For the last few weeks, I’ve felt that House of the Dragon was moving too quickly. It was almost as if every episode was a season finale. Certain plot points needed to happen, some of them simultaneously with other important ones. I often felt like they were trying to get events out of the way to get to the good stuff. The world-building has felt rushed because of that. This week was a bit different. In Driftmark the pace felt almost slow by comparison. Instead of being years or a decade since the last time we checked in with our happy little family, it’s been, at most, a few months.
We see everyone attempting to mourn the passing of Daemon’s second wife Laena. I thought the first 15 minutes was a great way to show how tense relations have gotten with everyone. With very little dialogue it helps to put into perspective that these people are family and not friends.
A flashback to The Long Night
The only negative thing I thought about this week was how Driftmark was lit at times. The filter over the beech scene with Daemon and Rhaenyra was unwatchable. I found the TikToks afterward to be hilarious. Watching people turn the flashlight on their phones to see what was going on in the scene was great and exactly how I felt too. I couldn’t explain why they would have it be so hard to see.
I was not the only one it seems. People were taking to Twitter to voice their disservice to it as well. What was HBO’s response? They called it a creative decision.
The other scene, with Aemond and the dragon Vhagar being a close second in terrible quality. The only reason I could come up with this was for the sake of Vhagar. Perhaps making the scene dim and hard to see improved the dragon’s look. Was it hard to see to make the dragon look better? Because the dragon looked incredible.
The kids are not alright
Did I expect Driftmark to have the best fight scene of the series so far? No, I did not. Did I expect the best fight scene so far to involve five children? Also, no. Why is the most intense fight scene to date this season taking place in a cave with five child actors? I’m not sure, but it was great.
Seeing how cocky Aemond suddenly went was great character development. I went from rooting for him to survive his ride with Vhagar to wanting to see him lose a second eye in a few minutes. I’d like to think if I was able to ride the biggest living dragon I too would act that way. He also took on four of his cousins without much worry. How he grabbed one of his cousins with one hand as he dealt with another was pretty remarkable. Makes me think Criston Cole was showing him how to fight and doing nothing for Rhaenyra’s children.
Driftmark Odds and ends
Driftmark has left me with many odds-and-ends thoughts, none of which fill more than a sentence or two; prepare for randomness. What was Alicent thinking? The demand for the eye, followed by a dagger attack a literal minute later is indefensible. How any witness present thinks she’s in the right is beyond me. Kingsgaurd are super unimpressive, just standing around looking pretty. I love the line of history does not remember blood, it remembers names. This fits Corlys Velaryon so well. He knows his son will not bare him heirs; it does not matter. Not gonna lie, they had me with Laenor. I thought he was dead for sure. What a fitting ending to him, he wanted nothing to do with any of them, and now he’s free. And lastly, the tension building in this episode makes me excited to see the last three episodes this season. Driftmark has made House of the Dragon must-watch tv.
