House of the Dragon: 1.05 - We Light the Way

ctg

weaver of the unseen
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King Viserys visits Lord Corlys to ultimate the union between their daughter and son. The Queen keeps looking into Rhaenyra's secret. Wedding bells ring in King's Landing.
IMDB score: 9.3 Runtime: A hair under 60 minutes.
 
While the Amazon's Rings of Power seems to fall for being a generic fantasy, the fandom is showing their love HBO's well crafted Martin tale. It's clear to me that they have thought out their concepts, read what people have said, and given GRRM's tale a room to breath.

I was scared on Svalbard's 15-year jump, so seeing the IMDB's title shot was from the wedding I felt relieved, because after this the time shift should be more sensible. Maybe even logical.

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Lady Rhae and Cousin the gamekeeper. Both are wearing a very functional hunting armour. I loved seeing Scottish Highlands rolling by as she rode the hills. And then a slam, "Husband," Lady Rhae addressed the Cruel Prince appearing on the road.

Man, is he a sailor? Does he have a wife in every harbour?

"What brings you to the Vale?" Nothing good, I guessed. Then she dropped the bomb, "Or have you at last come to consummate our marriage? I mean the Vale's sheep might be willing... even if I'm not."

Denied by wifey and denied by wife number 1. It's almost as if they see him as a bad sausage, even though he's one of the most handsome devils in the realm. I loved that there were no words, nothing but a wink of smile, after he'd done the deed and left the Lady in gods hands. But it doesn't speak in volumes that the death was his original intent. It's just clear after he walks away that the Cruel Prince is in fact psychotic.

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The Old King, the Young Queen and the Knight. There is definitely no dragon riding for Viz if he cannot keep the contents of his stomach inside on a wavy sea. It wasn't even super stormy day when they were crossing the Narrow Sea to reach the High Tide.

None of them could have guessed the reception that was waiting for them at the keep. I can't call it a castle because it certainly didn't look like one. But seeing the Old King's long face on no welcome ceremonies just tickled me.

However, it was a chilling moment, when the two heads of the Major Houses met in the throne room. I thought that they were going to clash before Lord Corlys bent the knee. As a good twist it made me tickle that Lord Corlys though there was only bad news as he delivered the Lady Rhae's fate to the Old King before Viz was able to say the "Marriage" word.

I laughed when Corlys popped, "How the succession is going to be handled?"

Man, the Old King kept his mouth shut about Maester's tea, and said, "Rhaenyra is my heir. Upon my death, my throne and my titles will pass to her. She and Ser Leanor's firstborn child, regardless of gender, will inherit the Iron Throne from her."

I didn't really get all the fuss around the naming of the baby other than as a pissing contest, when Lord Corlys had already accepted the marriage, and you could see it on his face. But Viz had to one-up and voice, "Dragons will rule the Seven Kingdoms for the next hundred years, just as they did the last."

It was an acceptable compromise.

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I wonder if the Old Gods were weeping because the Old Man HighTower were wearing black and spitting hateful messages to his own daughter, the Queen? He was so full of hatred that he saw Rhae being evil and putting Alicent kids to chop, then being able to swallow his pride and wish her goodbye.

Does the black cloak mean that Ser Otto will become a Raven and accepts the Wall as his new home?

Or were the Tree weeping because the Queen met the real snake in the guise of Lord Larys in garden, as if the veil of darkness has suddenly been removed? He had no problems on letting the Queen know about the deliverance of Maester's tea. In fact, he wanted her to know and in my mind the weeping therefore suggested the gods were unhappy to go down into a trap of hatred, and Lord Larys being the Kingmaker instead of Ser Otto HighTower.

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The Young Queen and Ser Leanor. That scene is so romantic and then it was funny when it went so quickly from food habits to "Accepting our duty to the realm, and when it's done each of us dine as we'll see fit."

I knew that she wasn't going to let Ser Cristos to slip away from her fingers. The boy was quick to accept the deal. After all he had got himself a real princess. Daddy was happy and so was King's cousin, Corlys' wife. Seeing her happy in her place as another union of the same kind of marriage was about to set place just solidified that all was happening as they'd planned.

