House of The Dragon S2, EP 6 Recap & Thoughts.!

Literally, when everything seems to be falling out for Blacks, they have made some serious inroads in fighting the war. But the biggest drawback can be attributed to lack of focus from the makers given to the Greens after the Battle of Rook’s Rest. Somehow, after conquering the Rook’s Rest and slaying the dragon Meleys and the dragonrider Princess Rhaenys, the Greens haven’t used the leverage yet. The focus is still on the Blacks who are trying to raise an army and the whole notion of regrouping together is getting extended to another episode. If this was the episode that was expected to put an end to the fallout between Daemon & Rhaenyra, then you have to wait further.

So an army affiliated to the Greens headed by Jason Lannister has reached the borders of Riverlands. They are now heading towards Harrenhal. Alas, they are making a move while Daemon still has no armies by his side to defend the kingdom. But Jason needs the Prince Reagent, Aemond & Vhagar by his side before marching towards Harrenhal. This is something that enrages Aemond. He makes it clear that he’ll join the fight when he feels it is the right time. He even commands Ser Criston Cole to march towards Harrenhal at the earliest.

This is not something that is expected of Aemond as he had a clear plan while taking Rook’s Rest. But it seems like Harrenhal is planned in haste. He also commands Jason Lannistor to form an alliance with the ‘Triarchy’ against the Sea Snake. Remeber ‘Triarchy’, who are basically the pirates. So if Greens ally with them, they can create a water blockade for the Blacks army. Later in the council, he even dismisses his mother from the council which is upsets Alicent. She is now really concerned about the fate of the continent under the rule of Aemond. He is seemingly not concerned about ruling the kingdom but he is deeply invested in winning the war.

Moreover he is seen bound to the throne and is kind of fixated. He has left his people to die while feasting other lords. Moreover, he has even gone to intimidate his brother Aegon. The King is terrified. He cannot tell the truth, of what happened at Rook’s Rest. Aemond suggests that rather Aegon will be remembered in the history as someone who survived the dragon fire. Even in this state, Aemond would still harm the king because the iron throne has sort of unlocked his darkest desires.

Atleast now, Aemond needs to consider defending the crown in the right way. Yes, he is not all distorted. Because he sure knows who he needs at the council and who needs to be at the war front. That could be the reason why he has send Criston Cole to lay siege on Harrenhall and summoned for Otto Hightower to be back as his Hand. He was very quick to see through Larrys Strong and shown him the place. Larrys was able to manipulate Aegon but it seems to be rather difficult to gain the trust of a sharper and wily Aemond. Who knows if Aemond is planning something bigger here. But so far in the season, he is the character who has made the most despite lesser spotlight in the last episode.

Daemon is all but completely giving in due to the hallucinations and the setback he has received from the lord of Riverlands. He is in despair and doesn’t know who to blame for his misfortunes. He needs help and probably for the first time in the entire season, he has actually asked for help having admitted his failures. This was kind of an opportunity for Alys Rivers and we don’t know yet, if she is hiding something from the plain sight. But she has rightly delivered Daemon a boon and an opportunity to make everything right. If Lord of Tully pledges in favour odds Daemon, the tides change in Riverlands and this means the Blacks gain an upper-hand against the Greens. Also, it looks like Daemon would have a change of heart about claiming the throne for himself. But it is the power shift that determines a man’s ambition in the Westeros. Even Aemond speaks highly to the council about battling against Daemon. He considers his uncle as a worthy challenge although he doesn’t want to engage at the moment.

Rhaenyra with the help of Lady Mysaria seems to have made the best move as of now. This was indeed the best part of episode. The relatively angry small folks are further stirred when the Queen send them some gifts in the form of food. It was thought that ‘Dyana’ would be the weapon wielded by Blacks against the Greens. But instead of this trick, they made a better strategy to align the interest of people towards the Blacks. They have succeeded but how.? The small folks attack Halaena & Alicent when they were coming out of the sept. This is a tragedy considering how frequently Halaena has to suffer the wrath every-time. She was no part of this but yet the people hail their Queen Rhaenyra by attacking her and Alicent. But Mysaria has successfully created an uprising among the people in KingsLanding. It is shown several times in the season that Mysaria has the best intelligence in KingsLanding. She is equivalent to the Spymaster.

While Rhaenyra’s political strategy worked, she still needed dragon riders, particularly dragon seeds who would be riding dragons by her side. The episode begins with one such failed attempt where Lord Darklyn gets incinerated by Seasmoke while trying to bond with the dragon. At first, her plan seems to have failed but we are shown numerous times about a few characters who would ultimately become dragon riders. This episode happens to focus on these characters. If you remember Rhaena Targaryen, she is probably going to claim a dragon very soon mostly by next episode. House of Vale has a dragon that steals sheeps and she has just discovered this. Lady of Arryn probably has withheld this matter. As we have seen Rhaena was unable to bond with a dragon, this could be her turn. This dragon is in all possibility will be bonded to Rhaena. But that brings a different question. She was supposed to travel to Pentos with Aegon & Viserys and Lady Arryn has just delivered the news about the approval of Prince of Pentos to shelter them. But if Rhaena claims a dragon, then there is a whole different plot development that needs to be seen.

Similarly, there are two more dragon-seeds at KingsLanding and they are shown in this episode. Hugh Hammer, who is shown as a blacksmith is living in poverty and has an ailing daughter to tend to. When his wife says about leaving Kingslanding and go to her brothers, Hugh is not ready to give his self esteem. He considers it as begging. But in this episode he is shown to have stolen food from another man in Kings Landing when there was a kind of commotion of people gathering to pick the gift send by Queen Rhaenyra. So what if Hugh is too proud before his family but has no remorse for stealing from others. It needs to seen where he aligns with later on in the series. Then the second is Ulf White. He seems to have the least of screen space in the entire season when talking about an important character. He is for the most part shown in taverns and gloating about his Targaryen bloodline. So we know he is a Targaryen bastard and probably scared of the highborns. It also needs to be seen on whose side he is going to be and as of now we know a little about his character.

Now finally, the episode ends with a dragon seed finding the dragon. The dragon that barbecued one of the lords earlier in the episode finally bonds with a Valeryon bastard. Lord Corlys’ bastard, Addam of Hull is the rider. If you remember, there were a couple of times when a dragon used to fly above the shores of Dragonstone. Addam use to look above the skies but this time it seems like the Dragon has niticed Addam and it decided to claim its rider. Well, Seasmoke’s ritual just failed and this could be one reason why it went close to Addam this time around.

The episode ends with Queen Rhaenyra & Mysaria’s little intimate scene getting spoiled by a guard who brings the news about Seasmoke. Well the blacks suspect a Green and she sets off on her dragon Syrax to meet the dragon rider. Also the episode mentions about another major character Prince Daeron Targaryen who is a key member of the Greens. He is the youngest son of Alicent and much to the happiness of her, he is being affirmed as a kind and disciplined kid by Ser Gwayne Hightower, who is the brother of Alicent. He was sent to a ward in the city of Hightower and a kind Targaryen from Greens is going to do a lot more in the series. Or maybe, Gwayne might have lied about being ‘Kind’. Hopefully, the 7th episode has a lot more events that will accelerate the story

Compiled By Jayaram Gopalakrishnan