House Of The Dragon Episode 7 has just released on HBO Max, and in this episode, the bloodshed
and void between the targaryen family has become more clearer than ever.
Unlike the gaps in time that previous episodes showcassed, this
new instalment takes place over 2 days during the funeral of Laena Valaryon and it shows
that the feud between Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower is beyond repair.
In this spoiler review and analysis, I'm going to be breaking down and giving you my thoughts
on House of The Dragon episode 7, entitled, Driftmark.
Before I get into it though, if you want to see more videos on Season 1 of House Of The
Dragon, then don't forget to support this upload by giving it a like rating, subscribing
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But without further a do, lets dive into my review for House Of The Dragon
Episode 7.
So in eisode 7 of House of the Dragon the post-funeral lunch of Laena Velaryon brings
the whole cast of central characters together right from the start, and it also reunites
some characters like Rhaenyra and Daemon, who haven't
seen each other for quite a while.
Much of the opening moments at this get-together include characters just glancing at each other,
and that's enough to really remind us of the growing
frustrations they have for their enemies or their looks of trust in freinds.
In the previous episode, Laena Velaryon committed suicide
by dragon-fire after her failed labor, and here at Laena’s ancestral seat, her uncle
Vaemond commits her body to the sea, which is of course a love of the Velaryons.
In attendence is Viserys, Alicent, Rhaenyra, Laenor, Daemon,
Corlys, Rhaenys, and all their children, alongside other figures such as Ser Criston Cole, and
then Otto Hightower, who we've learnt is once again hand of the king, and finally the manipulator
behind that development with Larys Strong, showing us that the current queen now has
a lot of allies in powerful positions.
And right from the awkward laugh of Daemon during this
intial proceeding, we're given the sense that things aren't going to remain peaceful with
all of these characters in the same location.
At that funeral recemption that follows, no one seems delighted to see the other and we
get some bad behaviour in the process.
Both Laenor and Aegon are drunk for different reasons,
with one dealing with the death of his sister and the other because he's quite the teenage
brat we presumed.
On the other hand, King Viserys attempts to fix the issues with Daemon once
again by getting him to return home, but the prince makes it clear that Pentos is his home
now.
Daemon even comments on the gods being cruel to his brother in reference to the
deteriorating state he appears with in each episode.
And Rhaenyra sends her sons to make peace with their grieving uncle and cousins, even
though, they themselves are grieving over the
loss of their real father, who they can't even put to rest with a separate affair.
The kids do a great job in this episode of really conveying the stemmed conflict that
their parents have faced and showing how that is really
guiding things going forward as they come into the spotlight.
Even with just the smaller moments like with Helaena Targaryen and her bugs, as
Aegon deems her an idiot and makes it clear that they will soon marry.
Also when Corlys tells Luke that he’ll rule the High Tide someday, with the Kid then making
it clear that he isn’t interested, saying, “If I’m the Lord of
Driftmark, that means everyone’s dead.”
So the poor kids are really in for some chaotic events in the years ahead, and I think this
episode just does a brilliant job of highlighting what
happens when children are raised in this political and chaotic structure.
With both Aegon and Jacaerys being setup as future kings by their
mothers, both seem unlikely to take that up well at the minute, with Jake being pressured
after learning the truth about his father, and Aegon being quite the spoiled bully we
saw before.
But on the other hand, Aemond seems to be growing into something worse.
The cruelty from his older brother has pushed him towards gaining a lot power through a
risky yet impactful move.
That move is to do with the one thing Aemond has been hearing and looking for since he
arrived at the high tide, and it involves becoming Vhagar's new rider, the oldest and
largest dragon in the seven kingdoms and the one that
Laena rode before she had it kill her.
Following the funeral reception, Aemond spends the night tracking down the dragon, eventually
finding him sleeping among the sand dunes, and just from seeing the dragon from Aemond’s
perspective, we realise just how big Vhagar really is, being almost twice the size of
the others.
Aemond himself also nearly gets incinerated by trying to mount it, but because he's a
targaryen, Vhagar eventually responds to his commands.
What follows is an epic sequence with the boy climing his skales and flying him up into
the night sky.
But Game Of Thrones always likes to pull the rug from underneath us because although we've
rooted for Aemond to finally get a dragon to ride, let alone the biggest one,
it's the scenes that follow this that really start to make it clear that we should fear
him.
Laena’s daughters confront him following his
capture of Vhagar, claiming that he stole the final thing they had that was their mothers.
Vhagar was indeed Baela’s to have, but we've learnt since that Alicent’s children were
taught to claim anything they can because they are
targaryens and it is their birthright.
To make things even more heated, Jace and Luke eventually get involved, with Luke standing
up for his cousins, and a fight breaking out as a result.
Aemond is prepared to hit Luke with a rock and names Rhaenyra’s children bastards,
and the fight that breaks out ends with Luke slashing
the eye of Aemond in defence.
While this happens, Rhaenyra is out in the open dunes making love to her uncle Daemon,
not knowing that all of this has just happened.
