In defense of House of the Dragon’s drawn-out Harrenhal story
As Daemon Targaryen suffers from nightmares week to week in the dark, dank rooms of Harrenhal, many House of the Dragon fans have had one question on their minds: “When will this be over?”
But as Game of Thrones fans shout “Filler!” and craft Luigi’s Mansion memes, I’m here to argue in favor of the Harrenhal happenings, and to celebrate the weird, spooky, and incestuous goings on in the Riverlands. Harrenhal has allowed House of the Dragon to flesh out its mystical side amid much politicking in Dragonstone and King’s Landing, and bloody skirmishes elsewhere, and has given the show an injection of aesthetic diversity. I’ll say it: Harrenhal is beautiful and terrifying, and refreshingly unlike everything else we see in Westeros. (Not to be all “Getting a lot of ‘Boss Baby’ vibes from this,” but Harrenhal’s exterior is giving me warm and fuzzy ‘Shrine of Storms from Demon’s Souls’ vibes. I love the way the show’s castle has been designed.)
But most of all, Harrenhal has given Daemon something to do, and let him reflect on his character in the process.
Daemon has very few places to go at this point that would welcome him. He’s run away — or been all-but-exiled — from King’s Landing, Dragonstone, Pentos, and the Vale. Being stuck in the morass of Harrenhal is fitting, given his abandonment of Rhaenyra in her ongoing time of need and her own inability to escape Dragonstone. He deserves to be stuck here, and to painfully confront his demons.
Related
Thankfully though, four weeks into Daemon’s stay at Harrenhal, we’re actually seeing some progress. Maybe not in terms of Harrenhal’s repair or the formation of a functioning garrison, but the weeks of increasingly fucked-up dreams Daemon’s endured have forced him to confront his relationships with Rhaenyra, Laena, and Viserys. Daemon appears to finally be realizing he may actually be in the wrong, thanks to Alys Rivers’ brand of poison therapy. It’s working, and as anyone who’s been to therapy knows, that kind of change
Read more on polygon.com