Were Valyrians direct descended from the First Men? Did the Targ's made a deal with the dragons and that's why there is connection between the man and the royal beasts?

All Lord Corlys were able to see was justice, while the Lady of Velaryians were suggested that Prince Aegon would challenge the Young Queen. It surprised me that they were happy that the boy wouldn't be to ascending as the king.

Then they showed that the boy were batting in the sausage league. Man, this is all so perfect. Ser Cristos banging the Queen and Leanor being the Macho Man. :giggle:

"You'll need a sworn protector," Ser Leanor's struck out the plan.

Man, I can see why this episode got above the 9. All that saucy drama, lol.

Back at the Narrow Sea, Ser Cristos finally opened up, told her about his longing and then let out the frog, "I've heard you say so many times that you loath a lot of your position, that you will be married off to your father's whim with no thought given to the yearning of your own heart, and now the day comes. Ser Leanor is a good man, but you did not choose him!"

"It's true," the princess was able to utter.

"If there were another path..." Man, Ser Cristor the Brave. Man, literally in the shining armour, saying those word... that bravery really shined when he suggested that Rhae would do a runner with her and escape through Essos to wherever.

He really wasn't on the same page with the Young Queen. Not really, and I blame man chromosome's for that. But then again, he was always a man of few words, and wisdom wasn't part of the choices, when he got selected as the Royal bodyguard. That got skipped for that chilled face.

"I am the Crown, Ser Criston," Rhae said, with tears in her eyes. "Or I will be, I may chafe at my duties, but do you think that I'd choose infamy in exchange for bushes of oranges or a ship to Asshai!?!"

If only Ser Cristos would have kept that frog inside. Instead, he got the "It's my duty..." talk and no hanky panky.

The Knight in Shining Armour couldn't take deal, instead another frog slipped out, "So you want me to be your whore???" and then to go on with his oath speech. I felt so ashamed on Ser Cristos behalf. The boy has no brains inside his helmet.

Rhae told him the whole plan and he couldn't take it. I was surprised that Rhae didn't call her dragon and shout out: "Dracarys," and held a contest for the next protector.

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The death of the Old King. The deal is done and so the Seven had no need for him any longer and therefore Viz was on his way to become one of the statued ancestral tomes under the Red Keep.

The Queen weren't at all concerned on seeing the scene, instead she was worried that Rhae had been unfaithful with Ser Cristos. And the Knight couldn't deny. Not after it became to clear to Mr Poo-for-brains understood the Queen tumbling through the question.

It came out like another frog.

I loved that the Queen let the Knight leave with his sin. A wise choice, while the Old King in his death chair, were questioning had he been "a good king," and "a worthy of being the carrier of the Aegon legacy?" Except it wasn't the moment, as the King pulled through to be at his best for Rhea's wedding ceremonies.

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Jason Lannister and his talent with his mouth is battling with Ser Cristos on who can slip out the biggest frog. Maybe it's something that is common with us, men.

Next one had matured approach as Ser Gerold first congratulated and then slipped in the official business with regard to the loss of Lady Rhae Royce, before the Cruel Prince arrived in the wake of the Sausage Prince announcing "My Bethrowed," at the front of the whole Royal Court.

His grin was chilling the whole tradition that tried to start before the Queen arrived in her poison greed dress to congratulate the King and the Couple. Then he could it as, "Start of the Second Age of Dragons," and finally voice the news about the ascension of the crown. As if he couldn't abdicate before...

While the Couple were putting the show, the Lovers weren't able but thrown in daggers through their gazes. What can't be, can't be. However what became was Cruel Prince taking what was his, when Ser Gerold couldn't keep his mouth shut. And so the Vale was lost to Daemon.

All at front of Old King's eyes, and he couldn't do nuffin. Especially when Daemon went to Rhae, and she suggested a massacre in the wedding and then flying off to DragonStone as his wife. The Knight wasn't even calculated into that wish... she was all Cruel Prince's, if he so wished.

