’s return, of course, but it could also foreshadow Seasmoke getting a new rider. And how egalitarian would it be for stew-making smallfolk Addam to take over the dragon that the son of Corlys Velaryon, Lord of Driftmark, once rode.
This notion of social revolution is not new to The Seven Kingdoms, of course. Daenerys became infamous for this in the earlier seasons of Game of Thrones, becoming known as the breaker of chains or the freer of slaves. I remember when I was originally reading George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, this is primarily what made Daenerys such a compelling character. She was willing to disrupt the social order (gaining her own power in the process, obviously…I’m not going to sugar coat it; this is GoT after all) and empower those who had no power. I remember thinking that her character had so much promise, and couldn’t wait until she made her way to Westeros. What would breaking chains look like there? In the HBO series, at least, this potentially fizzled because, as the Internet jokes, Daenerys forgot about the iron fleet (and a lot of other things). Once she landed on the shores of Westeros, she seemed to get sucked into the Targaryen-ness of it all and the titular game of thrones, and ultimately lost of sight of the social crusade that defined her when she was across the sea in Essos.
Could House of the Dragon pick up Daenerys’ forgotten cause? Could it fulfill her early promise of breaking the wheel? Since this is a prequel series, I would say that is highly unlikely. But it is interesting to frame the rising prominence of smallfolk in House of the Dragon as a response to Game of Thrones’ failure to do right by Daenerys Targaryen as a character. Seeing as how questions of social structures have been so wrapped up in our own Targaryen history thus far, it would only make sense to carry on that legacy with at least some of the Targaryens we see here.
Dragon Watch:
As alluded to earlier, I was thrilled to see Seasmoke, even if it was only for a brief moment in the distance. His return introduces more intrigue into the Driftmark storyline and I can’t wait to see what role he might play in the war. I do appreciate the attempt to make the dragons visually more distinct from one another than they might have been in Game of Thrones. While being in Driftmark helped me conclude that this dragon flying above Addam must be Seasmoke, I also recognized his much lighter, more platinum scales.
This episode also brought back Caraxes, Daemon’s blood red dragon. I was a little disappointed we didn’t see him last week, because with the prickly scene between Daemon and Rhaenys in the dragon parking garage, it would have been fun to see Meleys and Caraxes being testy with one another in the background. On the other hand, saving his appearance for such a dramatic departure from Dragonstone, on the heels of a massive fight between Rhaenyra and Daemon, justifies the wait. I assume Daemon is headed to Harrenhal to try to earn back Rhaenyra’s favor by winning that key strategic location for her, just as he did for Viserys when he defeated the Crab Feeder at the Stepsons in Season 1. I look forward to whatever destruction Caraxes might cause there.