House of the Dragon’s latest episode turns gods into meat

A recurring theme in discussions round House of the Dragon — and Recreation of Thrones earlier than it — issues morality. George R.R. Martin’s world is so grimly amoral, nearly each character is a nasty individual on some degree. So who do you root for?

Typically talking, this line of inquiry is reductive as hell and never terribly fruitful. The world of Westeros is full of advanced characters who frequently pose audiences the query of whether or not an individual must be thought-about evil as their worst second, or noble as their finest. When the tales operate at their peak, the solutions are nuanced and fascinating, providing a quantity of doable reads on the characters: There is perhaps rather a lot of causes to say “Fuck That Guy In Particular,” however even individuals who agree on the sentiment may need totally different causes in thoughts. Others received’t really feel that method in any respect.

House of the Dragon is a extra particular present than Recreation of Thrones, nonetheless, and it’s a few narrower spectrum of individuals. It’s virtually solely about the ruling class. This modifications the array of lenses out there for viewing the characters. It surrounds the present’s drama with a unique context. It fills each single scene with an enormous elephant filling the nook of every body: the public.

The on a regular basis individuals of King’s Touchdown have virtually no illustration in the present’s solid of characters. The sequence is full of privileged bickerers squabbling about energy and sending males to die as a result of they consider they’ve a proper to it. But in its fifth episode, House of the Dragon reveals that the public has been very a lot on the writers’ minds, and their half on this sweeping story could quickly come to the fore.

Like nearly each episode this season, this one begins with horror: Ser Criston Cole’s determination to parade the head of Rhaenys’ dragon Meleys by means of the streets just isn’t met with the triumphant cheers he anticipated, however with shocked silence. As one onlooker says, the individuals of Westeros thought the creatures have been gods. Criston has proven them as an alternative that they’re simply meat, like anything. The implied follow-up query is highly effective and destabilizing: What does all this say about the individuals who use dragons as proof of their innate proper to rule?

Makes an attempt to placate the public is perhaps too little, too late. Aemond, in his first official act as king-regent, cuts down the ratcatchers who’ve been hanging from the rafters since his nephew’s assassination, a reminder of the tenor Aegon’s transient reign has struck so far. However regardless of this play for higher optics, Aemond’s true curiosity lies in struggle: An offended crowd quickly learns of their new ruler by discovering they’re now prisoners in their very own metropolis, unable to go away to seek for meals or higher alternatives. To the powers that be, they’re extra helpful at dwelling, paying their taxes and holding the exterior world from studying how laborious blockades are hitting them.

Photograph: Liam Daniel/HBO

This all dovetails with Rhaenyra’s efforts on Dragonstone Isle. Pissed off by the indisputable fact that her males of struggle are constitutionally incapable of accepting a lady’s management, she turns as soon as extra to her unlikely counselor Mysaria, who suggests there are different methods to wage a struggle. She offers voice to the unrest felt in King’s Touchdown, the cumulative stresses {that a} rising civil struggle has placed on a populace that has solely identified peace. These persons are desperate to blame somebody for ending that peace. Will they in the end be sympathetic to Rhaenyra, though it’s her blockade that’s ravenous them? Or is Mysaria’s intuition that they may detest the warmongers and ratcatcher-killers extra correct? Or perhaps Otto’s determination to parade a prince’s corpse by means of the streets was a robust sufficient argument to model the unseen would-be queen a terror value holding at bay?

Right here, House of the Dragon appears to attract a transparent ideological line between its sides past how sympathetic we discover its numerous strivers: Some of these rulers view their individuals as having a will of their very own that’s value swaying, whereas some view that may as an annoying concern to be held in test. To each side, the plenty are only one extra useful resource to be leveraged in no matter method helps the highly effective protect their rule. However in a story of palace intrigue and political strife, the public isn’t powerless. Woe betide those that overlook that.