![]() ![]() It remembers names”), and is unmoved by his wife’s pondering of when enough will be enough (“To what end, Corlys? Wealth? Power? Pride?”). He brushes off Laenor’s homosexuality (“He will outgrow it”), dismisses Rhaenys’s insistence that time has cooled her dejection over losing the Iron Throne (“I myself have put the business behind me, Corlys”), declines her suggestion they pass Driftmark to Laena’s daughters instead of Laenor’s very much not biological sons (“History does not remember blood. One of their children was already denied a closer link to the crown, and because House of the Dragon is all about storytelling via “The patriarchy is bad, do you get it?”, Rhaenys’s concerns about whether this marriage will be good for Laenor are ignored by Corlys as the head of their house. The Velaryons, though, only see the logic of joining their house with the Targaryens through marriage - not the potential impact it could have on their daughter - and so when Viserys comes back to them years later, figurative crown in hand, to ask that their son Laenor marry Rhaenyra and save her from potential scandal, there’s no real chance the Velaryons will turn down his proposal. ![]() When Corlys suggests in “ The Rogue Prince” that Viserys marry his daughter Laena to “unite the two great surviving Valyrian houses,” House of the Dragon delivers welcome dark humor in revealing that Laena is 12 years old, a child next to the obviously uncomfortable Viserys. Steve Toussaint plays Corlys with equal amounts swagger and righteousness and Eve Best gives Rhaenys a sly bemusement (especially when she’s rolling her eyes at Princess Rhaenyra’s impetuousness), and if Corlys and Rhaenys saw me from across a Westerosi pub, well, you know, yada, yada, yada.īut the Velaryons have long been driven by resentment over the Great Council refusing Rhaenys’s claim to throne, and that bitterness has infected both their ambition and their parenting. True, House of the Dragon begins with dragonrider Princess Rhaenys, eldest grandchild of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen and a Velaryon by marriage to Lord Corlys, being passed over for rule because of her gender, with the Iron Throne going to her younger cousin, Prince Viserys, and Rhaenys becoming the “Queen Who Never Was.” Admittedly, a bummer! But House Velaryon has a gigantic naval fleet, commands dragons, and wields power through a seat on the King’s Small Council thanks to Corlys’s position as Master of Ships. Martin’s lore (remember House Reyne of Castamere?), the Velaryons didn’t start out as has-beens. More money, more incest-caused problems!ĭespite the long line of disappeared or collapsed houses in George R. And with the latest episode, “Driftmark,” it’s clear no one in this kingdom is having less fun right now than the Velaryons, a house that is rich, powerful, and spends the entirety of the episode named for their ancestral seat absolutely miserable. House of the Dragon has cycled through these themes briskly thanks to those time jumps: King Viserys warns Rhaenyra of a war and winter to come in the premiere Ser Criston Cole murders Ser Joffrey Lonmouth at Rhaenyra and Laenor’s wedding. There are a few general truisms in the Song of Ice and Fire universe: Winter is coming, weddings are not a fun time, and to be anyone but the family in charge is a truly fruitless gig. ![]() Spoilers follow for House of the Dragon episode seven, “Driftmark.” ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |