It’s an understatement to say that weddings hardly ever go properly in George R.R. Martin’s world, and the Recreation of Thrones prequel sequence Home of the Dragon isn’t any exception. The primary season of Home of the Dragon strikes way more shortly than Recreation of Thrones: 5 episodes in, and we’ve already lined a half a decade within the lives of King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) and his backstabbing royal household. And episode 6 will see one other time leap, this one taking viewers ahead one other 10 years.
Alliances are shifting, factions are forming, and animosities are deepening. E book readers, as normal, know the place that is all heading. However “We Mild the Method” provides its viewers an elegantly constructed recap anyway, to assist maintain all the things straight as we transfer ahead — whether or not they understand that’s what they’re seeing or not.
One space the place Home of the Dragon excels is in laying a visible groundwork that clues observant viewers into what’s coming subsequent. Queen Alicent’s (Emily Carey) inexperienced gown on this week’s episode is a superb instance of this visible storytelling, as are the rats slurping up the blood on the dance ground on the finish of the episode. (Search for “Blood and Cheese, Dance of the Dragons” in the event you’re curious.) These hints level towards the place the story goes. However episode director Clare Kilner’s most elaborately constructed system reminds us the place it’s been, organising the throne room at King’s Touchdown, outfitted for a weeklong wedding ceremony celebration, to have a number of sight strains, every of them trying down and/or throughout the room towards the middle aisle the place the “Dance of the Dragons” is about to happen.
Kilner alternates between these views, chopping between medium photographs of various characters — Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) and Princess Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Greatest), the groom’s mother and father; the bride’s father, King Viserys, and his second spouse, Alicent; Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), the bride’s uncle and jealous suitor; and the bride’s and groom’s paramours and sworn protectors — who all have a stake within the final result of this marriage. The pleased (or no less than content material, with an understanding that their marriage is a political association) couple stays on the heart of the body because the assembled lords and girls stand up to hitch the dance.
Right here, Kilner cuts away to Alicent’s uncle, Lord Hobert Hightower, who will get up from his seat to inform a departing Alicent, “Know that Outdated City stands with you.” Because the dance continues, the digital camera cuts again once more to Rhaenyra’s bodyguard and lover, Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) — a little bit of foreshadowing of his ultimate moments within the episode — then cuts to Ser Gerold Royce of the Vale, who has developed his personal causes for opposing Targaryen rule. Extra gamers have joined the dance, each actually and figuratively.
Though, in the interim, these realizing glances and unstated slights stay inside the rarified realm of courtly manners, these tensions will inevitably spin out into greater conflicts that may imply life and loss of life for 1000’s of individuals in Westeros, noble and customary alike. The characters perceive the significance of such small, symbolic gestures. Alicent strolling in late to Rhaenyra’s wedding ceremony banquet isn’t just the tip of their friendship; it’s a declaration of warfare between them. And by blocking and modifying this scene to permit for such an in depth studying of posture, gesture, and sight strains, the present acknowledges their significance as properly.
Even Viserys, who typically prefers to disregard the tensions in his courtroom, can’t assist however discover the following confrontation between Ser Gerold and his conceited brother Daemon. However then he seems to be again out over the dance, concentrating on his daughter on the heart of the swirling materials and outstretched limbs. That is Viserys’ deadly flaw: He solely has eyes for Rhaenyra and his dream of holding Targaryens on the throne for the following hundred years, failing to see the rats scurrying across the edges of his grand plan. Laenor and his bodyguard/lover, Ser Joffrey Lonmouth, are extra observant, nonetheless, noticing Ser Criston’s forlorn expression and accurately surmising that he’s the rationale why Rhaenyra is content material with an “association” together with her betrothed. Daemon, who’s used to (and good at) sneaking underneath his brother’s nostril, manages to slide right into a spot as his niece’s dance companion as properly.
From right here, the chopping will get sooner and the vast photographs of a full dance ground extra frequent, and Kilner brings the digital camera’s focus again on the Targaryens and Velaryons, by now totally distracted by their very own inside dramas. We don’t see how the battle on the dance ground begins; all we hear is a scream, which lastly attracts the royal households’ consideration again towards their company. The view of the motion is obscured from the excessive desk — a potent visible metaphor for the Targaryens’ myopia — and Rhaenyra will get shoved apart amid the jockeying of the gang. The battle is glimpsed in fragments, and we lose monitor of Rhaenyra and Laenor amidst the chaos.
As quickly because the physique is dragged away, somebody (presumably Viserys) decides that it might be greatest to get this wedding ceremony out of the way in which as quickly as potential, earlier than anybody else dies. The key ceremony that follows is held amid the scraps of an deserted feast, decaying and nibbled on by rats. For now, it’s a symbolic loss and a short lived humiliation. However as private grudges proceed to escalate, the “Dance of the Dragons” will remodel from a literal dance right into a symbolic one: The dance of swords and knights on the battlefield. Recreation of Thrones, and now Home of the Dragon, are inclined to get a number of consideration and credit score for his or her meticulously deliberate battle scenes; “We Mild the Method” approaches the present’s political facet with an identical filmmaking sensibility, brilliantly underlining the connection between the 2. At this time, a ruined occasion; tomorrow, a ruined home.