Season 1-Episode 10

The Black Queen

I would rather feed my sons to the dragons than have them carry shields and cups for your drunken, usurper cunt of a king.

Daemon Targaryen

Major Plot Points: Rhaenyra is crowned Queen on Dragonstone. The Sea Snake returns to the world of the living and joins Team Black. Daemon handles all of this in a healthy way. Lucerys goes on his first big boy mission to prove himself, and does not.

Observations from a Book Reader:

1. Rhaenys was not the one to break the news to Rhaenyra about the crowning of Aegon II. She was already at Dragonstone and never a prisoner of the Greens. Another key difference, it was not written that she or Corlys suspected Rhaenyra in the death of Laenor, and they always gave their support from the beginning.
2. Rhaenyra going into labor immediately after hearing the news of her father’s death and the Green’s coup, caused her and Daemon to blame the miscarriage on Alicent and Otto. What was not stated in the show, the stillborn child was a girl named Visenya, who was one of Aegon the Conqueror’s two sister-wives and the original rider of Vhagar.
3. It’s time for everyone’s favorite part of the blog. Crown talk. When Ser Erryk gives Rhaenyra her father’s crown, it is an important note that this is also the crown of Jaehaerys Targaryen, the king who preceded Viserys. Jaehaerys was called “The Conciliator” and even at the time of Game of Thrones, known as by far the greatest leader Westeros had ever had. Rhaenyra the rest of the episode is following in both her father and great-grandfather’s footsteps by opting for diplomacy over violence. It remains to be seen how she reacts next season now that she has lost 2 children (Lucerys and baby Visenya) to this succession war.
4. I briefly mentioned once how House Celtigar, like House Velaryon and Targaryen, are the only other house with ties to Old Valyria. This episode they were finally mentioned as an ally of Rhaenyra but at this point in the series I doubt they ever are talked about as Valyrian descendants.
5. One reason for Daemons outbreak about “feeding his sons to the dragons”, is because in Westeros history, sending your children to an old enemy to be squires and cupbearers, is actually just the highborn equivalent of taking hostages to ensure obeisance. Theon was a hostage at Winterfell in the beginning of Game of Thrones for the same reason.
6. The page that Otto gives Rhaenyra has an additional easter egg behind it. Interestingly, this specific page tells part of the story of Nymeria, the Rhoynish queen who led her people across oceans from Essos to Dorne, she is arguably the most famous female leaders in Westeros history, and as most will remember, Arya named her direwolf after her.
7. Vermithor, the dragon Daemon sings to, was ridden by Jaehaerys. The only rival to his size and strength is Vhagar (Vhagar is still larger). I am not totally sure what the message of this scene was, since obviously Daemon could not tame Vermithor as he already was linked to his dragon Caraxes. Perhaps he wanted to independently attempt to bring Vermithor to his cause?
8. Lord Borros Baratheon made a point to make his Maester read the letter. In Fire and Blood he was noted as “not being fond of books”. AKA this man is actually illiterate.
9. Aemond is shown to have a sapphire in place of his missing eye now, and in the opening theme, his sigil is now depicted as a sapphire as well. This is straight from the book.
10. It was only written that Aemond slew Arrax and Lucerys in the skies above Storm’s End. This is a more nuanced interpretation, as we see Aemond frantically trying to stop Vhagar from killing them after Arrax attacks Vhagar against Luke’s wishes. Aemond even uses the Valyrian term “Dohaeris” which means serve. This is one of the few Valyrian words viewers may remember, as the answer to the now famous Game of Thrones saying Valar Morghulis (All men must die) was Valar Dohaeris (All men must serve).

