Welcome back to the blog readers. I do not know if you have been living under a rock over the last few years, but House of the Dragon's first season was nothing short of incredible. Emmy-worthy performances from actors like Matt Smith, Paddy Considine and Emma D'Arcy and a story that kept you guessing every week. Also, do not dare forget that jaw-dropping cliffhanger at the end of the first season's finale that left me (and probably a whole lot of people) speechless. The anticipation has been building for this second season, at least mine has. Would the second season be able to live up to my extremely high expectations? Stick around to find out.
House of the Dragon was created for television by Ryan Condal and George R.R. Martin and based on the novel Fire & Blood by Martin. With Condal as sole showrunner for this second season, it featured direction from Alan Taylor, Claire Kilner, Geeta Vasant Patel, Andrij Parikh, and Loni Peristere. The season stars Matt Smith, Emma D'Arcy, Rhys Ifans, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Sonoya Mizuno, Fabien Frankel, Olivia Cooke, Phoebe Campbell, Ewan Mitchell, Tom Glynn-Carney, Harry Collett, Bethany Antonia, Phia Saban, Jefferson Hall, Matthew Needham, Abubakar Salim, Freddie Fox, Sir Simon Russell Beale, and Kieran Bew. In this season, which takes place shortly after the events of the first season finale's cliffhanger, in which Aemond Targaryen and his dragon kill Lucerys Velaryon and his dragon, the battle lines are drawn between the Green and Black factions as the whole of Westeros prepares for a bloody civil war.
NOTE: I will be using spoilers for my thoughts, so DO NOT read ahead if you have not seen the season.
I want to share a brief bit of my relationship with Game of Thrones (2011-19) and its respective world. I was not as big of a fan of the original series as a lot of people were, and it was truly the last series that I binged. Just like every series, Game of Thrones had its awesome moments (like the Red Wedding, the Battle of the Bastards, the Battle of Hardhome, and the final fight against the undead). But House of the Dragon completely changed my worldview on this universe and gave me something that was special. The first season of this series was spectacular. I loved everything about it, and was head over heels excited for this second season that I feel delivered in every way I wanted it to. The performances (especially from Emma D'Arcy, Matt Smith, and Olivia Cooke), the political intrigue of the season was top notch and featured some hardcore scheming, and the only battle we got this season was absolutely deserving of being in the conversation of the best in television history.
I want to start my review by absolutely roasting the shit out of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. Do you want to know the reason why? It's for NOT FUCKING GIVING EMMA D'ARCY THE LOVE THEY DESERVE FOR THEIR PERFORMANCE IN THE FIRST FUCKING SEASON. How the hell do you not even nominate them for Best Actress in a Drama? You losers didn't even nominate Paddy Considine for Best Actor in a drama. Shame on you and here's to hoping that that decision will be rectified next year. D'Arcy was absolutely the MVP of this season with powerful performance after powerful performance. Their turn in the premiere episode should be front and center for the Emmy push in 2025, this was one of the most powerful performances I personally have ever seen. Even though their character Rhaenyra only spoke four words in that episode, those words were enough to galvanize me to go through the television and take Aemond's head off myself. D'Arcy continued to deliver, as their performance in the third episode was heartbreaking to say the least. Rhaenyra's conversation with Alicent was enough to break even the strongest heart and made everybody realize that war was indeed taking a page out of Thanos's book: inevitable. The middle episodes of the season delve further into Rhaenyra's psyche as she believes she is being discredited for her status as a woman and laments that nobody may take her seriously as a ruler. D'Arcy's performance matches the dire situation that Rhaenyra finds herself in, and they absolutely deliver. And over the course of the final two to three episodes we see a character shift for Rhaenyra as she becomes a more confident ruler and a more cunning one at that. Again, D'Arcy is able to bring the fire to this role and the final conversation Rhaenyra has with Alicent was so mind-boggingly good. I no longer want to live in a world where we do not have this series on television, so season 4 will not be an easy time for me, let me tell you. I truly hope this time D'Arcy gets the love they so deserve.
The next performance I want to talk about is that of Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen. One of the standout characters of the first season of this show, Smith absolutely shined as the confident, yet cocky brother of King Viserys who plotted once or twice to get the Iron Throne from his brother. By season's end he realized that he was not going to do that and decided to defend his niece-wife Rhaenyra's claim to the Iron Throne when it was usurped by his half-nephew Aegon. But something has persisted in him and in this season, we learn that he still has aspirations to take the Iron Throne for himself. Smith does a great job in displaying a multitude of emotions in this season, from resentment to anger to fear to unknowingness to guilt and shame. I want this man to go up for Best Actor in a Drama because I think his under the radar but nuanced performance is one for the ages. In the first episode, we see Daemon as angry as Rhaenyra and his actions set the stage for the war to come, as his hit on Aemond leads to the decapitation of Aegon's youngest son and the public humiliation of Rhaenyra. The second episode is really where Smith gets to shine as he embraces the anger that Daemon feels that the blame was placed on him and Rhaenyra for the death of Aegon's son. He really finds himself in a corner when his allegiance to Rhaenyra is questioned, and that scene between the two of them is a perfect representation of the pent-up resentment he is feeling. As he looks to build an army in the Riverlands from a base at Harrenhal, Daemon is confronted by ghosts of his past that try to dissect his true motivations. Smith does brilliantly in these scenes where he is able to show paranoia, guilt, determination and resentment to a degree. In these scenes we also get cameos from Milly Alcock as young Rhaenyra and Paddy Considine as Viserys. Both of these actors return to give Daemon a reality check (and once again make me wonder why the Emmys hate this show). Daemon's scenes with Viserys (Considine) are both nostalgic and tragic, with each actor bringing that chemistry back. And his final scene with Rhaenyra is arguably the best scene in television in 2024. Smith's galvanizing performance is one for the ages, and I hope he really gets some Emmy love because he fucking deserves it.
