House of the Dragon’s next funeral is for Rhaenyra and Alicent’s friendship

So the Brackens hate the Blackwoods, and the Blackwoods hate the Brackens. It has been that way for as long as anyone can remember. The beginning, we are told, is lost in time. Does it matter that the Brackens are sworn to Aegon and the Blackwoods to Rhaenyra? Probably not. Violence is cyclical, and the young men from both families who fight at the beginning of the week House of the Dragon were prepared for conflict long before they were born. They are doomed to a grim death, as are the countless compatriots who will join them, as the inertia of this particular cycle runs its course.

This week’s opening vignette House of the Dragon underlines how the characters are no longer the masters of their own fate. War is easy to slip into and hard to avoid because it needs no justification to perpetuate itself. However, that doesn’t mean they are willing to accept it. Continuing last week’s metaphor of the stages of grief, this week’s episode focuses on negotiation – culminating in a final conversation between Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent (Olivia Cooke) in which the two attempt to do just that. With a new status quo that has placed an ocean between them, the relationship is that House of the Dragon built upon gets precious little screen time, even though it still drives their individual beliefs. Once upon a time there was a friendship between these young women that had the potential to break the cycles that men had set in motion; now that potential is in jeopardy. Is there a way out?

As the twins Arryk and Erryk are buried, Rhaenys reminds Rhaenyra that she is not afraid to get lost in this cycle. She asks what is causing the current conflict Westeros finds itself in. Was it the stolen throne? Or Lucerys’ death? Or Aemond’s lost eye? When the fight starts, will it still matter? “When the desire to kill and burn takes over,” says Rhaenys, “all reason is forgotten.”

Or, as Ser Simon Strong, the castellan of Harrenhal, tells Daemon when he arrives to claim the very damp, hilariously uncontested stronghold: ‘Sin begets sin.

Rhaenyra would be different. Her crown was taken from her because she would have been different, because she would have broken the chain of patriarchal rule and threatened the power structure of Westeros. Thus, she makes a last, desperate attempt to break the cycle and turn away from the war that the men of this world crave, the same kind of war they have been waging for generations. She sneaks into King’s Landing to meet Alicent during her prayers.

It’s a patently absurd mission, one that the viewer—who has just witnessed the dysfunction of Rhaenyra’s council, the bloodlust of Aegon’s response, and Ser Simon Strong’s frank collapse of the conflict that has spread forever across the Riverlands—rightly would be skeptical. by. But maybe a dream deserves a funeral, and Rhaenyra needs one last chance to grieve, however reckless it may be.

Photo: Theo Whiteman/HBO

“We knew even (as children) that men who are trained for battle want to fight,” she tells Alicent, believing that they can still be different, that they can find peace. However, Alicent still believes she is right, that Viserys changed his mind about his heir on his deathbed, and that it is Rhaenyra’s actions that plunge them into war. The conversation descends into guilt and distraction until the core misunderstanding that drove the couple apart is finally cleared up: Alicent realizes that King Viserys’ last words were about Aegon the Conqueror, not his grandson Aegon.

Olivia Cooke plays the terrible moment of realization impeccably, as shock and understanding work their way across her face before turning into grim determination. They are already addicted to pot; nothing can be done about it. They too will be caught in the waves of war, but unlike many of the men we saw before, they will know exactly why.

The Brackens hate the Blackwoods. The Blackwoods hate the Brackens.