Except it wasn't Deamon but the Ser Cristos offing Sausage Prince's lover at front of the whole Royal Court. In the result, the Old King couldn't take it but passed away through brain haemorrhage, and Rhae got wedded at in the empty hall, while the Queen denied Ser Cristos a seppuku.

What an episode. Royal drama. Including the ugly stuff. No wonder why it got over 9.
 
Westeroi weddings. No thanks on the invitation.

I think this is The Episode that HOTD steps out from beneath GOTs shadow. This is the Westeros we know and love. Loved the entrance of the Velayrons at the wedding.

It is good to see that the Lannisters were always posh thrash.

'Oldtown is behind you' ominous words from Lord Hightower to the Queen, his niece.

Daemon is a nasty piece of work.

Viserys, you have to feel sorry for him. I think he will welcome death at this stage.

What is it with Joffery's and weddings.
 
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It's clear to me that they have thought out their concepts, read what people have said, and given GRRM's tale a room to breath.
Very true, RoP has more moving parts and a very deep well of lore to draw from, yet it feels like it's spread to thin across 4 different storylines and over a dozen characters. HotD has more focus, and to me, feels a lot deeper and richer as a result.
I really emphasized with Ser Criston in this episode. Part of me wanted Rhae to just accept his proposal and run off and eat oranges with him. And I would've been deeply upset if he followed through with his suicide.
What is it with Joffery's and weddings.
Joffrey: 0
Weddings: 2
 
Part of me wanted Rhae to just accept his proposal and run off and eat oranges with him.
She would have hated that life after two months. It is also easy to forget that she's an ambitious young lady, who clearly knows her place and what it means if she gets to the Iron Throne. Her proposal to run off with Daemon shocked me. It is as if she wants to stick up a finger to the Royal Court and her family, but only on her terms.

And I would've been deeply upset if he followed through with his suicide.
It surprised me that he was prepared to fall on his sword, instead of accepting life and understand the consequences. Does he really honour duty so much? If so, why didn't he said, "No thank you" to Rhae in the first place and remained innocent?
 
If ever there was doubt if Prince D is exceptionally cruel or not the first scene cleared it up.

In between that start and the bloody finish it was like a medieval episode of Pride and Prejudice! But with an undercurrent of potential violence. Still I enjoyed it.

Did Daemon’s man do something to instigate the fight?
 
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I was surprised he decided on disembowling himself rather than your classic throat or wrist slashing.
I thought it as a cultural aspect of their order. Seppuku is a very special ritual, and he was going through all the phases without being able to finish the deed. In the West and Europa we have accounts of Knight literally falling on their swords, while in the Far East Japanese specialized on that ritual. The common thing between them is the tarnished honour, which he clearly committed in the wedding.

Having a rumpy-pumpy with Rhae didn't really diminish him. He's a young lad and he has hormones. So it's understandable that the chemistry played a part, but for him to feel so strongly about the Duty and the Honour or rather the Chivalric Code with the Sanctity Clause is what effed him at the end, and boy couldn't get the hints even though Rhae told them to his face.
 
According to Illyrio Mopatis, a Dothraki wedding without at least three deaths is considered a dull affair. If that’s the case then perhaps Westeros and Essos in George R.R. Martin’s sprawling Word of Ice and Fire are not so different after all.

As viewers have seen through eight seasons of Game of Thrones and five episodes of House of the Dragon, it’s rare for a Westerosi wedding to come and go without some bloodshed. The trend started with the massacre that was The Red Wedding in Game of Thrones season 3. It continued with Joffrey Baratheon’s own “Purple Wedding” the next year. Now, in the fifth episode of House of the Dragon, violence visits a wedding yet again in the form of a disgruntled Dornish knight.

