Episode 5 was basically like our Big Game of Thrones wedding episode. Now obviously this is House of the Dragon but it’s the Game of Thrones universe and you cannot have a wedding in The Game of Thrones Universe without something bad going on. We will go through the best moments of Episode 5.
Contents
Warning: Spoilers Ahead !
Daemon Visits His Wife
Opening scene is sort of like a small film in itself that takes place at Runestone in the Vale, on the coast when we meet Ria Royce for the first time. It’s classic Game of Thrones thing, introduce a big character that you’ve been talking about for a long time and then just swiftly kill them right off the show.
She’s been married to Daemon for a while. He was forced to marry her and he wasn’t really happy about it and it also sounds like she wasn’t very happy about it either because she spends most of their conversation just making fun of him. From her appearance one can say she was actually a tough woman, no nonsense, who wasn’t as Daemon described her.
In the scene Lady Rhea Roys makes fun of him to which Daemon responds with his silence and his killer look. The moment she realises the threat, she tries to react to it but Daemon dismounts her from the horse. She lies on the ground suffering in the pain, Daemon decides to leave from there and then it happens. Till that moment no one can say that he had come here to kill her. But Lady Rhea insults him by saying “I knew you couldn’t finish, Craven!” and Deamon finishes her off.
In this this entire scene Daemon does not say a single word but his facial expressions talk everything about his character. We never know whether Daemon went there to kill his wife or not. And that’s what Matt(Daemon) plays so interestingly. You never know what’s going on in Daemon’s head. Yet, you believe him when he makes split-second decisions and goes for something. It looks like he just takes advantage of an opportunity. He’s about to walk away at the end, and then she throws the final insult his way, and then he finishes it off.
King Viserys Visit to House Velaryon
Next, we see Viserys and Rhaenyra heading to High Tide on Driftmark to propose the marriage of Rhaenyra to Corlys Velaryon’s son Laenor. They introduced brand new Velaryon theme music for their house which they play a couple times in the episode when Rhaenys and Laenor are riding their dragons back to the red keep and later again when they enter the throne room for the Wedding Banquet.
We meet Laenor Velaryon with Joffrey Lonmouth in the yard and they give you a bigger introduction to Joffrey Lonmouth before and then they promptly kill him off during The Wedding Banquet or Criston Cole kills him off. They’ve been lovers for a long time and Corlys Velaryon thinks that it’s something that he’s going to get over.
While his mother Rhaenys is more worried about him being thrown to the Lion’s Den with all the drama that’s happening over the battle of the succession. She argues that our sun is going to be in danger. You’re putting him in the firing line. Here Corlys Velaryon says his whole aim here is to put a Velaryon on the iron throne and he’s doing that because he wants Justice.
He’s talking about Justice for his house because they come from ancient Valyria, they are very old and very powerful house. They came to Westeros before the Targaryens did but because their family weren’t dragonlords in ancient Valyria they had to take to the sea to earn their living. Even though they obviously became one of the wealthiest families in Westeros. Here Corlys Velaryon wants recognition for all of his family’s great Deeds.
We also notice that when Corlys Velaryon is talking about what happened to Daemon and Rhea Royce there’s this hint of doubt in his voice like he also kind of thinks that Daemon probably killed her too. That will be interesting because it seems like Laena Velaryon is much older. Obviously very headstrong Laena is pursuing a marriage with Daemon it seems like.
Details About High Tide Castle
They give us a really quick tour of the High Tide Castle we’ll probably see more of it later in the timeline. The reason they called the throne room in High Tide “The Hall of Nine” is because it’s named for the 9 Voyages of Corlys Velaryon, The Sea Snake. the other big reveal here is that Rhaenyra and Laenor coming to a gentlemen’s agreement like we will both let each other do whatever we feel like doing inside this marriage. It’s just a political marriage.
The Wedding Hall, House of The Dragon
The Wedding Banquet happens in the Iron throne room. All the great houses enter the room. Where they have that funny moment with the Lannisters like Jason Lannister walks up and kind of gets dissed by Rhaenyra, like remember I turned you down earlier and then he also makes fun of her in front of Viserys.
Then comes Daemon Targaryen entering the throne room as well kind of shocking to everyone. He is like I bet you didn’t think you’d see me here and we love how loaded this whole wedding scene is.
What’s happens next is the Viserys has all these Grand plans for the future of the realm that he’s set forth. But there’s all this really shady stuff going on underneath the table. So to speak like everybody’s breaking the rules in really crazy ways doing really shady stuff.
Lady Alicent’s Entry Iron Throne Room
Earlier we get the scene with Larys Strong coming up with Alicent, spilling all that tea. Basically telling her that Rhaenyra was given Moon Tea not knowing whether or not she took it but that she was given the moon tea. Later Alicent gets Criston Cole to confess to the truth of what happened and that’s when she starts to get pissed at Rhaenyra. When realized that The King and Princess Rhaenyra lied to her. She decides to take stand for herself.
Interrupting King’s speech about his Grand plans, Alicent walks into the throne room for the Wedding Banquet wearing the green dresser trademark of House Hightower. It is basically Alicent throwing the gauntlet at Rhaenyra like she has lit the warfires of house Hightower. That’s basically like saying “Screw all of you. I know the truth, and I know where I stand.” And that’s the beginning of the end for their relationship.
The Wedding Brawl
Laena Velaryon is obviously much older version of the character now. We don’t know if she’s already started riding her Dragon. We believe she has, so hopefully there’ll be a scene in episode 6 where we’ll see that. But because of the big time jump she might be played by an older version of the actress.
Here in episode 5 they just want to show you that she’s a little more headstrong. She actually pursues Daemon. She probably knows about all the stuff he’s been getting into. She understands, she’s not completely naive in all this. I think she’s supposed to be kind of rebellious but not quite as bad as Rhaenyra.
They also have the whole scene with Daemon talking to Rhaenyra trying to talk her out of getting married. Telling like he’s gonna bore you to death don’t do this because he still wants to marry her because he wants the iron throne and right now, he feels like that’s the best way to do it. That’s also the reason why he killed his wife because he wants to get her out of the way so he can remarry and the King will allow it. He wants to marry Rhaenyra because she’s the current Heir.
Then they show Joffrey Lonmouth and Criston Cole talking. Joffrey figures out that he’s the guy that Rhaenyra is with. And he tries to make the deal with him like let’s protect their secrets because it’ll be better for all of us. That’s what causes Criston Cole to snap and that’s why he starts the fight and the brawl breaks out. Even though we don’t see the opening brawl you only see the actual fight once it’s been going on.
At the end of the brawl Criston Cole winds up beating Joffrey Lonmouth to a bloody pulp. He’s dead and you have Laenor just crying over his Lover’s dead body and after also trying to bite back the tears while they rush their wedding ceremony like let’s just do this right now and get it out of the way. Viserys collapses immediately after they finish the wedding ceremony. Like the clock is ticking, King is going to die any moment now.
At the end they showed Criston Cole in the godswood trying to kill himself until Alicent saves him. From here on we might see him being loyal to Alicent. Though she looks very prim and proper, she follows the rules but I think they might end up being in relationship or anything like that.
These are the best moments from Episode 5 of House of the Dragon. It will be interesting to see what Episode 6 will bring. There is possibility that all the younger characters will be replaced by their older characters because of time jump. Let’s wait until next Episode appears on HBO!