Season 2-Episode 01

A Son for a Son

I want Aemond Targaryen

Rhaenyra Targaryen

Major Plot Points: Rhaenyra finds her long lost son Luke. Jace befriends a wolf. Alicent has a series of increasingly ridiculous sex-capades. Aegon tries giving peasants their sheep back. Helaena endures a truly horrifying experience

Observations from a Book Reader:

1. While brief, Jace’s visit to The Wall with Lord Cregan Stark was highly consequential. Officially titled “The Pact of Ice and Fire” the agreement between these 2 lords was that for the loyalty of the north, Jace would marry his first daughter (whenever he might have a daughter), to the son of Cregan. This was not brought into conversation in the show, nor was the (largely unsubstantiated) rumor from the book that Jace fell in love and slept with a bastard of the north named Sara Snow.
2. The man we see talking to Corlys, who had apparently saved him from his shipwreck, is known simply as Alyn of Hull. In the books, Alyn is the younger brother to Addam of Hull, both lowborn members of House Velaryon, fiercely loyal to Corlys. Alyn also references “having a word with my brother”, which means we will be seeing Addam soon as well. Keep an eye on these two.
3. We see that Helaena and Aegon have 2 children, Jaehaerys and Jaehaera. They removed their 3rd child, Maelor from the show. Part of the reason is that the show covered a time period of 20 years, while the book covered 30 years, so it would be a stretch for this generation to have had so many kids in such a short time.
4. Criston Cole and Alicent were never explicitly mentioned as being in a sexual relationship, even if he was her sworn sword. The irony of Alicent putting on his white cloak, which symbolizes purity and honor, on his back after he again broke his vow of chastity, is pretty hilariously unsubtle. Remember when he was mad at Rhaenyra for “sullying his honor”? Fuck this guy.
5. Mysaria, who was found as a stowaway by the Blacks, never actually left King’s Landing. She was a paramour of Daemon when he was there, but her part in the story only began when she served as go between for Daemon and the assassins he hired. The Greens were not aware of her influence or even her true name, whereas in the show they were very aware of her reach after the events of last season (see note 4 below).
6. Book readers all refer to the end of episode incident as “Blood and Cheese”. Blood, the nickname for the guard that Mysaria sets Daemon up with, and Cheese, the nickname for the dog kicking rat-catcher. In the book it was vague but heavily implied that Daemon told these 2 to kill Jaehaerys as revenge for Luke’s death. A son for a son. But here, the camera cuts away when Cheese asks Daemon “What if we can’t find Aemond?”. It sure seems like Daemon told them that if they cant find Aemond, Jaehaerys would be just as good.
7. As previously mentioned, Aegon and Helaena had 3 children. When Blood and Cheese entered their room, they grabbed Helaena and told her to choose which of her 2 sons they should kill, or they would kill both. Helaena in her hysteria eventually chose her younger son, Maelor. B&C then murdered Jaehaerys instead, and told young Maelor how his mother wanted him to die, and then they left. This is actually much more fucked up since the kids were older, awake, and aware of what was going on. Ryan Condal the show-runner mentioned how “there are certain limits to what you can do with child actors” which explains the difference in the scenes here. While still horrific (especially hearing them tear off his head), it makes sense why this was changed.

Other Points to Notice

1. The new theme song sequence is a big improvement on the “bloodlines” diorama last season. Here we see the history of the Targaryen dynasty in the form of embroidered images. Beginning with the Doom of Valyria, it even covers things not discussed in the show, such as Maegor the Cruel dying by lacerations from the Iron Throne. (I included at the bottom of this post a list of all events shown).
2. We see Ser Arryk Cargyll arming what looks like a scorpion when the guards see a dragon approaching King’s Landing. This is interesting because in Game of Thrones, when Maester Qyburn showed this dragon killing weapon to Cersei, it was implied that this was a new design and the first ever way to fight a dragon.
3. In season 1, Viserys mentioned how several Targaryens have the gift of dragon dreams, a sort of foresight that lets them see the future somehow. The only true example of this, comes from Helaena. She once referenced “the beast below the boards”, which ended up being Rhaenys on her dragon flying up through the floor at Aegon’s coronation. Here she speaks of the rats in the walls. This one is explained very quickly.
4. Larys only has a few scenes this episode, but as usual they are interesting. The “spies” he tells Alicent he kills are of course ones who were loyal to Mysaria (the White Worm), the woman who told Cole last season she kept Aegon safe in a sept before his coronation. Larys also immediately tries to get on Aegon’s good side by turning him against Otto Hightower.
5. You might be confused about the names of Ser Arryk and Ser Erryk Cargyll. Erryk is with the blacks, Arryk with the greens. Their names aren’t important as these two are just a heavy handed metaphor by GRRM about how war turns brother against brother. Here is a fun way to remember them though. Arryk has an ‘A’ in it, so does the word ‘Black’. Erryk has an ‘E’ in it, so does the word ‘Green’. Now just reverse the associations so Arryk=Green and Erryk=Black. Simple.
6. Joffrey Velaryon, Rhaenyra and “Laenor’s” (it was really Harwin Strong’s) youngest child, throws a wooden horse into Lucerys’ funeral pyre. This wooden horse was actually Lucerys’ toy and he was playing with it in Season 1 Episode 7. I guess he gave his baby bro his old lil horse toy at some point.
7. While drunk on the throne with his retinue of sycophants, fops and cronies (patted myself on the back for that one), you can hear one of them yell out “Aegon the Strong!”, to which Aegon replies, “My nephew has already taken that one”, which of course is referencing the (correct) rumors that his cousins Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Joffrey are all bastards of Rhaenyra and the late Harwin Strong.
8. Helaena and her children were in the room that Alicent once had when she was queen. And conversely, Alicent is now “sleeping” in the same room that Rhaenyra used when she was the princess, another symbol of the power Alicent is losing.

