The finale of "House of the Dragon" masterfully echoed the show's earliest
episodes, while also improving one of the most impressive sets in "Game of Thrones" history.
Throughout Season 1, the Painted Table of Dragonstone has made brief but uneventful
appearances. This is the very same table around which Stannis Baratheon and later
Daenerys Targaryen draw up their battle plans in "Game of Thrones."
"Conquering Westeros would be easy for you. But you're not here to be Queen of the Ashes."
Rhaenyra expresses a similar wish in the finale while standing around the same table.
"I do not wish to rule over a kingdom of ash and bone."
We know from the books that the table — which doubles as a map of Westeros — was commissioned
by none other than King Aegon I himself before his conquest, which is why it's in Dragonstone
instead of King's Landing. Many fans considered it one of the coolest pieces of set design in
the screen adaptations of Martin's world — and that's before we knew it could be illuminated.
Apparently, the instruction manual got lost sometime in between the
Dance of the Dragons and Robert's Rebellion,
as no one in "Game of Thrones" seemed to know about the table's awesome light-up feature.
If you experienced déjà vu when Otto arrived with his envoy at Dragonstone,
that was intentional. The Hand of King Aegon II arrives unannounced to offer Rhaenyra terms.
Daemon is there waiting with guards who are loyal to the Blacks, but Otto says he's under
strict instructions to only deliver Queen Alicent's message to "Princess" Rhaenyra.
The Black Queen flies in on the back of Syrax and lands on the bridge behind
the Green party. She dismounts, then positions herself in between Daemon and
Otto. The two men are hoping for war, Daemon outwardly so.
Otto is clearly hoping for an escalation on the Rogue Prince's part so he has justification
to kill them all and stymy any challenge to his grandson. It's left to Rhaenyra, again,
to force cooler heads to prevail. She's angry enough that her birthright has been
stolen to toss Otto's pin into the water below, but after he shows her Alicent's
"message," she's steady enough to tell him she'll give her an answer the following day.
"King's Landing will have my answer on the morrow."
This scene is a callback to "House of the Dragon" Episode 2, in which Otto sails to Dragonstone to
confront Daemon about his seizure of what's supposed to be the heir's seat. Back then,
a teenage Rhaenyra landed Syrax in almost exactly the same spot and walked to almost
exactly the same place between who was then just her uncle and her father's "vulture" of a Hand.
But during that debacle, her back was turned to Otto while she dealt with Daemon. In Episode 10,
her back is to her husband as she tries to outwit the engineer of the coup against her.
Alicent Hightower doesn't show up in Episode 10, but it's clear she thinks she has an ace
up her sleeve. Before Rhaenyra gives Otto her non-answer, he hands her a folded-up piece of
paper and lets her know that the Queen has not forgotten the love they once had for each other.
As her envoy, Otto insists that Alicent wants to avoid bloodshed and broker peace. Rhaenyra
opens up what viewers might have expected to be a hand-written message. Instead, we see
an illustrated page from a history textbook. This is the page that a very young Rhaenyra
tore out of the book when she was supposed to be studying with Alicent at the Septa's behest.
Alicent's token of affection is also shrewd statecraft. That she kept the page is meant to
show her friend-turned-enemy that she has been pining for what they once had all these years,
but she's also hoping the ploy works in the Greens' favor.
It's significant that the entry is about Nymeria, a woman who ruled alongside her
husband and who brought her people together. It's also symbolic that, in their youth,
a willful Rhaenyra ripped out the page and gave it to an obedient Alicent, while,
as mothers, a bolder Alicent returns the page to a Rhaenyra who's worried about duty and honor.
In discussing their path forward, Queen Rhaenyra tells the Black Council that she
wants to know who her allies are before she sends people to war in her name.
Her loyalists assure her some houses, like Celtigar, can be depended upon for support,
but the fealty of houses who swore oaths long ago will have to be reaffirmed.
Chief among these are Houses Tully, Arryn, Stark,
and Baratheon. We know how that last one panned out, but the Blacks' efforts to
secure alliances with the other three will likely be the order of business in Season 2.
That means we'll probably be meeting the ancestors of the Tullys, Starks, and Arryns
and visiting these iconic "Game of Thrones" locations. Technically, it'll be the show's
second visit to the Vale, as we did get a brief stopover there when Daemon knocked off Rhea Royce.
We can't say if the dragon fight happens in the show as it does in "Fire & Blood." It's
a stormy night in both versions, which makes it hard for onlookers to see in written accounts.
What everyone agrees upon is that Aemond didn't fly to Storm's End with the intent to kill Luke,
and that all anyone saw was two dragons tangling in a fury of fire and lightning.
"House of the Dragon" renders Aemond's kin-slaying of Luke as something closer
to manslaughter than murder. When they jump on the backs of their dragons,
Luke and Aemond both speak to their mounts in High Valyrian.
Though the one-eyed Prince's evil laughter and his insistence that
Luke owes him a debt suggest otherwise, once Arrax sprays Vhagar in the face with flames,
Aemond tries to put on the brakes. He screams "Dohaeris!" at Vhagar, who chomps down on
poor Luke and Arrax anyway. The word "Dohaeris" might sound familiar to "Game of Thrones" fans.
"Valar morghulis."
"Valar dohaeris."
"Valar Dohaeris" is a common phrase used in Essos which translates to "all men must
serve," often said in conjunction with "valar morghulis", which means "all men
must die." It's also the title of the first episode of Season 3 of "Game of Thrones."
For the purposes of "House of the Dragon," that two royal boys can't
get their dragons to "dohaeris" indicates Viserys was right.
"They're a power men never should have trifled with."