House Of The Dragon “The Princess And The Queen” Review
House Of The Dragon “The Princess And The Queen” is the sixth episode from the first season of the House Of The Dragon TV show. Following the Green Wedding, this episode has a major time skip of 10 years. We are now joined by adult Alicent and Rhaenyra, now played by Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy. This episode feels like it was meant to be a sett up episode to get us all used to the new family, there are some major deaths but they’re all done quickly and without much, if any shock or care as they seem to only be there to push the plot forward.
As the title implies this episode revolves mainly around Rhaenyra and Alicent and their bickering. Alicent feeling she has no allies as Rhaenyra is allowed to do seemingly whatever she wants and be protected from having to face the consequences and Rhaenyra knowing that Alicent fully has it out for her three sons, who are all the sons of Harwin Strong, the hand of the kings’ son. Whilst the episode does jump to Pentos now and again to show Daemon and Laena’s life there, with their two daughters, not much happens besides some bickering and a ton of foreshadowing.
The big news here though is Vhagar is finally here! Allowing Laena to be her rider for apparently these last ten years, Vhagar the dragon and Laena have the most moving scene in Pentos. Larys Strong shows how far he’ll go “for the realm” even to Alicent’s surprise. And Rhaenyra, Laenor and their children all make their way to Dragonstone to keep themselves from the Queen’s schemes.
Review
“The Princess And The Queen” was a good episode but very obviously a set up one with random bits of drama thrown in to make sure people don’t get frustrated with the pacing. Problem is, it isn’t that strong an episode in it’s own right, it feels like an episode one not a sixth episode and because of the constant back and forth between Pentos and King’s Landing. Of the two major deaths, only one feels like it’ll have any consequence whatsoever considering one of the characters is one the audience spend around 20 minutes with before their death. The other only really has more weight to it because we’ve seen the whole family together and happy for longer as 2/3 of the episode is in King’s Landing.
Another thing I’m not too sure about is the characterisation of Alicent. When Larys does what he does, she’s shocked and appalled, despite spending the entire episode being an atomic bitch and going out of her way to prove that Rhaenyra’s children are all bastards. Despite the fact that she knew Larys Strong is a man of whispers and a manipulator she still goes to him to complain about the move Lord Strong made sending his son to do duties at Harrenhall. This woman knows what he’s like, especially if he’s been her closest ally for 10 years, so why is she acting all shocked now? I dunno, it just feels like bad writing to me, trying to force the perspective of fairness going into the main conflict when you don’t know who to root for, it would’ve been better if they had just had her know about it because she planned it but still be conflicted, she’d still be morally grey and it would be in keeping with her character.
A good episode but not a great one, probably one of the weakest so far.
