House Of The Dragon Episode 10 has just released
on HBO Max, and in this episode, we get the final straw in the battle between peace and
war.
An incident with dragons has left Rhaenyra no choice but to turn to revenge, with both
the greens and blacks close to a very brutal collision.
In this spoiler review and analysis, I'm going to be breaking down and giving you my
thoughts on the House of The Dragon season 1 finale, entitled, The Black Queen.
Before I get into it though, if you want to see topical videos on the end of Season 1
and more on Game Of Thrones in the time ahead, then don't forget
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But without further a do, lets dive into my review and breakdown for House Of The Dragon
Episode 10.
So as the tension has increased in recent weeks on House Of The Dragon, we expected
that the civil war between the Targaryens would soon begin.
The rulers of Westeros disregarded the late king's wish for his first born daughter
to succeed him on the iron throne in favour of his elsest son Aegon, but some were loyal
to Rhaenyra and wanted to keep the oath they pledged.
And with Rhaenys heading straight back to Dragonstone to inform the Black Queen of what
has happened in the days since she left, tension is going to reach an all time high
when it comes to both the greens and the blacks.
But war isn't the thing Rhaenyra turns too right at the beginning, and she has a lot
of different problems to deal with right from the
outset of this final episode.
The episode starts with Rhaenyra talking to Luke about Corlys being unwell and she tries
to put his mind at ease surrounding him being the heir to the
driftmark throne.
He doesn't want it and mentions that ser laenor should have been the successor, but Rhaenyra
reminds him of how she had to take up the responsibility of being the
future queen even though she didn't want it.
But then things start to get bad, as Rhaenys soon lands on dragonstone and she is the one
to deliver the news of Viserys death and Aegon's coronation as king, which sends Rhaenyra into
an early labour.
Rhaenyra giving birth is spread out over a few scenes, with the Queen attended by a group
of midwives and the maester.
This is intercut with Daemon making Ser Lorent Marbrand and Ser
Steffon Darklyn swear to Rhaenyra's side and a moment where Steffon also trains jace and
Luke on the shore of dragonstone, where we see Jace trying to get his brother to fight
back.
But they are soon interupted by Rhaenys, who tells
the boys that their mother wants to speak to them.
Once they are there they are told what has happened in Kings Landing, and Jace is
rightfully quite angry.
His mother makes him swear to not retaliate and says that she will weign in after giving
birth, with Jace echoeing this on to Daemon, who Rhaenyra equally
expects to be furious at the recent news.
So at the minute, Rhaenyra is really trying to hold things together and not have the realm
transition into chaos until she can know more about
what's happened.
This is where Rhaenyra's births scene comes into full focus and just like in the books,
she gives birth to dragon-like child that has sadly passed away.
It's quite a reflection on the first episode of this series,
with her mother and her son having died in childbirth.
And while Rhaenyra doesn't die here, it is still quite the brutal symbolism of
what might happen in the time ahead and one that's also a reflection of how this particular
episode ends too.
It communicates the death of both parent and child in this civil war and
that really there will be no winners if this transpires the way it has been as of late.
It's a tragic yet gruesome scene that is clearly elevated by the news that was brought to rhaenyra
just before.
This leads into the the eventaul coronation of The Black Queen and the funeral of her
child, who was going to be called Visenya.
During the crowing of Rhaenyra as their queen, Ser Erryk shows up, kneels before her
and reveals that he had stolen Viserys crown, one that she will now wear.
Last week we saw Aegon crowned with Aegon the Conquerors crown,
so it's only fitting that Rhaenyra has her fathers, following the treason that she learnt.
So again, a reflection is created between episode 9 and 10, both having someone crowned,
and both including those who are fighting to stop
war, in the midst of those who want to react quite quickly.
After last weeks Green Council scenes, we also get the black's version of that in episode
10, with the first of two Black Councils, and present in the room is Rhaenyra, Daemon,
Rhaenys, Ser Steffon, Jace, Luke, Erryk, Ser Lorent
and other unnamed council members.
We see the printed table map of westeros that's lit, the same one that was shown in the official
trailer.
Nothing seems very hopeful between them, with those wanting to react to the treason that
went down in Kings Landing.
What changes this for the time being though, is the return of
Corlys Valeryon, who we know had been suffering with an illness after fighting in the stepstones.
He is told by Rhaenys about what happened to his brother,
and he soon realises that the best way to aid in this potential war, is to support Rhaenyra's
cause so that chaos doesn't consume everyone involved.
