HBO’s Original Game of Thrones Prequel series House of The Dragon starts with a look at how Milly Alcock’s young Rhaenyra Targaryen deals with the aftermath of the previous episode. In which, Paddy Considine’s Viserys now has a male heir to take over as king of the kingdom. With everyone wanting his son to named heir instead of Rhaenyra. As a result, she isolates herself from everything entirely especially her once dear friend Emily Carey’s Alicent Hightower who took her mother’s place a queen. In her mind, she no longer has any place to belong to in her own home. Her father pays attention to the son he has always wanted while her traitor of a friend sits and enjoys being pregnant again. The viewer sees during the first few minutes how much the people of the kingdom flock to her brother. Also, the viewer can hear how the people all talk about how Viserys should just name his son as heir instead of Rhaenyra.
Obviously, Rhaenyra points this out her father who then just ignores what she says. In his mind, Viserys knows what having a son means for the kingdom as well as for his house. However, he tries to stick to his decision when he named Rhaenyra as his heir. This is due him wanting to atone for the decision he made that killed his late wife. The interesting thing is he also knows that he must follow tradition in making his son king. He is the type of character to be stuck in between two sides of himself. There is the father who knows that he made a promise to leave everything to his daughter. And there is the king who tradition dictates that he reverses his decision in favor of his son. Unfortunately, the king side of Viserys seems to be winning overall. This is demonstrated in how Viserys has already made a deal with Jefferson Hall’s Jason Lannister to marry Rhaenyra. He tries to justify this act by saying that it will help her be a better queen with someone by her side. Even though, deep down in his sub-conscience he knows that he wants to put her to some use as a woman since he has a son now. Which, during the times of the series a woman being married off for personal gain was the normal thing to do.
Ultimately, Rhaenyra sees his true intentions with the deal he made prompting her to run into the woods during the festival hunt as a result. In her mind, she knows that she has what it takes to be a ruler of the kingdom. However, she is fed up with the sexist old ways of the people who keep on saying that a ruler should be male. All of this leads to her hating her life as a princess of the kingdom due to her not having a choice in her life. She feels as if she holds no power at all even though she has been made an heir. It is interesting to see how much she doubts her worthiness like an actual person instead of being an arrogant one-dimension character. It adds a more grounded personality to her overall character development. This adds on the powerful scene where she returns to the festival with a renewed strength after seeing a white stag. The interesting part is that the white stag is seen as the king of the forest. Additionally, if one sees or kills it, it is considered a sign of a great leader/ruler. So, that very stag appears to Rhaenyra as if to say you are worthy to be a ruler.
Rating: 8.5/10