House of the Dragon season 1 episode 2  breakdown

Spoilers ahead
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You have been warned

The series intro makes its debut with the second episode. Created in the style of the Game of Thrones title animation, the intro shows us the history of the Targaryens. As the blood flows from one house sigil to another, we get a glimpse into how the Targaryen bloodline has travelled through the kingdom, asserting its dominance wherever it goes. The iconic theme music from Game of Thrones, composed by Ramin Djawadi, makes a comeback with the opening sequence.

After a strong series premiere, House of the Dragon managed to catch the attention of disgruntled fans who had given up on the franchise after the disappointing GOT finale. However, the second episode seems to have lost the steam it had in the first episode.

The kingdom is in disarray, the king suffers from a mysterious illness, Daemon Targaryen has captured the Dragonstone castle and fortified it with the Golden Cloak soldiers, the council pressures the king to select a bride, and a mysterious figure named Crabfeeder is weakening the king's forces around Stepstone, killing men by feeding them alive to crabs. 

King Viserys’ mysterious ailment might be hinting at an untimely death, which would further spur-up the fight for the throne. The king is shown as someone who is extremely malleable and open to manipulations. The hand of the tower Otto Hightower and ‘the queen that never was’ Rhaenys Targaryen and her husband Corlys Velaryon seem to have sensed this. This clearly alludes to a clash between both the Hightower’s and the Velaryon’s in the forthcoming episodes. Corlys Velaryon’s attempts to get his twelve year old daughter to the King is followed by an uncomfortable conversation between the girl and Viseyrs. 

The episode, titled The Rogue Prince—which clearly alludes to Prince Daemon—is neither about Daemon Targaryen, nor does it show him being too much of a rogue. He does steal a dragon’s egg but it comes off more as an attention seeking temper tantrum than something a rogue prince would do. 

The focus of the episode inadvertently draws towards Rhaenyra, as she shines through as the strongest written character on the show so far. She grieves for her mother, struggles to make her father see her as more than just her daughter, upholds her self-confidence through the patronisation of the council members, and struggles to come to terms with her best friend Alicent being announced as a bride to her father. She wonderfully rises above all her woes in the final moment when she descends upon dragonstone on dragon back and breaks a stand-off between Daemon and Otto, retrieving the egg from her uncle. Even though her allegiance currently stands with her father, KingViserys, she comes off as a wise leader who holds the good of the realm above all else. Daemon's softcorner for his niece Rhaenyra, and the princess' own display of wisdom, tells us that they could eventually form an alliance to protect the throne against outsiders.

The episode ends the same way it starts: Crabfeeder is feeding live men to crabs. Now, a gruesome display of violence is nothing new to the Game of Thrones universe but the gory, repulsive, portrayal of a flesh-eating crab that plows its way through a screaming man was something new and could definitely delight fans who are into such extents of gore. 

New alliances are formed, an epic dragon battle is teased, conniving politics of the powerful are laid bare, a terrifying villain looms large in the distance, and as everyone takes one step closer to the throne, underwhelming or not the episode still accomplishes to fire up intrigue and elicit excitement for the upcoming episodes.