House Of The Dragon Goes Extreme Makeover: Harrenhal Edition As Daemon Slowly Loses It — And We've Got Episode 5 Questions
Warning: This post contains spoilers from House of the Dragon Episode 5, "Regent."
It is not often that I feel an affinity for House of the Dragon's Daemon. He's devious. He's pissy. He can't handle being around a woman in power. His hair is more luxurious than mine. And yet, in Sunday's episode, I felt an unwilling kinship: Dude's a procrastinator.
Much like I will suddenly feel the need to scrub my bathtub when a deadline looms, the Targaryen prince found it necessary to roll up his sleeves and help rebuild the crumbling castle with his two, pasty hands rather than do the one thing he needed to: send a raven to Rhaenyra, filling her in on what's up. Are there other things, such as his own grab power, in the mix? Of COURSE. But did I expect him to subsume them by tacking up some shiplap? I did not.
I am here, though, for how unimpressed Alys is by Daemon. I also love how he just spouted his treasonous plans to her with very little prompting. What is that woman putting in the homebrew?
Breezing right by that dream about his mom (ick) to say that, on a related note, I'm very interested to see what the Strong ancestral home looks like when all of this hasty repair is done. Ooh, maybe it'll have a traffic-light shower! Move! That! Dragon!
A few more thoughts on the episode (and you can read a full recap here if you're not caught up):
* Was anyone else surprised that the same show that gave us close-ups of Viseryon's gaping cheek ulcer in Season 1 didn't show us more of the maesters peeling the half-melted armor from Aegon's torched body?
* You clocked that Aemond now seems to be in permanent possession of the catspaw dagger? And that Alicent noticed his brazen wearing of the weapon, even before he was voted regent?
* Speaking of that atrocity of a small council meeting, shouldn't she be sending multiple ravens to Otto for advice?
* Baela is my new favorite character: fearless on both the battlefield and in highly difficult and emotional conversations — like the one with Corlys, her grandfather.
What thoughts/questions/predictions do you have after this week's House of the Dragon?