That is until they return to the castle and find everyone in the throne room, stood around
with Viserys trying to work out what happened in the midst of loud arguments.
While he's gradually degrading by the second, the
king is more furious then he's ever been, demanding the truth from Aemond while Alicent,
Rhaenyra, and their sons shout away.
Jace and Luke being bastards is brought up in front of everyone
and the king denies this, insisting that the kids are legitimate and both families should
make peace.
We know things have transpired beyond that happening, and to make it even
clearer, Alicent would rather take Luke’s eye in exchange for what happened to Aemond.
No one wants this to happen, but Alicent is having none
of it, and decides to grab the king's Valyrian steel dagger, the same one that we all know
from Game Of Thrones, and turn it on Rhaenyra.
Rhaenyra stops her temporarily from using it
but the both of them let out all the hatred and rising tension in front of everyone there.
And when she does cut Rhaenyra’s arm, Aemond tells his mother that she should not mourn
for his eye, because while he has lost one, he's
also gained the biggest dragon in the seven kingdoms.
So things are becoming incredibly worrying for both families with this recent outburst
and it's clear that both Alicent and Raenyra are going to have to make some big moves to
get the upper hand in what we know is going to be an eventful civil war.
The first of those moves has already been made as far as Otto
Hightower is concerned, because during the next morning, while Alicent is ashamed of
what she did, Otto praises her actions and states that
he’s proud of her for stepping up to play the ugly game in their path to the throne.
And with them now acquiring the biggest dragon in Westeros, they have the favor in the upcoming
conflict.
On the flip side, the maester stitches up Rhaenyra’s wound, and she eventually has
an emotional conversation with Laenor, who swears to stay with her, even if it would
mean sending Qarl away.
But Raenyra has a better plan when it comes to strengthening her claim, and right now,
it's possibly the only option she has.
In one of the ending scenes on a balcony overlooking the
ship that Alicent and Viserys head back to Kings Landing on, Rhaenyra brings a proposal
to Daemon.
That is for them to join in the targaryen vein that Aegon the conqueror did, which
means through joining through incestrial marriage.
She says to him, “You and I are made of fire, we were always meant to burn together
and I cannot face the Greens alone.”
Of course, the greens is a reference to the Hightower
color of war that the queen and her sons continuously wear and it was something pointed out in that
wedding episode the other week, when Alicent choose to arrive at the wedding in
a green dress, making a big statement of war.
In the reverse to this, Rhaenyra’s party will eventually be known as the Blacks, setting
up a brutal Civil war between both the two factions.
In our perspective, the alliance of Rhaenyra and Daemon would intially be bad news for
Laenor Valeryon, especially after we see Daemon paying Ser Qarl an amount to publicly murder
him.
But once we reach the final moments after seeing both Laenor and Qarl having a tense
swordfight, it's clear to us that it was the plan
all along.
They manage to fake Laenor’s death, with Corlys and Rhaenys believing that another
child is now dead.
Instead, Qarl and Laenor are seen on a boat in the final shot, their
appearances having changed, and presumably heading towards a fresh start in Essos.
And with this happening, Rhaenyra and Daemon now get married in classical targaryen fashion,
including a blood ceremony, the two of them kissing
and only their kids watching on.
So just like Games Of Thrones did so well, House Of The Dragon has made us root for this
incestrial couple, and we can now only await the civil war that
brews from the events that went down in episode 7.
So what are my overall thoughts on this latest episode of House Of The Dragon.
Well, Driftmark is probabaly my favourite episode of the season thus far, and while
it has some pacing issues and bad lighting in certain moments,
I really did appreciate that this instalment begins to deliver on that conflict we've been
anticipating for quite a while.
It really is the birth of the civil war that we knew was coming
and seeing certain characters get significant progression, whether it be Rhaenyra, Daemon,
Alicent or Aemond, makes me excited to see how
all of this will come to a head in the final episodes of season 1.
Particularly, I stressed at the start of this season that I wanted to see some true personas
on display with the plethora of characters that were being introduced
to us, and I think after episode 7 they've truly been able to push that forward, especially
with the added focus on the kids of all of these central players.
We see how the tensions of the parent fogures have trickled down to their kids, and it's
going to be intriguing to see how this conflict really evolves.
Furthermore, the use of a Wedding and now a funeral in episode 6 and 7 to display significant
points in the turn towards a civil war makes the heavy-talkative based episodes feel that
much more compelling, giving us the hope that this show will deliver on its initial promises.
With many wounds onscreen we get the the start of bloodshed and rifts between the family
and I couldn't be more excited to see all of this develop moving into the backpart of
season 1.
But that was my spoiler review and explained video for House Of The Dragon Episode 7.
I'm giving it a rating of 9 out of 10.
I will be doing a video every week on the show, so stay
tuned to my channel each week for breakdowns and reviews of the Game of Thrones spin-off.
But to those who have already seen the episode, what are your thoughts on all the events that
went down and what do you think will happen in Episode 8?
Let me know down below in the comments section.
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But anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed it, I've been Cortex and as always make some noise.