Other Points to Notice

1. There are several parallels in this episode to the pilot, one being a tragic birth, first Aemma, now Rhaenyra. One more is how in episode 1, Viserys is crowned with the crown of Jaehaerys, as Rhaenyra is in this finale.
2. Daemon, as is his nature, refused to be with Rhaenyra during her birth because all he could think about was revenge. This descent and division between he and Rhaenyra comes to a much more violent climax later in the episode. I’ll get to it eventually.
3. One brief cut that may have been missed, when Rhaenyra is refusing help and delivering her stillborn child, at the peak of her screams we see a 1 second flash of her dragon, Syrax, also growling and feeling her pain. This scene also comes right after we see Caraxes listening to Daemons commands and threatening the Kingsguard. Knowing how this episode ends, I believe this is showing how the dragons are truly not controlled by the Targaryens, but instead are linked to their rider’s experience and personality.
4. Lighting up the Dragonstone map was an incredible sequence, but it immediately made me think, “Why did Stannis never light it up in Game of Thrones?”. I like to think this is just Stannis being frugal with his candles.
5. The book page that Otto hands Rhaenyra, is the same one that Rhaenyra tears out in the pilot and gives to Alicent, when she remarks how they both should run away together. I believe this can be interpreted as a genuine attempt from Alicent to stop hostilities.
6. A major theme of this episode, and show, is that dragons were not meant to be controlled. When Rhaenyra speaks of the prophecy to Daemon, this lets him know that the only person he ever truly loved, Viserys, did not once consider him an actual heir or candidate to rule since he never told him about it. This causes Daemon to violently assault Rhaenyra, and reminds us once again, that dragons cannot be controlled, and there is no human in the show that personifies the temperament of a dragon more than Daemon.
7. Corlys was swayed to Rhaenyra’s cause once he was able to see her lead a council confidently, as well as when he looked and saw Laena’s children standing beside Jace and Luke. Even though Corlys knows Jace and Luke are not his grandchildren, he still stands behind his declaration that they are his kin due to the name they were given at birth. The music that played during this scene, when the plan to secure the Narrow Sea and siege King’s Landing, also paralleled the war council Robb Stark had in S1E10 of Game of Thrones. And sure enough, the current Lord of Winterfell, Cregan Stark, was mentioned heavily throughout.
8. Besides being the best dragon cinematography of all time, a symbolic aspect of Luke’s death, was that it only happened after he left the raging storm. And this was right after he left the stronghold called Storm’s End. So Lucerys truly met his demise at Storm’s End.
9. The shot of a devastated Rhaenyra turning to look at the camera in the final scene, mirrored the shot of young Rhaenyra turning to look at the crowd of lords swearing to serve her as heir in Episode 1.

Stray Observations:

1. Hearing Luke call Rhaenyra “perfect” is hilarious knowing how much of a little shit she was as a kid. It is nice that we finally got some late characterization of Lucerys though.
2. Very glad they addressed the fact that Rhaenys did not burn the entire group of the Greens last episode. Her justification made sense.
3. Not sure why, but I got chills when Rhaenyra, while going through labor, told Jace how he was her heir and he must listen to her commands alone.
4. Caraxes is the coolest dragon design. Just this evil snake monster that looks completely evil in every way.
5. Rhaenyra not wanting to rule over a kingdom of “ash and bone” sounds eerily similar to when Daenerys did not want to be “Queen of the ashes”. Hm
6. Corlys was so calm about his brother dying once Rhaenys explained what he did. “Yea he had it coming lol shit.”

RIP: Arrax, and Lucerys “Velaryon” (Strong)

Final Thoughts:

Well that was a great season. What started as an uneasy excitement to return to HBO’s interpretation of this world, quickly became must watch TV that once again captured the attention of the world. While this season was not without it’s mistakes (the time jumps made it hard to care about new characters, specifically Harwin Strong, and the children), it also handled the loose way the book was written in a way that was satisfying to both book readers and show only watchers. We now have a much more intricate and character driven tragedy that is set to fully explode in season 2.

Highlights:

-Every scene with Viserys, specifically him walking to the throne one last time, which was definitively the best scene of the season, if not all seasons of Game of Thrones as well

-The casting of young/old Alicent and Rhaenyra

-The attention to detail of set pieces, sigils, and yes, crowns

-Daemon being equal parts cool and downright horrible

Rating: 9/10

See everyone in 2024 for season 2. And tune into my blog next year when I write 5000 words weekly to cover how every episode of The Witcher season 3 is an embarrassment to television.