Putting it simply: Ser Criston Cole (Fabian Frankel) absolutely loses his sh*t at the wedding of Ser Laenor Velaryon (Theo Nate) and Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock). When Ser Laenor’s not-so-secret lover Ser Joffrey Monmouth (Solly McLeod), approaches Ser Criston to ask if the Kingsguard knight can be chill about their respective paramours getting married, Criston opts to be decidedly unchill and beats the lad to death.
You probably don’t need me to tell you this but a Kingsguard sleeping with a princess is generally frowned upon. When they don the white cloak, Kingsguard knights swear an oath to protect and defend the king and his family above all else along with a vow of chastity. To engage in sexual acts with a member of the king’s family is to soil that white cloak in historical fashion.
As he tells Rhaenyra: marrying her is the only way out of the dishonorable hell he has created for himself. She wants the status quo to carry on while he can’t stand to be her common whore while she’s married to another man. That is simply just too many dishonorable things stacked on top of one another. Obviously, however, Princess Rhaenyra is not going to run off to Essos with her knight. There is no world in which that happens.
If Rhaenyra and Laenor can be adults about these unique extramarital arrangements then why can’t Criston? Unfortunately, Joffrey has no way of knowing the intense inner turmoil that Criston is experiencing in that moment.

According to Frankel, Ser Criston likely had no intention of acting violently that night.

“I don’t think there’s anything premeditated about him, at least in the beginning of the show. I don’t think he’s searching for any form of conflict at this wedding at all,” the actor told EW. “If anything, he wants to be as far away as humanly possible.”
That was clear because Ser Criston could not stand the guard. He had ants in his pants, while he was on duty. It was all the thoughts that were messing with him, and he had no age related wisdom to understand anything.

The thing about the Seppuku that bothers me was that he had no honour guard with him in the act. Nobody to lop off his sorry face after the pain sets in, and you cannot put scream. So if he was committed to clearing the sin by giving his life to gods, he wasn't going through the traditions.

It doesn't however save him from the court-martial, even if the Queen stopped the act. He has all that hell weighing on his shoulders. So why is that he didn't launch himself off the wall, but instead went to commit that ritual?
 
Very few things can stop a droning king midway through his prepared remarks, but as it turns out, the boldness of Queen Alicent (Emily Carey) is one of them. Arriving late and announced to a royal feast in honor of the Princess of Dragonstone and her impending marriage, Alicent pointedly enters the Red Keep’s throne room while her rapidly aging husband, King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine), struggles to stand up and give his first of likely many planned toasts honoring his daughter.

Viserys promptly forgot about all that as he sees his young wife draped in a rich emerald green gown, cutting a figure as bold as the legend surrounding Anne Boleyn, the lady and eventual queen who allegedly inspired the song “Greensleeves.” It’s also worth pointing out that Anne Boleyn was the direct inspiration for Margaery Tyrell in “A Song of Ice and Fire” and Game of Thrones. This power move of stealing the princess’ attention also feels exactly like something Margaery would’ve done to one of her political enemies—but never her friends. And Alicent and Princess Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) are friends, right?

Alas, probably not anymore. The green dress is a message and declaration of intent toward the queen-to-be. It is also the first public rip in the Targaryen family’s tapestry. Pretty soon, it’s probably going to be tearing at the seams.
 
If a son of Rhae and Sir Leanor was not given the Targaryen name could they really guarantee he would go back to the Targ name once on the throne? I suppose with the threat of dragons maybe so.

Regarding Ser Creston could a punishment for him have been to go to the north wall? A punishment he could not contemplate.
 
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If a son of Rhae and Sir Leanor was not given the Targaryen name could they really guarantee he would go back to the Targ name once on the throne?
No, but they were satisfied with the idea. It bothered me that the parents said nothing about the boy, but were very happy that he wasn't their problem any more. All they thought about was to keep the bloodline as pure as possible, without thinking about the consequences. For Ser Leanor to go to Essos to eat oranges, things would be fine. Now, there are all sorts of things and trouble, but I don't doubt that there is going to be a shortage of other lovers, already available in the Royal Court.

I wonder will the parents melt away in the background after the Old King's funeral?
 

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