Stray Observations:

1. Did anyone else get chills when the first scene began with the Stark theme music? God damn, it felt like a time machine when we saw Winterfell. Also I love that the default Stark accent is now just modeled off of Sean Bean’s actual accent.
2. If it seemed like Cregan’s sword was way too big for him, that is because it is Ice, the legendary ancestral Valyrian sword of House Stark, known for being gigantic. We see Ned use it in the pilot of Game of Thrones to behead the deserter from the Wall. It is later melted down by the Lannisters to form their 2 swords, Widow’s Wail, and Oathkeeper.
3. Daemon really cant get over the fact that Rhaenys had the jump on all the Greens at Aegon’s coronation, and did not have Meleys burn them all to death
4. It’s kinda hard to hate Aegon right now. Hes definitely a shithead but compared to past kings we have seen in these shows, his love for his son is kinda endearing? Either way, Tyland Lannister doesn’t seem to enjoy any of it.
5. In my second viewing, Rhaenyra finding her son’s body next to the corpse of his dragon seemed much more visceral.
6. Aegon the Magnanimous. Unreal. He did try to give Jerard his sheep back. I don’t know, this whole sequence of Aegon naively trying to help every peasant was hilarious.
7. In case you forgot, the secret passages in the Red Keep, that Blood and Cheese used, were installed by architects at the behest of Maegor the Cruel, who of course murdered them after they were complete, so no one could know all the secrets.
8. Rhaenyra only has 1 line this episode but it is powerful. She is officially out for blood.
9. Helaena seemed to have been too horrified to even be able to scream as she fled her bedroom. And then she walked in on her mom having sex with Criston god damn Cole.

RIP: Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen

Opening Theme Sequence:

1. The Doom of Valyria
2. Aegon the Conqueror, and his 2 sister-wives, Visenya and Rhaenys on their dragons (Balerion, Vhagar [still alive BTW], and Meraxes).
3. Aegon’s conquest (looks like when he torched Harrenhall specifically)
4. Torrhen Stark, The King Who Knelt, bending the knee to Aegon
5. The Targaryen banner over King’s Landing
6. Maegor the Cruel, impaled on the Iron Throne
7. King Jaehaerys I and Queen Alysanne. The best rulers in Westerosi history.
8. Jaehaerys sitting at the Great Council of 101 AC, Corlys Velaryon and Rhaenys are present
9. Alicent Hightower and Rhaenyra Targaryen standing at opposite ends of the council table
10. The best image so far, to the left Aegon II sitting on the Iron Throne, and to the right Rhaenyra sitting on the throne at Dragonstone. Beneath Aegon we see a green hand and a flock (my editor is telling me the correct term is ‘an unkindness’) of ravens, symbolizing how his succession was brought about by Otto sending a zillion ravens to the lords of the realm announcing him as ruler. Beneath Rhaenyra we see a black hand and several dragons, which in a much less subtle way, depicts her succession as being backed by having (at the time) 7 dragons on her side, Syrax (Rhaenyra), Caraxes (Daemon), Meleys (Rhaenys), Vermax (Jacaerys), Tyraxes (Joffrey), Moondancer (Baela), and the late Arrax (Lucerys).
11. Finally we have a dead Arrax and Lucerys. Not really subtle. Remember last season when he got ate? Crazy. Wasn’t this fun? I love this new opener. And if anyone is still reading this, I will assume you will also be excited to hear that the show-runner, Ryan Condal, has already stated new embroidered scenes will be added as the season goes to reflect the major moments of the war. Pay attention (or don’t because I will).