No, the biggest surprises were Rhaenyra’s enthusiastic response and Daemon deciding to stop, both of which felt startling but, on reflection, exactly right for their characters.Īs did Rhaenyra’s bold decision – against the advice of Leonard Cohen – to take her horniness home with her and lavish it on the first available male specimen, the rather startled Ser Criston. Neither, really, was Daemon’s seduction of his niece, which we had surely seen coming (as it were). There was plenty of flesh on display, but none of that was especially shocking. Then it was down into the bowels of a brothel, which is where things got complicated. Her glee at being out among the fleshpots and fire-breathers of King’s Landing was infectious, only slightly marred by the fact that her uncle was clearly up to something, and that he made her watch one of those endless, sub-Shakespearean mummers’ plays that Westerosi commoners and HBO producers seem to find so amusing.ĭaemon with his much-needed new haircut. Rhaenyra’s escape through the catacombs of the Red Keep took us back to the first series of Game of Thrones, as she slipped through the same gallery of dragon skulls in which Arya Stark overheard Lord Varys conspiring to crown Rhaenyra’s own descendent, Daenerys Targaryen. ‘ Where people come to take what they want’ But of course it was all a ruse – Daemon wasn’t there for his brother but his niece, and the throne she is currently set to inherit. The long-delayed meeting between Prince Daemon (Matt Smith) and his brother King Viserys (Paddy Considine) could have gone any number of ways, so this only-slightly-bristly rapprochement felt, at first, rather pleasing, as did the boozy garden party that followed, with Daemon and Viserys bonding over their shared disinterest in tapestries. Her voyage back to King’s Landing allowed for some more gentle flirting with her white-cloaked protector, Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), before the sight of a dragon swooping over the Red Keep heralded the arrival of a more problematic returnee.Īre Daemon and his brother, King Viserys (Paddy Considine), finally making up? Photograph: HBO The scene of Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) enduring proposals from elderly men and green boys was genuinely funny and oddly adorable, even if it did end with the sting of shocking violence. Of course the episode didn’t start as saucy, but in another register that this series seems to have avoided thus far – humorous. ‘I know that there is only one true king, your grace’ Given all that’s gone before, it felt like a minor miracle. Bringing in EastEnders veteran Clare Kilner as only its second female director ever (the first, Michelle McLaren, shot two episodes in each of seasons three and four of GoT, meaning that pretty much all of those gruesome assaults were directed by men), the fourth episode of House of the Dragon (titled King of the Narrow Sea) managed to depict sexual activity in a multiplicity of ways – transactional, dutiful, uninhibited, incestuous, disturbing and rather sweet – without coming across as crass or discomfiting. To my surprise, it is a pretty convincing one. The piece asked whether the nasty, abusive nature of so many of the sex scenes in Game of Thrones – and the outcry that had arisen in the wake of the #MeToo movement – had made the producers wary of including much more than the occasional flash in their new spin-off, and asking what it would take to make viewers comfortable with the prospect of seeing sustained nudity back in Westeros.īarely five days later, I have my answer. Last week, I penned a post for this august publication about the apparent lack of raunch in House of the Dragon.
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