Following in the footsteps of its predecessor, House of the Dragon gave itself a big battle scene this week. The blood and guts of its first skirmish marked a noticeable difference.
The conflict between Rhaenyra Targaryen and her father King Viserys is the focus of the second part of his name. It climaxes far away from Rhaenyra and Viserys' struggles, in the Stepstones, with what can only be described as Daemon Targaryen, Matt Smith's unruly brother to Viserys.
We are reminded at the beginning of the episode that the war in the Stepstones is not going well. Viserys sent Daemon a letter promising ships and men to aid in the effort, hoping that this help will not just turn the war in his favor, but begin to mend the rift between them. Daemon responds to this by taking his helmet and beating the messenger to death, which is already a kind of hilarious reaction, but it is what follows that almost turns House of the Dragon into a bloody dark comedy for the finale.
Daemon laid down his sword after turning the messenger into almost-pulp. After all, the Velaryons were just discussing a bold plan to use Daemon as bait to lure the Crabfeeder's men out from their caves, where they can successfully hide from Ceraxes' dragon fire. It would be foolish for Daemon to allow his own capture to spite Viserys. After the Crabfeeder's men get close to Viserys, he lunges out, hacking and slashing with a dagger and then his sword to carve a man-path through his enemies.
Does it work? It's the closest House has come to JohnWick. Daemon power runs like a machine gun as arrows sing all around him, less like volleys and more like machine gun fire as he just legs it fast enough to avoid them all. As Daemon slices and stabs through one man after another, most of them barely get a sword swing in or a deflection before he brutally offs them, no one can challenge him. After Daemon single-handedly killed 10 to 15 men that he was hit by a few arrows, and even those that barely stopped him, only to give himself the time to remove one from his body completely and then snap off most of the other, it was only after he had done that Even when Ceraxes and the Velayron forces arrive just in time to save him, Daemon keeps fighting like he's alone, power running to go tear the Crabfeeder in half, but he returns remarkably blood-caked.
It's crazy. It is so amazing that it is almost comical. We have seen feats of martial skill and prowess on the show before, but nothing quite like this in the final scene. Even with ice zombies and dragons, Game of thrones still prided itself on the fact that death was sudden and brutal and unjust. Like a video game character with God Mode switched on, Daemon runs, leaps, and cuts through the Crabfeeder's men, like they're winning the war.
It makes sense that the world of House of the Dragon is more fanciful than the world of Game of thrones, where dragons are just a fact of life. It speaks to Daemon's character and his very real feelings, so easily vindictive and angered, that what it would take to achieve this sort of wild fury was nothing more than the chance to prove to his brother.
It is what makes it so funny in a way that few Game ofThrones battles have been before. One of the most unrealistic feats of bloody combat in the entire franchise, stretching the suspension of disbelief that already allows us dragons, hinges on the real emotions of two squabbling siblings. Something real and human at the heart of something so fantasy is what Game of thrones is about.
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