Two wieners alongside yet another wiener. (Spoilers)

Time for more politics and intrigue and wieners. House of the Dragon has been an interesting show for me so far, much like She-Hulk it’s a show that I haven’t found myself eagerly awaiting the next episode, but interested enough to keep an eye on it week after week. After all the Tubi movies and Netflix crap that I occasionally watch for this website, it’s nice to have a show to look forward to for no reason other than that it doesn’t completely suck.

Episode 2 of House of the Dragon cuts forward in time by six months; Rhaenyra Targaryen continues to mourn the loss of her mother, Viserys is under increasing pressure from the small council to take on a new wife, and in the intervening months Daemon Targaryen has taken Dragonstone with the help of the former city watch and is currently being an asshole because he is Matt Smith. The episode sets up a new villain in the form of Prince-Admiral Craghas Drahar (Daniel Scott-Smith) aka The Crab Feeder, named such for his mentorship to Elton John. I’m just kidding, he feeds people to crabs.

The Crab Feeder is proving to be a problem for the ships of Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), attacking Westeros traders and killing them with impunity. Not wanting to risk a war with the free nations, as they sponsor The Crab Feeder’s fleet, Viserys proves himself to be impotent by declining Lord Velaryon’s request to send his navy in to kick The Crab Feeder’s ass and probably chop his dick off for good measure before feeding him to his own crabs. Why do I get the feeling Drahar will eventually face the same ironic fate that Ramsay did in Game of Thrones? Just a thought.

Meanwhile Rhaenyra has been tasked with choosing a new guard, and she picks Ser Criston (Fabien Frankel) of course because he’s the only one with real battle experience and also he’s handsome and she’d like to try out his five dollar foot long. Lady Alicent (Emily Carey) has been spending the last six months attempting to get a taste of Viserys’ cold cut combo with oil and vinegar and earns the right at the end of the episode as Viserys announces he is going to take Alicent as his new bride. This angers Corlys who was angling for Viserys to wed his own daughter Laena (Nova Foueillis-Mosé) and fill her with his meatball sub as well as chips and a drink for only $1.99 extra. Viserys isn’t too keen on the idea because Laena is twelve.

Subway; eat fresh.

I do find the imagery in the show to be intriguing. One of the running concepts is that Viserys is unfit to rule Westeros and is being rejected by the very iron throne itself. Viserys is constantly injuring himself sitting on the throne, creating rather disgusting wounds on his body that refuse to heal and are clearly slowly killing him. Remember when Game of Thrones had subtle imagery? Isn’t that great that they got people who can set up a scene? No Starbucks drinks!

Meanwhile Matt Smith has become one of my favorite characters, I’m even overlooking his stupid hairpiece. Daemon is clearly a complicated character with some nuance, acting out against his king and brother while simultaneously he still holds love for his family. He’s obviously going to be the antagonist, but at this point at least I think we can bet he’s not the type to have his family killed. At least not yet. I’m sure episode 3 or 4 will see Daemon killing off the Crab Feeder and cementing his alliance with Corlys, so that will make up for Episode 2’s relative lack of violence. Once again I know nothing about the book. Reading is for nerds, as are tv show review sites.

One recommendation I can make for the show is to not look up the wiki if you want to escape spoilers. Now I have the challenge of looking up which actor plays who, to post them here. Unfortunately several characters are played by more than one actor and it kinda spoils a few things about where the plot is eventually going to go and more importantly who is going to survive or possibly die in the meantime. Yeah I know, it’s Game of Thrones, you have to expect that almost anyone is up for grabs. Regardless, it’s nice to not have it shoved in my ass. There’s also character traits for events that haven’t happened yet like relationships. If you want to avoid spoilers, don’t look at the wiki.

Otherwise I’ll be waiting for Sunday.

Advertisement