He attends the Black Council, swears fealty to Rhaenyra, and this in turn helps everyone
in the room to be behind her for the time being.
He calls her the Princess and says that all of his ships and
assets are now hers too.
We learn that while Rhaenyra and Rhaenys have had a bit of a tense relationship following
the situation with Laenor, Rhaenys does respect that she demonstrates
the restrait to go to war while everyone else wants to do the reverse.
Again it's something that mirrors this episode to the last one with
Alicent, as Otto wants to eliminate the blacks, while the queen at kings landing would rather
give Rhaenyra the chance to follow fair terms.
But coming back to the Black Council, after Corlys declares to fight for the blacks, the
sea snake reveals to Rhaenyra that they have cut of the capital sea supply, due to him
now controlling it after conquering the stepstones.
This does help calm the situation and give them a bit of advantage if things get worrying,
but it's clear that while the Rhaenyra's plan is to be slow and steady in this potential
conflict, that there are still those who want their retaliation now.
Daemon is one of those who feels that way, but again the words of the Valaryons helps
to at least put this on hold for a short period.
And speaking of Daemon, he goes with Jace to talk with the kingsguard currently on Dragonstone,
and in particular, he wants them to swear fealty to Rhaenyra.
He uses Caraxes to intimidate them and he ultimately gives them the opportunity to have
a clean death over a brutal one.
But while those tensions surrounding some of the Blacks wanting to turn to war has been
cut short, it begins to re-escalate once Dragonstone has a certain visitor.
That visitor is Otto Hightower, who comes to the bridge of Dragonstone,
where he once was earlier in the season, giving us another reflection of the moment where
him and Daemon previously met.
After Alicent sways the greens to offer terms to Rhaenyra,
Otto is here to push forward those proposals with peace terms.
And just like the scene from earlier on in the season, Rhaenyra flies in on
Syrax, behind Otto and his men, but this time she's wearing her father's crown.
Once she lands, she rips of his hand of the king badge, believing him to be a traitor
to both her and the memory of Viserys.
Of course, Daemon wants him dead and draws his sword during the conversation, but Otto
gives Rhaenyra a page from Alicents book, the one that they shared while
they were young.
It's a reminder to Rhaenyra that Alicent knows how close they both were and that like her,
she wants a peaceful resolution.
This is what makes Rhaenyra stop Daemon from killing him and she tells Otto that he
will have his answer to their terms on the next day.
Moving on, we come to the next Black council meeting.
Rhaenyra lets them know the terms that Otto came to
Dragonstone with and of course, this meeting becomes more tense then the first one.
They want war, while Rhaenyra is trying to hold
everything together until they come up with a good plan after either agreeing or disagreeing
to the terms.
When things get unmanagable Rhaenyra order everyone in the room to get out
other then Daemon and the two of them discuss peace and what being a good ruler means.
Daemon is convinced that war with the Greens is the only solution to the arrising problems
and does not see an easy way out of it, similar
I guess to the stance of Otto in the previous episode when he's with Alicent during the
Green Council meetings.
Daemon flips between being caring towards Rhaenyra and being furious
at her, thinking that her push for peace is making her look like a weak leader.
This is where Rhaenyra tells Daemon about Aegon's dream and
the song of ice and fire, thinking he knew about it, but as we know, Viserys only ever
told Rhaenyra up until his final moments when he was confused with Alicent by his bed.
Daemon gets annoyed at this because Viserys never
told him and it again highlights that his brother never actually considered him as heir
to the throne.
Daemon says that "Dreams didn't make us kings, it was dragons" and continues by
trying to convince her to start planning the comming war.
He even grabs her by the neck at one point and it's a moment that truly displays
both perspectives of peace and war really well and the frustrations that different sides
of Blacks have towards this conflict.
The next morning, Rhaenyra tries to explain the
importance of peace to Jace and Luke on an overlooking balcony.
Jace doesnt really want what his mother does but goes along with her
wishes, and it leads to them volunteering to be sent off to both Winterfell and Storms
end, to get the additional houses support.
She makes the boys swear to be messangers only and not
to participate in any fighting.
But before we see the outcome of that journey, we do get one final moment with Daemon that
start to set up a big moment from the books.
Daemon goes into the Dragonmont tunnels singing a Valarian
song, as Vermithor, the second biggest dragon in Westeros, awaits in the darkness.
Of course, Daemon is just preparing for the eventuality of
war and he doesnt want to sit aside while Rhaenyra decides if she wants to act or not.
