In this episode of the Westerosi Primer, we delve into "The Burning Mill" episode of "House of the Dragon." The podcast begins with a poll update on season 2's theme. The current result is focusing on House Targaryen. Liz encourages listeners to participate in the poll and subscribe to the newsletter. She then transitions into discussing the latest episode.
She expresses some disappointment over the absence of the House Bracken vs. House Blackwood battle on screen.
Liz provides more info about Alysanne Blackwood after first mentioning her in Episode 9 of the podcast. She highlights Rhaena's emotional struggle with feelings of inadequacy compared to her dragon-riding twin sister. The podcast also praises the execution of the chase scene featuring Baela and Criston Cole.
Despite personal dislike of the character, Liz acknowledges Larys' strategic advice to Aegon within the Green faction. New characters like Ulf, Hugh, Alyn, and Addam are introduced in this week's episode of House of the Dragon. This is hinting at their future significance. The episode's original, non-canonical scene between Rhaenyra and Alicent is appreciated for its emotional depth. This scene poignantly depicts their strained relationship amidst escalating family and political conflict.
The host touches on Mysaria's continued presence and the intriguing detail of Seasmoke's continued presence. Liz praises the depiction of Corlys and Rhaenys as a strong, supportive couple amidst the chaos. She underscores Rhaenys' value as a cooler-headed advisor to Rhaenyra, especially during these turbulent times.
Liz delves into Daemon's regret over the tragic death of Prince Jaehaerys, paralleling Aemond's guilt over Lucerys. She also discusses the strategic importance of Harrenhal.
The podcast ends on a somber note, reflecting on the tragic disintegration of the Targaryen family. Liz encourages listeners to reach out on social media, email, or leave reviews. She reminds them to check out thewesteroseeprimer.com for more content and announcements.
00:01 - Liz (Host)
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Westerosi Primer. For full show notes and more about all things Westeros, head to thewesterosiprimercom. Before I start playing the intro music, check out this friend of the show, the Hello. Fellow acolytes of all things Westeros, welcome to another episode of the Westerosi Primer. My name is Liz, so before I get into the discussion of this week's episode of House of the Dragon, I figured I would do a quick update to something I brought up last week, which was I have a poll running regarding what should I be talking about for season two of this podcast. So, as I am doing this recording, there has thus far been just one response, and the one and only response that I have gotten so far on this poll the anonymous person who, hopefully, is listening to this episode. You voted for choice number five, which is for me to do a deep dive discussion about House Targaryen, regardless of any and all possible spoilers for House of the Dragon and any other related TV shows that Max might be developing in the future. If any of you listeners also agree with this person or maybe I should be talking about something different then you need to participate in the poll. The link to the poll is on thewesterosiprimercom. I put a link in the menu section of the website so you can clearly see it says poll. So please participate in this poll. You just have a few more weeks to cast your vote because if you guys do not want me to spoil stuff about anything, house Targaryen, you are going to want to pick a different choice in this poll. To let me know, and as a reminder in case you don't remember from the previous episode, the five options are number one you would like me to do character essays about various Game of Thrones characters and or their houses.
If you were to select that option, there's a second question that you would have to also answer as well. The second choice is for me to do a compare and contrast between the Game of Thrones TV show and the novels. The third choice is me discussing some of the various fan theories that the book readers have been discussing for the past few years that some of you TV show watchers may not be aware of. Fourth choice is do a discussion of the different bits of world history and culture that George RR Martin used in the saga. And, of course, the fifth choice is me doing a deep dive discussion of House Targaryen once again. Please, participate in this poll. You have a few more weeks to let me know. As another reminder, if you are visiting the website, please feel free to subscribe to the newsletter, where not only will I make announcements related to the podcast, I will also be writing additional essays and some interesting behind the scenes stories about the making of this podcast. So if you are interested in news, behind the scenes stuff and any bonus content that may not be featured in this podcast then please feel free to subscribe to the newsletter. If I hit 49 subscribers on the newsletter, I will be making an announcement about something else related to this show that I would like to work on, but I'm going to need a bigger audience of listeners interacting more with me to make this happen.
