Season 1-Episode 06

The Princess and the Queen

The wise sailor flees the storm as it gathers

Laenor Velaryon

Major Plot Points: Rhaenyra gives birth and has to deal with gossip. Alicent accidentally plots a murder. Daemon becomes single once again. Criston talks a lot of shit.

Observations from a Book Reader:

1. The title of the episode is a reference to a 2013 novella written by GRRM for the anthology book Dangerous Women. This novella told the story of the Dance of the Dragons for the first time and it was fleshed out more in another short story called The Rogue Prince before both were combined and given even more details in Fire and Blood.
2. Laenor was white with blonde hair in the book. Rhaenyra having 3 brown haired kids was still looked at suspiciously by the rest of the kingdom, but it wasn’t quite as obvious her children were bastards as it is in the show. I think this change makes a lot of sense, as it is a clear visual sign to the audience what is going on. Especially when we see that Laena and Daemon’s children are black with white hair.
3. The dragon that scares Aemond in the dragonpit, is Dreamfyre, originally ridden by Rhaena Targaryen, grand-daughter of Aegon the Conqueror. We also heard in Episode 2that the eggs Daemon stole were from Dreamfyre.
4. We see Laena riding the gigantic dragon Vhagar, the last of the remaining 3 dragons from when Aegon the Conqueror arrived. As a child, Laena found and tamed Vhagar, surprising everyone as Vhagar had not accepted a rider in years. Sadly, the scene of her doing so was cut from the show, even though in an earlier episode Vhagar’s status was discussed.
5. Before marrying Daemon, Laena was betrothed to a son of the Sea Lord of Braavos. Daemon antagonized him while visiting Driftmark, and got him angry enough to duel. Daemon slew him with ease, and married Laena a few days later. This did not cause too much of an uproar, as the man who was killed was by all accounts, an arrogant prick.
6. It is unknown if Rhaenyra’s children were able to discern their true parentage in the book. I have to think that they figured it out but knew enough to never discuss it, as their lives would almost certainly be forfeit if it came out.
7. The death of Lyonel and Harwin Strong at Harrenhal was a subject of great controversy. Instead of knowing who was responsible, the book just gave a list of suspects, including Corlys Velaryon, who was theorized to have killed the man that made made a cuckold of his son. Turns out it was Larys the whole time. With his father and brother dead, he is now the Lord of Harrenhal, but the sick part is he probably does not care about that at all. For him, this was a simple way to force Alicent into his debt, as it would bring her father back into the game, and take care of the problem with Rhaenyra’s almost public affair with Harwin. Littlefinger was a sociopath but Larys seems to be even more monstrous so far.

Other Points to Notice

1. The opening scene is something we had not seen from this show or Game of Thrones before. 2 long continues takes from the birth of Joffrey to Rhaenyra getting to her father’s room. There is also a distinct lack of background music that adds to the “realness” of the scenario
2. Harwin Strong is now the Lord Commander of the City Watch (The police of King’s Landing who wear gold cloaks). While we find out for sure later in the episode, this scene makes it very clear there is a relationship between Rhaenyra and Harwin.
3. Alicent’s reaction to Criston calling Rhaenyra a cunt is telling. Criston is a full on angry spurned lover at this point and he truly hates her. Alicent is more so just worried and upset about the damage Rhaenyra is doing by siring bastards. She is correct, as brazenly presenting bastards, if found out, would cause House Velaryon to rebel and surely cause a war. She is also now fully on board with putting Aegon on the throne over Rhaenyra, as she tells her son himself. It’s important to remember a big motivation for Alicent is her belief that her children will be killed if Rhaenyra takes the throne, either by Rhaenyra or her supporters.
4. Criston does a great job of exposing Harwin in the practice yard, as Harwin’s brutal reaction only makes sense if Jacaerys is in fact his son. It seems like Criston really only does it to be spiteful. He hates Rhaenyra so much at this point that he also hates her children. Harwin attacking Criston is reminiscent of last episode when Criston killed Joffrey. Harwin is obviously punished far more for it, since Criston is a member of the Kingsguard and therefore regarded as “untouchable”.
5. The small council meeting appears to be a total disaster. The rift between Rhaenyra and Alicent is almost as bad as the divide between the 2 houses they were discussing, the Brackens and Blackwoods. Lyman Beesbury, the master of coin, seems to be totally senile and can’t follow the conversation. And then Rhaenyra tries to marry her son to Alicent’s daughter. This would have legitimized Rhaenyra’s claim to the throne and united both sides of the family in the succession. Alicent would never agree to this though, as she believes that Jacaerys is a bastard, and that her son Aegon should be on the throne.
6. The sigil on Larys’ walking stick that we see when he enters the dungeon, as well as the sigils placed on the mute criminals he employs, is that of a bee, and not that of House Strong. There is a quote about Larys in the book, “The words dripped from his lips like honey from a comb, and never did poison taste so sweet.” His bee sigil could be a reference to that quote, and just as Littlefinger discarded his family sigil for a mockingbird, perhaps Larys is discarding his family sigil for the bee. Which would be a pretty direct message to the audience that Larys is going to be the Littlefinger of this series.
7. Unlike his brother, Daemon was much less willing to throw Laena’s life away for a c-section. He may have decided on it eventually, but Laena quickly left the situation to end things on her own terms, which was an incredibly cool way to go out.

Stray Observations:

1. It’s nice to see that Laenor and Rhaenyra have a close relationship, if not a romantic one. But it is also hilarious that it’s the only healthy relationship in this series.
2. King Viserys is like 50 in the books at this point. I can’t decide if the show-runners aged him up, or they made him look this way just to show how ill he is.
3. Let’s take a second and name every Targaryen kid. Rhaenyra’s sons: Jacaerys (Jace), Lucerys (Luke), and newborn Joffrey. Alicent’s children: Aegon, Helaena, Aemond, and Daeron. Daeron was not in this episode which means he either was not born yet, or the show is cutting his character. In which case I just gave a completely pointless name to anyone reading this who probably already had Targaryen name overload.
4. The Valyria model Viserys is working on actually looks cool at this point.
5. It’s nice to know that Viserys is an expert on dominant/recessive genes due to his time owning a horse.
6. It does seem like Daemon truly cares for his wife and daughters. But he also appears really depressed. I don’t think domestic life is for this guy.
7. Am I crazy, or when Emma D’Arcy (Rhaenyra) speaks her mouth movement is similar to Lena Headey as Cersei sometimes?
8. Daemon and Laena’s 2 twin daughters are named Baela and Rhaena.
9. The shot of Laena being burned alive by her beloved dragon, combined with the music and follow up shot of Daemon observing it, was the scene of the episode for me.
10. As Larys said, the Strong deaths were easy to sell to the realm, because almost all the people in Westeros believed that Harrenhal was cursed. Ever since it was built, the house that controlled it met eerie and grim deaths. It is the Westeros equivalent of the Defense Against the Dark Art’s Professor curse in Harry Potter.

RIP: Laena Velaryon, Ser Harwin “Breakbones” Strong, Lord Lyonel Strong