Before I move on to praise the performance of Olivia Cooke, I want to take a minute to note that this review is already longer than my review of the film Borderlands (2024). Please make sure this trash heap of a film stays under $30 million worldwide. Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming. Another under-the-radar performance in the first season belonged to Olivia Cooke, who plays Alicent Hightower (at least for half the season, Emily Carey played the younger Alicent). In the first season, Alicent has been a unlikely victim in her father's plot to usurp the Iron Throne from Rhaenyra and plant her son Aegon. She is with her reluctant husband Viserys at the end of his life, where he mutters Aegon the Conueror's dream to her (believing she was Rhaenyra) and making her believe he changed his mind and wanted Aegon on the Iron Throne. That definitely comes back to bite her in this season though. We first see her this season mulling over the choices that were made last season while pursuing a sexual relationship with the literal embodiment of human trash Criston Cole. The wheels begin to fall off for her when Aegon removes her father Otto as the Hand of the King and replaces him with eternal nightmare fuel Criston Cole. It becomes clear that they are planning to remove her too, and by the third episode she has resigned herself to the notion that war is inevitable. The initial conversation in King's Landing between Alicent and Rhaenyra is so fucking good for two reasons: the first is the performance of Cooke, who completely knocks it out of the park in this scene upon realizing she was wrong about her son; the second is there is no troll under the bridge Criston Cole (by the way, the insults for "Despicable He" Criston Cole will only get worse throughout this review, so be prepared). Her fears eventually come true and she is removed from the Small Council altogether, and Cooke excellently portrays an Alicent that is as directionless as "Half-Man in the Mirror" Criston Cole. She discovers a revelation later on that makes her seek out Rhaenyra again, but Rhaenyra now is that confident leader I told you about earlier. Alicent now has to deal with the fact that Rhaenyra is headed to war and she offers her King's Landing, but Rhaenyra counters and says she wants Aegon's head. The range of emotions that Cooke displays throughout this sequence is nothing short of brilliant, with a mix of despair, hesitance and acceptance being the main takeaways of this conversation. Do I think there is a chance she gets a Best Supporting Actress in a Drama nomination? There is a chance, but every nomination this show gets is a good one in my eyes.
The story of this season has been nothing short of engaging, shocking, and heartbreaking. Whereas the first season of this series was basically nothing but setup for what was to come, with all the scheming and plotting (and dragons eating children and what not),
this second season feels like the machinations and the prelude of the war to come. A lot of this season involves behind-the-scenes action and yes, more scheming and plotting, but it is so entertaining to watch. There are plenty of scenes where alliances with other houses and rivalries between houses are started and continued (aka the Battle of the Burning Mill). In terms of story details, we first see Aegon, who tries to be a good king, turn into the mess that we all predicted he would be in the end. After Rhaenyra publicly calls for Aemond's head after what he did to her son, Daemon takes it upon himself to bribe a guard and a ratcatcher to kill him (but they go after Aegon's youngest son when unable to find Aegon), leading to a public declaration of war from Aegon against the Greens. This eventually culminated in "Not Potato" Criston Cole joining forces with Alicent's brother Gwayne as they led the Battle at Rook's Rest, which led to a sky battle between Aemond and his dragon, Rhaenys and her dragon, and Aegon and his dragon. This battle leads to the death of Rhaenys and the permanent injuring of Aegon by his brother, who later goes on to show he wants the Iron Throne for himself. The smallfolk of King's Landing begin to reject Aemond when he is named prince regent of the realm, enough where it leads to Rhaenyra assisting them and them initiating a riot against the Greens. Aegon is convinced to flee King's Landing in the fear he is captured or killed, Rhaenyra has found new dragonriders in Targaryen bastards, Daemon successfully courted an army in the Riverlands and pledged his support to Rhaenyra, and the armies of Westeros march to war. The main story is teeth-sinking and engaging, but there are some things that I want to discuss that were not as good.
One of the only negatives I have of this season is the emphasis on a character we only saw briefly in the series' first season. Tyland Lannister had been a side character for most, if not all of the first season, and we did not even see him in this season until the finale. His story with the Triarchy and the weird sailor admiral was in of itself, weird. We had been seeing short scenes in previous episodes of alliances being formed or the armies being gathered, but we spend way too much time in the finale with this character and his adventures that could have been relegated to a quick five minute scene. Just my opinion, but one that hopefully is addressed in the third season. Another aspect of the season that I found to not be a negative but more of a lowlight would have to be the scenes on Driftmark, where the focus is all on Lord Corlys and his bastard sons Addam and Alyn. Those scenes there near the beginning of the season left me confused and honestly wishing we would be moving on. Unfortunately though, we did not get anything interesting on Driftmark until after Rhaenys died in the fourth episode. Then, we get some juicy content, such as Corlys agreeing to be Rhaenyra's hand and the brilliantly acted scene in which Alyn rips Corlys a new one for not being present in his life. I already praised the performance of Ababukar Salim who plays Alyn in my review of the finale, but I wanted to briefly do it again, because it is brilliant. You can feel the anger and the resentment in his eyes and hear it in his voice.
In conclusion, House of the Dragon's second season falls just ever so short of the first season's glory, but the performances (especially from D'Arcy, Smith, and Cooke) and the majority of the story elements make for another fantastic season on House of the Dragon. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.
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