So with that bit of housekeeping taken care of, let me get started on this week's episode, which was named the Burning Mill. So one thing I was actually surprised that there was actually not that much fighting in this episode, although technically there was fighting, but not as much fighting as I had anticipated there would be. But I suppose they needed to do more setup before the real craziness begins. So in the very beginning of the episode we get some House Bracken versus House Blackwood shenanigans. Now if you are new to this podcast, you may not be aware, but episode nine of the podcast is specifically an episode where I did a brief explanation of the Riverlands and I also included a discussion of House Blackwood and House Bracken. If you did not listen to that episode, I really suggest you take a listen and, if necessary, you may feel free to re-watch this week's episode of House of the Dragon again to help you get a better context and understanding of what is the deal with these two families.
I give them props for including that bit of the lore into the show, just like I appreciate them doing the same thing back in season one when we had that little incident of a bracken and a blackwood suitor that met with Rhaenyra during her husband-hunting tour. I am slightly disappointed that the actual battle that was referred to in the literal title of this episode was not actually shown on screen. We only saw the aftermath of that particular battle. I am slightly disappointed because, again in episode nine of this podcast, I did make a slight reference to this particular battle, but I didn't want to explain too much in that episode because I was concerned that it would be too much of a spoiler. I'm just going to explain it right here. So in episode nine I mentioned in the section about the Blackwoods that there were a few notable members of that family that get talked about in the various bits of lore whether you're talking about the novels or in the bonus material that George R R Martin wrote.
And one particular figure who I mentioned in episode nine is a lady named Alysanne Blackwood. She did participate in the Battle of the Burning Mill. How she participated in this particular battle was that her brother was Lord Samwell Blackwood and he was actually killed in a one-on-one duel during the battle with a member of House, bracken, and unfortunately he dies in that one-on-one battle. But of course the Bracken knight does not get to enjoy his victory for very long because Alysanne shows that she is a badass by shooting him with a weirwood arrow. And the other interesting fact, which at this point I don't even know if this could be a spoiler, but she does later marry Cregan Stark. I can't even predict whether or not that's a spoiler, but whatever, because they didn't even mention her or include her in the show. So, who knows? Slightly disappointed that we didn't get to see the battle, because that would have been pretty cool to watch. But again, I do understand that they would probably want to save some of their budget for the bigger battles that are going to be so epic.
I'll just say that, and then, of course, the next thing I'll talk about is Harrenhal. So Harrenhal has been a topic of discussion since the very first episode of this season, and we get two sides of it. The first side is we find out where Daemon went off to after he and Rhaenyra had their fight, and where he went off to was to fly over to Harrenhal and secure it and make sure that the Greens don't get their hands on it, because, as he rightly points out in the episode, it is a very huge castle and it could, hypothetically speaking, be a good place to garrison a large army. I did mention this to some extent in episode 9 of this podcast, but when I was talking about the Riverlands, I did mention that, historically speaking, the Riverlands is a constantly fought over piece of territory throughout the history of Westeros in various wars. We saw this in Game of Thrones and we are going to see it again in House of the Dragon.
So Daemon has that really interesting scene where he has a very bad dream. He sees a younger version of Rhaenyra sewing poor dead Prince Jaehaerys' head back on. So I gotta say shout out to Milly Alcock for reappearing in a cameo. But aside from that, I just think it's really interesting that we also got to see a little bit of Daemon's own regret of what happened to that poor kid. It's an interesting parallel which I brought up in last week's episode, to Aemond admitting that he actually felt guilty about what happened with Lucerys. Here we see Daemon demonstrating that he does feel some remorse over what happened to Jaehaerys. Because let's be honest here, regardless of how you feel about Aegon being the king, it just is very cruel that an innocent child got killed this way for a pointy chair. That's one side of the whole Harrenhal thing. But of course the other side of the Harrenhal issue is Criston Cole. He's very much aware, just as Daemon does, that Harrenhal is a really important castle to gain control of. I'm sure a lot of people are going to be eager to see if and when there will be another fight between the two of them, because they have had a thing since season one. So that will be interesting to see if we get a round two of them fighting.
And, on a side note, we do see Mysaria again in this episode, even though technically she was supposed to have left. But it's implied that she did go back to the castle to try to warn them about the very tragic twin situation that we saw happening. It is very sad that it had to happen this way, but we have to blame Kristen Cole for that one, as if we didn't have enough things to blame him for. But yeah, Mysaria appears to be sticking around for a bit longer. I am being slightly coy because I do know what's the deal with Mysaria, but I would genuinely be curious how many of you guys like Mysaria still sticking around and how many of you are suspicious of her sticking around when she has the opportunity to leave and go off on her merry way. I am genuinely very curious to see what you guys feel about her. Another interesting little thing that happened is we see Seasmoke flying about, which is very interesting indeed. And again, yes, I know exactly why Seasmoke is flying around still, but on a slight side tangent, I just think it's very strange how they handled Laenor in the show.
I didn't talk about it on this podcast. I actually talked about it on another podcast. I had done a podcast before I started the Westerosi Primer and long story short. I did an episode where I talked about my general thoughts of season one of House of the Dragon Think of an episode like this one but I basically covered the entire first season. I put the link in the show notes for the first episode, a Son for a Son. Again, feel free to go to thewesterosiprimer.com so you can find the links to that previous episode. But I just thought it was very strange how they handled Laenor. It's very different from the books, I can tell you that much. That's a little detail that they are intentionally bringing to your attention for a reason, but we will find out in a later episode, without a doubt.
So the next thing to talk about is Corlys and Rhaenys Honestly couple goals at this point in time because out of all the different couples that we've seen in season one and now in season two, these two are the most constant of the couples. You definitely see that there is a partnership and a real bond between the two of them. It's quite nice that we actually got a scene of just the two of them in this episode, especially when it's very clear to all parties involved. There is a war that's about to start at any time. These two have seen quite a lot over the years, I would have to say.
Out of all the involved parties, these two, Daemon and, I guess, otto Hightower they are the oldest amongst the participants in the Dance of the Dragons. They've seen how things were before and they have this interesting perspective on the whole thing, which is why Rhaenys is a very important advisor for Rhaenyra and, beyond being a mother-type advisor figure for her, Rhaenys does have a cooler head amongst the various participants, so that's why her advice is undoubtedly very valuable and would no doubt be useful for a long time for Rhaenyra. Then the next thing I'm going to talk about is that Rhaenyra is sending her three youngest boys from Dragonstone, because it's now gotten to the point where, at any given time, somebody could just show up to your home and kill you. Your own home is not safe and they're being sent off to the Vale and from there to Pentos, presumably to be as far away from all of this as possible and in order to keep them safe, because, should anything happen to Rhaenyra and Jacerys, those three boys would be the heirs of the Black Faction and, as was pointed out in the behind-the-scenes content that the dragon eggs that were shown are literal Easter eggs because they are Daenerys's eggs. However, there is no actual proof in the lore that the three eggs are actually Daenerys's. In fact, it's highly suspected and discussed amongst book readers that Daenerys's eggs came from a different source altogether.
But the TV show is the TV show. Take it what you will. I do feel a little bad for Rhaena because she undoubtedly feels inadequate at this point. She is the only one who doesn't have a dragon, so I genuinely do feel sorry for her, especially because her twin sister got a dragon. And yeah, we did get to see that really awesome epic scene where Bela was doing her job that Rhaenyra assigned to her and she definitely saw Kristen Cole heading towards Harrenhal and that was actually pretty well done. I have to say that was a very good chase scene. I have to say that was a very good chase scene and had it been a different character, it could have turned into a serious fight between said Dragon Rider and Criston Cole, with the Dragon Rider most likely winning, because none of them are carrying weapons. That would be a real threat to a dragon. None of them are riding around with scorpions with them. But that was a well done scene. I will give them props for that.
