House of the Dragon - Episode 1x04 - King of the Narrow Sea - Review

Rhaenyra Targaryen is not the kindest person. As she grows into and discovers her power (and its limits), she wields it without thought or care.  

Rhaenyra and Alicent planning to run away together (probably, in a fanfic)

A show like House of the Dragon typically focuses on nobility and their games of thrones for good reason - it generates drama that impacts a whole realm. It's easy to get caught up in the very real challenges Rhaenyra faces, as we root for her against the forces of patriarchy. Despite her enormous privilege, as a woman, she remains unable to "fuck [her] way through most of the brothels on the Street of Silk," as her father and uncle have (and as male rulers can); plus, her legitimacy as the heir is constantly called into question. 

And yet... Rhaenyra's wealth and class privilege know no bounds; tellingly, she often demonstrates a lack of empathy for those around her, especially those 'beneath her station.' She seems amused by violence and death at the tourney (as do most of the nobles, to be fair), she is extremely resistant to the criticism that she has a lot more freedom than most, and she even comes across as a bit cruel and uncaring in the scene with the suitors (as much as we can appreciate how annoying it must be, as a teenager, to receive overtures from old men and literal children). Later, as she carouses in disguise as a page boy, she casually claims that that the smallfolk don't matter; indeed, Daemon is the only one to make the point that it is helpful to have their love in order to rule effectively. 

Perhaps most glaringly, while the Cristen Cole sex scene did eventually provide some clearer indications of his consent, it's impossible to avoid the coercive force of the Princess telling a member of the Kingsguard - especially one who came from nothing - to take off his armour and have sex with her. (I'll return to questions of power, sex, and consent lower down). 

What Rhaenyra wants, Rhaenyra gets (except maybe the throne. Or to choose a husband for herself. Or to fuck her uncle).

Viserys, probably continuing to disapprove of incest for the sake of the viewers, as if both his parents and grandparents weren't literally siblings. Also his first wife was his first cousin. So. 

We've spent much of these episodes rooting for Rhaenyra's claim to be acknowledged and advanced, with the show presenting Rhaenyra as the true and deserving heir (e.g., she saw the white stag when Viserys did not), while the King is portrayed as a man trying so hard to be good, but not quite measuring up. Of course, that oversimplifies the situation - Viserys has moments of greatness and Rhaenyra has moments of pettiness or failure; in this episode specifically, secret tunnels and lies told by Daemon (not denying the king's accusations about him and Rhaenyra), Otto (denying that he played political games in offering up his daughter for bedtime stories), and Rhaenyra (that she hasn't had sex) complicate and nuance the conflicted and morally complex motivations of many of our significant players. 

TFW you'd much rather get with your uncle or your bodyguard.

This was an episode all about power. Who wields it, how it can be used, and the ways even the most powerful may be trapped by social norms and expectations.

Alicent, who always does her socially-prescribed duties as a daughter, wife, and mother, despite how unhappy it makes her, is clearly frustrated when Rhaenyra fails to do the same. Alicent has become a Queen and yet has never had less agency in her life (or perhaps has never been granted more agency than she had as a teenager) - something Rhaenyra identifies with and rejects for herself. 

In contrast, Rhaenyra pushes back against those confines, but she only can because she's a princess. Alicent and Rhaenyra may have been close childhood friends, but we saw the seeds of their different roles and attitudes (i.e., devout duty-bound follower and brash rule-breaker) in the first episode. What was Alicent to do when her father, the Hand of the King, the second most powerful man in the realm, insisted she be part of his machinations? What about when the King proposed marriage - could she truly have said no? She suffers in silence (picking at her fingernails), saying nothing, perhaps even feeling nothing. She is not even really allowed to say no to the King when called to his bed late into the night, while Rhaenyra takes what she wants: Ser Criston Cole. There is no pleasure for Alicent in her arrangement, while Rhaenyra indulges her own (and then faces different but no less difficult consequences).

A garden ceremony followed by a bowels of a pleasure den reception

As Daemon teaches Rhaenyra that rulers should take what they want (and, uh, other lessons too), he discovers that he actually can't (possibly because his conscience won't let him, possibly due to equipment failure, but maybe it's both together). This leaves one sad and lonely and sexually frustrated teenager to storm home from a brothel to order her knight to do some sex. We trade one sexy icky incest scene for one sexy icky questionable consent scene. (HotD working overtime to live up to its predecessor and also its acronym).* 

It's probably worth taking a moment to reflect on the incest of it all. As Alicent pointedly jabs at Rhaenyra as she accuses her of a variety of sex-related scandals: "You Targaryens do have queer customs." This is indeed the (rotten?) heart of a show about a notoriously incestuous dynasty. And, spoiler alert, but it isn't really a spoiler, the incest does not lighten up! So if this is a dealbreaker for you, this might be the episode to jump ship. As Sophie Gilbert explores in the Atlantic (spoilers for the ending of Game of Thrones): "On the earlier show, the incestuous tradition of the Targaryen dynasty was an unfortunate and distasteful element that you could largely sideline if you wanted to, like cilantro or the comedy of Dane Cook. It was present—most centrally in the sexual relationship between Jaime and Cersei Lannister, which Cersei justified by invoking the Targaryen tradition of marrying brothers and sisters—but not predominant until the final season, when Jon Snow and his aunt Daenerys made unfortunately literal the union of ice and fire. But House of the Dragon attaches itself intimately to the Targaryens, a dynasty built on one of the most fundamental kinds of transgression." 

This might be a problem, and it will be interesting to see how the writers thread this needle.

And so, in our final scene, we are left with one of the other main themes of this show - women's power as it relates to pregnancy. Aemma (Rhaenyra's mother) died horribly in childbirth after years of trying to bear more children for her husband, who effectively ordered her death, just as she finally pushed back against her royal duty. Alicent, at far too young an age, has given birth to two healthy children (for that same man), in a similar duty-bound context. Rhaenyra, as ever, charts a third path: after experiencing more sexual freedom than most in House of the Dragon, she is given an abortifacient tea by a Maester, in yet another Viserys-related birth decision (this time to end a potentially unwanted pregnancy). Maybe one day the women of Westeros will have a choice in what happens to their bodies.

*Notably, King of the Narrow Sea was directed by a woman, which could explain why the sex scenes, though contextually disturbing, were shot more tastefully (and from the woman's point of view) than most Game of Thrones scenes. Emily Carey, who plays Alicent, also reflected on the importance of intimacy coordinators and how they ultimately helped her feel safe and comfortable. (This is in stark contrast to comments made by Sean Bean aka Ned Stark, criticizing intimacy coordination). Milly Alcock, Rhaenyra, also shared some positive thoughts about intimacy coordination.