In the earlier council scene, he did say that they had unclaimed dragons on Drangonstone,
which gives them an advantage over the greens.
But with the greens having Vhagar, the biggest of all the dragons, Daemon looks to tame Vermithor
so that they will have a dragon to combat that
threat.
And this brings us to the very eventful ending that really kick starts the dance of the dragons.
Luke lands on Storm's End only to find Aemond already there, talking with Lord Borros
Baratheon, the rude and loud lord who reveals to Luke that Aemond has come with a marraige
proposal to one of his daughters.
He snaps at Luke, saying "which of my girls will marry you",
and Luke refuses to participate now that the Greens have already alligned with one of their
options.
Before he can leave though, Aemond insults Luke, provoking him to reach for his
sword.
Aemond aggresively walks towards him and demands that he take out his eye to settle their past
issues.
He takes off his eyepatch, and shows the sapphire that has replaced the
eye he lost.
So Borros stops them from getting into a nasty fight and lets Luke leave Storm's End safely.
But things don't end there because Aemond goes after him through the storm,
with Vhagar trying to bite Arrax.
It starts with Aemond chassing Luke as a kind of dominance showcase, and bastard-themed
insults are thrown his way.
But what goes wrong is that both Aemond and Luke cannot control their dragons,
once that bit of intial nastiness turns deadly.
Dragons are tied to the emotions of their riders and Arrax sensed fear and attacked
first, because he thought he was cornered.
And Vhagar sensed Aemond's intentions to hurt Luke, so after the attack, she just lost control,
like Aemond did over her.
That loss of control ends with Vhagar biting Arrax's neck, killing both
Luke and his dragon.
We see Aemond's reaction, and he displays a understanding to the fact that war is now
inevitable, and that he is one of the main reasons for really pushing it
over the line.
And this is only solidified by the scene that follows, as Daemon informs Rhaenyra of Luke's
death in a current meeting, and from her reaction, we see that she truly has
war in her eyes now.
She tried to go the way of peace, just like Alicent did in the last episode, but as we
learn by the end of this finale, there is no chance of stopping the dance of
dragons now.
So what are my overall thoughts on the final episode of House Of The Dragon Season 1.
Well Episode 10 is a somewhat mirror to episode 9, and just like the previous two entries,
we really focus on the standout performance of
a certain character.
While episode 8 showed us the emotional final days of Viserys in trying to keep his families
together, episode 9 showed Alicent's struggles to keep peace, even after
believing the late king's wishes to have Aegon be king during his confusion.
It's the small things that built up the tension and it all led
to today's episode, which included the big moment to kickstart the war.
The Black Queen shows us Rheanyra trying to keep the realm together, preffering peace
over war, but by the end with her son having been killed and the early
news of the Greens pushing her into early labour, she cannot forgive.
We really see the anger in her eyes in that final shot, and I
think it perfectly wraps up a season that is a masterclass in the building political
tensions of war.
They could have gone the route of Game Of Thrones Season 8 and turn this story
into an over the top blockbuster full of twists without the true execution.
We saw the anger of Daenarys shown in such a light way to how we could have seen that
turn, but House of The Dragon showcases Rhaenyra's turn to anger
in a much more satisfying way.
They really used the time this season to build characters, conflicts and interesting relationships,
showing how every figure is a shade of grey.
There's no good or bad, as each character shows both sides in the arising war.
It makes it more fascinating for the viewer even if we know that this
story ends in war and bloodshed, and like say Better Call Saul, it understands that
a prequel show has to captivate using a set of dynamic characters and turns in their ideology.
I'm going to be going into the season as a whole more in an upcoming video essay, but
for now, know that I had a blast watching this first season and I couldn't be happier
with the way it turned out.
House Of The Dragon season 1 had mesmerising performances, high quality production and
meaningful storytelling that has the potential to build out even more in
the seasons ahead.
House Of The Dragon S1 Ep10 Final Thoughts And Score
But that was my spoiler review and explained video for House Of The Dragon Episode 10.
I'm giving it a rating of 9 out of 10.
I will be doing more videos on the show in the coming days
including a video essay on how House Of The Dragon redeemed Game Of Thrones on TV with
its first season, so stay tuned to my channel for more breakdowns on the show.
But to those who have already seen the episode, what are your
thoughts on all the events that went down, what do you think will happen in Season 2,
and has season 1 really built your excitement for the
rest of this series going forward?
Let me know down below in the comments section.
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