House of the Dragon takes sibling rivalry to fucked-up new levels

polygon.com:

There are few things more terrible than a boy-king. At their worst, they are petty tyrants, all impulse and appetites, like Joffrey in Game of Thrones. At their best, they are mere figureheads, a puppet bandied about by people wilier than he, who understand how to work the levers of power effectively and have little concern for the public good. House of the Dragon’s King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) is somewhere between the two: self-aware enough that he wants to be seen as a good and noble king, but also, importantly, extremely teenager. He wants to feel like he has power, but all he can feel is other people using it.

This has not kept Aegon from enjoying the trappings of the crown. He loves having his buddies gather around the Iron Throne to talk shit, walking into a tavern and covering everyone’s tab, and giving cush Kingsguard jobs to pals who would probably rather run before they caught a stray for him. In last week’s episode, “The Burning Mill,” we see the kind of king Aegon would rather be, had he no responsibilities, carousing in a brothel and making a cruel spectacle of his brother Aemond (Ewan Mitchell).

In “A Dance of Dragons,” however, Aegon realizes he is being distracted. Handled. Military movements have been made without his input, and Aemond knows the score better than he. At a small council meeting, Aemond turns the tables and makes Aegon feel small, showing off his cunning and command of High Valyrian in a scene that leaves his royal brother stammering impotently, while the other councilors uncomfortably shift their gaze.

So far in House of the Dragon’s second season, the inevitable war has been treated with the gravitas of a looming tragedy, the gears of fate turning to crush each character’s desires and ambition under its dispassionate machinery. However, this is a show about people in power — tremendous, unmitigated power, the sort that grinds up innocent lives to preserve itself and improve its station. And this is what power looks like at its