Season 2-Episode 04

The Red Dragon and the Gold

Do simply what is needed of you. Nothing.

Alicent Hightower

Major Plot Points: Rhaenyra tells her petulant son a fairy tale. Alicent has really bad cramps. Aegon experiments with drunk driving. Daemon continues his psychedelic journey. Aemond can’t stop kin-slaying.

Observations from a Book Reader:

1. Daemon meets a young Oscar Tully, the heir to Riverrun. In the book, his father Elmo Tully is the heir, and leads the house after Lord Grover dies. It gets worse. Oscar is actually the second son of Elmo, and his older brother Kermit leads the Tullys and armies of the riverlands by the end of the Dance of the Dragons. Understandably, the show runners have eliminated Elmo and Kermit from the equation. It was a funny Easter egg in the book but would probably cause most show only viewers to go insane.
2. It was always strongly, if not outright, implied that both Alyn and Addam of Hull were the bastard sons of Corlys. The show confirms this with Rhaenys confronting her husband about his bastards.
3. Lord Darklyn refers to Cole as “Kingmaker”. This nickname follows Cole throughout history, as he was the one to actually put the crown on Aegon. But more importantly, it signifies that the small-folk and historians regard him as one of the key plotters/manipulators who got Aegon onto the throne and caused the ensuing war that devastated the country. It is certainly not an endearing nickname.
4. Rhaenys tells Meleys before flying to Rook’s Rest “We are off to battle again old girl.” GRRM specifically removed any lines from his book that indicated Rhaenys and Meleys had once been in a battle together before this one. This means that the show version of history is a little different and indicates that Rhaenys had experience fighting before, which would had to have taken place in the many battles fought against pirates in the Stepstones.
5. During the battle of Rook’s Rest, Aegon and Aemond were described as being on the same page. Once Rhaenys and Meleys descended upon the battlefield, Sunfyre and Vhagar ambushed them. This fight severely wounded Sunfyre and Aegon, and of course killed Meleys and Rhaenys. The show took a different route obviously, with Aemond first letting Aegon get attacked before firing on him and Rhaenys simultaneously. Aemond’s hatred and resentment for his brother have been set up since the very first episode they were in together as kids. I actually like the way the show did this, specifically because watching the 3 dragons together it is very hard to rationalize how Meleys could have harmed Sunfyre whatsoever if he was working in tandem with Vhagar. Aemond also never stood over Aegon’s body with a sword, but on my second watch, it did look like Aemond was putting his sword away, and was not about to actually stab his brother. If Aegon survives his wounds, this relationship going forward will be fun to watch.

Other Points to Notice

1. Daemon now dreams he is actually killing young Rhaenyra, as she claims it is what he has always wanted (becoming the king). More guilt for how he treated her as a child when she took away his title as heir?
2. We see Alicent drinking moon tea, the convenient abortion/plan B drink popular in Westeros. This informs us she is pregnant with Criston Cole’s child, which would be a pretty terrible scandal that the royals would have to endure, not ideal during war time. Moon tea, also known as tansy tea, was given by Alicent to the hand maiden Aegon sexually assaulted last season. It was also used before the events of Game of Thrones by Lysa Arryn, after she was impregnated by Littlefinger when they were both young.
3. In such a short time, we see Larys is immediately able to figure out that Alicent is pregnant, and that she is researching Targaryen prophecy/history, which lets him know she is also questioning the validity of Aegon’s throne.
4. Daemon dreams he is chasing Aemond through Harrenhal, only to see it is actually himself in Aemond’s clothing. Daemon here is feeling additional guilt for creating Aemond, or at least helping to influence the monster Aemond has become. We know for a fact Aemond idolized his uncle, and it can be assumed Aemond grew up trying to act like him. Plus since their names are anagrams for one another, the connection isn’t subtle. We are then formally introduced to Alys Rivers, the witch of Harrenhal. It is unclear so far if the drink she gave Daemon caused him to space out so badly in his council meeting.
5. Willem Blackwood was the young boy we saw last season kill the older Bracken that insulted him after he offered Rhaenyra his marriage proposal.
6. Jacaerys is told by Rhaenyra about “The Song of Ice and Fire”. This name is never once used in any of GRRM’s books (since its the actual name of his series) but there is a nice symmetry here between Rhaenyra telling her son, just as her father taught her at the same age. In both instances the parent told the child of the prophecy after an argument. Jace is now the only person besides Rhaenyra that knows there is a higher reason why Team Black must win. But at the end of the episode we see Aemond find the dagger that has the prophecy written on it in High Valyrian script. We were also just shown that Aemond is highly fluent in High Valyrian, so it remains to be seen if he ever uses or mentions this knowledge in the future.

Stray Observations:

1. Gotta love Daemon’s lack of patience with poor Oscar Tully. Kindly encouraging him to smother his beloved grandfather.
2. Grandmaester Orwyle very intelligently deflects Alicent’s question regarding Viserys’ wish for Aegon to become king.
3. Lord Darklyn, the man beheaded by Cole, is played by Steven Pacey. Pacey is a world renowned audio-book narrator, famous for his rendition of The First Law trilogy.
4. It appears Aemond paid better attention than Aegon in their High Valyrian classes.
5. The heart trees that Alys Rivers mentions are the same weirwood trees Bran used to use to see the future/past in Game of Thrones. Their magic is pretty indisputable at this point
6. The woman Daemon hallucinates pouring his wine, is his late second wife Laena, previous rider of Vhagar, and mother to Baela and Rhaena.
7. It’s infuriating that Gwayne Hightower makes Cole look like the world’s most brilliant tactician.
8. Is Aegon shattering the golden wine pitcher foreshadowing how his golden dragon will be shattered in the upcoming battle?
9. Meleys was known as the fastest dragon alive at the time of her death. It is unfortunate she ran into the strongest and most powerful.
10. Sunfyre was considered the single most beautiful dragon to ever live in Westeros. Aegon basically did the Westeros equivalent of taking a lambo for a joyride while wasted.
11. Pretty wild that the effects in this battle were so good, we could actually see the life leave the eyes of Meleys. I remember the days when Dany had to keep her 3 dragons in a basket just to save on CGI money.
12. The armor holding the charred skeleton together was incredible. I don’t care if it is realistic or not.

RIP: Rhaenys Targaryen “The Queen Who Never Was” and Meleys. Also maybe King Aegon II and Sunfyre, the show left it pretty ambiguous, and I can’t rely on the book version of events anymore.