And then we get a brief scene of Larys, who, I have to say, is another character that is on my personal hate list. I just don't like this particular character. However, I will give him credit for one thing he is actually a pretty good advisor for Aegon at this point because Larys is part of the Green faction. He is staking his claim on the Green faction because they gave him his opportunity to one-up on his father and his brother and undoubtedly he will also provide a lot of useful guidance for Aegon. How much of it he's actually going to listen is a whole other issue, but it is what it is.
And for a third episode in a row, we are meeting a brand new character who does not seem to be important. And yet you also have to keep in mind that these episodes are 60 minutes long, more or less. You have to wonder why would this show bother introducing and giving lines to characters who don't outwardly appear to be important? And the answer to that rhetorical question is that, yes, there is a reason that they are including characters like Ulf, Hugh, Alyn and Addam. For those of you not familiar with the lore, you can start making your guesses as to why they are being introduced in the show. And for those of you who are familiar with the lore, it's going to get crazy and I am looking forward to it as well as dreading it. And to end this episode, we have a meeting between Rhaenyra and Alicent. So for those of you who are not familiar with the lore, I can confirm to you that this scene never happened.
This is an original scene specifically written for this TV show, because in no way, shape or form would Rhaenyra do something so ridiculously risky like sneak into King's Landing like this, especially with tensions extremely high and with her being target number one for anybody in the Green Faction. Yet at the same time as somebody watching the TV show, I have to admit that I do like the scene. I think it brings back, as both a storytelling and, I guess, a visual cue, these two characters back when they were younger, back to the very first episode of House of the Dragon, when they were two friends. We did get a couple other moments like this in other episodes, but the way this conversation is framed, it's pretty clear that this is probably the last conversation between the two of them, just as Alicent and Rhaenyra, not as the Queen Dowager and the heir to the Iron Throne. It's interesting that they wrote this scene the way they did.
It's a real reminder that, beyond the politics, beyond inheritance rules, beyond power over Westeros, this is a story about a family disintegrating. This is a story about it's about the break of a friendship. It's about a lot of very unresolved issues that just escalated to a crazy point where now you have people dying left and right. Potentially and again, I talked about this when I did my commentary on the first season but it's very sad to me that this is a thing at all. You don't really get this when you're reading Fire and Blood, but I will give the show a lot of credit that the way they portray the characters' relationships with each other.
The show really reminds you that, beyond the politics and everything, these people are part of a family and if you were to think about your own family, you have your arguments, you have your fights, you have relatives you don't get along with, you have relatives that may be your favorite relatives I really doubt that any of you would ever imagine a point in your life there would ever be a circumstance where people in your family are going to die because of the fact you and certain relatives connected to you best, I guess you could say are in conflict with other people in your own family. This is exactly what we've been watching for these 14 episodes now, and it's very clear that it's just going to get worse. So you have to remind yourself and hopefully, if the writing on the show is actually any good, especially in the upcoming episodes, we are also going to continue to be reminded of this fact that this is a story of a family in conflict with itself, and the realm will burn for it. Sorry to end this episode on a downer, but it just had to be said. It is my genuine opinion and observation of all of this.
If you enjoyed this episode, feel free to reach out on social media, send an email. Feel free to reach out on social media, send an email or leave reviews where you can. Again, links for all of those things are on thewesterosiprimer.com, the name of this podcast. Dot com. Tune in next time as we talk about the next episode of House of the Dragon. So, valar Morghulis, what did you think of this episode? Check out thewesterosiprimer.com and let me know what you think of this episode. If you have a friend or two that might like the show, make sure to share.