Dumb and Dragoner

One thing is clear about House Targaryen: they are no geniuses. Take away the dragons and you have a typical dysfunctional family, just prone to incest and murder.

After two years keeping fans waiting, the dragons (and their egomaniacal owners) are back for another season of House of the Dragon in which the Targaryen kings (and queens) make bad decisions leading to the family’s implosion. The biggest surprise of the start of the sophomore season is a new opening credits sequence. Beyond that, the premiere’s  a master class of the Targaryens screwing up in the worst way.

Let’s recap the brutal episode “A Son for a Son.” The opening scene took us back to Winterfell, introducing the character of Lord Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor), who is heading to the Wall, because, you know “Winter is coming.” There, he meets Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett), who is looking for allies for his mother Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy). Cregan can only offer him a few thousand old soldiers because, we must remember again, “winter is coming” and they need every man on the Wall. Now, pay close attention to Stark, as he will be (or should be, if events unfold as in the source material book Fire and Blood) the character who will make the difference between which Targaryens (Team Green or Team Black) get the Iron Throne.

Rhaenyra, meanwhile, searches for the remains of her son, Lucerys, who died last season thanks to one of these stupid things the Targaryens do. In this case, Aemond’s huge dragon, Vhagar, tore Lucerys and his little dragon apart. Rhaenyra finds her son’s washed-up remains and returns to Dragonstone, demanding Aemond’s head. Her husband (and uncle) Daemon embarks to King’s Landing on that mission.

At King’s Landing, Aegon (firstborn of the late King Viserys with Alicent Hightower) is king. They call him “the Magnanimous,” even though he acts like a frat boy spouting idiotic jokes with his friends. His mother has just had sex “for the last time” with Ser Criston Cole, a promise they both break at the end of the episode. The Green Targaryen side is like a madhouse of the rich and powerful; they do whatever they want, even if it makes the least sense and destroys the entire family. The episode spotlights Jaehaerys, the young son of King Aegon with his wife-sister Helaena. Suddenly, Aegon is shown as a good father and even Aemond shows affection for the little kid. That’s for a reason. A bad one.

Next comes the disaster that will set not only the season but the series on fire, but that serves as another example of the strange decisions of this family. Daemon is supposed to be in charge of killing Aemond, right? He arrives at King’s Landing and has contact with a Hightower-hating guard who knows how to get access to Red Keep.

It so happens that the palace is infested with rats and has in its employment several rat catchers. One of them knows the castle interior and the tunnels that lead almost everywhere. Will this guy lead Daemon to Aemond? No. Daemon has the genius idea to entrust such a task (killing the most dangerous man in Westeros) to a guard and a rat catcher. If Daemon thought this would work, then he’s stupider than I thought. It obviously won’t work, but it makes good on the episode title, “A Son for a Son.” Instead of Aemond, they kill the king’s son accelerating the premise of this season: war.

Returning to the Wall and having someone honorable like young Lord Cregan Stark open the episode serves as the perfect balance for what happens next. The Targaryens, devoured by ego and greed, have no salvation.

But to see how this will happen will make for a great Roman circus.