House of the Dragon has no bright future in store for its kids
“Driftmark,” this week’s episode of House of the Dragon, featured perhaps the most intense battle on the show so far: a four-way brawl between children. What initially looks like a reprise of a training-ground scuffle in the previous episode suddenly takes a sinister turn as it keeps going further until a horrible little boy loses an eye after a sweet little boy defends his brother with a knife. And because of this, the entire royal court is trapped in an R-rated speedrun of the NBC series The Slap as they spend the majority of the episode in the same room, trying to figure out what is to be done about it.
Part of what makes this fight so shocking is that we’ve just met these kids, so when Aemond and Aegon Targaryen confront Jacaerys and Lucerys Velayron in a tunnel, we’re not entirely sure how things are going to play out — and House of the Dragon isn’t a show where pleasant things happen. The fight goes shockingly far, as Aemond grabs a stone and seems intent on killing Jacaerys before Lucerys leaps to defend him with a knife, blinding Aemond in one eye.
The fallout from this comprises the majority of “Driftmark,” as King Viserys must mediate the resulting conflict between Queen Alicent, Princess Rhaenyra, and all other offended parties. The dispute quickly stops being about the children and clearly becomes about the growing rift between Alicent and Rhaenyra, to the point that Alicent, wanting an eye for an eye, threatens to cut Lucerys’ out herself.
In some ways, “Driftmark” closely echoes “The Kingsroad,” the second episode of Game of Thrones. In it, the young heroine Arya Stark makes a new friend, Mycah, a baker’s son, who is subsequently bullied by the petulant and cruel Prince Joffrey. When Arya stands up to
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