House of the Dragon 2x04 Inside 'A Dance of Dragons' (2024) HBO Game of Thrones Prequel
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00:00♪♪
00:09Cole is now a real problem
00:11that's going to have to be dealt with in the Crownlands.
00:13He's taken down Duskendale and Rosby and Darklyn
00:16and should be marching on Harrenhal
00:18with the force that he's assembled.
00:19Cole's victories have only emboldened him.
00:21He marches on Rook's Rest.
00:23Rook's Rest, it's a tiny coastal keep right across the bay.
00:26Rhaenyra seizes upon that.
00:28There are those who have mistaken my caution for weakness.
00:32Let that be their undoing.
00:34And plays right into Cole's hand.
00:35♪♪
00:43George always said about Daemon,
00:45he's heroic and villainous in equal parts,
00:47and that's what makes him fascinating as a character.
00:49Part of Daemon's story to Harrenhal this season
00:51is having to face and atone for the sins of his past.
00:56Laena.
01:01Aemond, who he probably had a hand a bit in his creation.
01:08And very much young Rhaenyra.
01:11-♪♪
01:13Speak plainly.
01:15It's a journey of discovery and unraveling,
01:17and it's all beginning to make him become really unstuck.
01:21Daemon is experiencing one of his core injuries.
01:24This is the room that has caused him so much pain.
01:26It's the seat that he's coveted for so long and was denied.
01:30And then the little girl who stole it from him
01:33before he knows it.
01:34♪♪
01:37He exacts vengeance.
01:39It's the blood of the dragon.
01:40They're connected in such a deep way.
01:43And the idea that he could harm her is, you know, really alien.
01:48He's still very closed to these intrusive visions,
01:52but they start to break down the very carefully constructed
01:55walls that he's put up around himself.
01:58-♪♪
02:00Touched late to be stalking about a strange castle.
02:03Alice Rivers is written about quite a bit in the book.
02:06She's described as a kind of woods witch
02:08that lives at Harrenhal,
02:09has possibly been there for hundreds of years.
02:11You don't really know immediately
02:13whether she is what she says she is.
02:17You are a strange kind of woman.
02:19I'm no woman at all.
02:20I'm a barn owl, cursed to live in human form.
02:24She's not afraid of him, and I think that he recognizes that,
02:27and that's unusual for him.
02:29You experienced anything of note?
02:31She instills a sort of curiosity in Damon.
02:36What is she? Why is she here?
02:37Is she influencing me?
02:39Am I beholden to her?
02:41She understands things about him,
02:43whether because she's just a good greeter of people
02:45or there's something else going on.
02:47And she penetrates him in a way
02:49that I think fascinates him,
02:50but also makes him very uncomfortable.
02:52I think it's really up for debate
02:53whether Alice is shaping Damon's journey
02:56in terms of his kind of spiritual awakening
02:59or if he's doing that himself.
03:06Sir Criston is marching on Rook's Rest.
03:11The two of you have been plotting
03:14without my authority.
03:17I love scenes that involve Valyrian.
03:19It's a real language for us.
03:21The fact that people who speak it at different levels
03:23becomes part of their character.
03:25Aemond in this scene is still furious
03:27at his humiliation at the brothel.
03:30Aemond and Aegon both, of course,
03:32learned High Valyrian as children.
03:34It's just that Aemond paid a little more attention to it.
03:41That scene is a public execution, in a way.
03:44Only him and Aegon can understand.
03:46It's a public shaming.
03:52He's aware that everyone else is feeling
03:54certain resentment towards him,
03:56but then when Aemond does it,
03:58that really breaks a bit of his heart off.
04:10If there's one rule to take away
04:13from The Dragon, don't laugh at Aemond.
04:15Bad things happen to you.
04:17They don't care what I think.
04:21Alicent's just come off of this
04:23near-assassination attempt
04:25with her head spinning,
04:27wondering whether she misinterpreted
04:29what Viserys's final words were.
04:31And then she comes back home
04:33and sees Aegon just stomping around
04:35and ranting like a petulant teenager.
04:37My council, Cole, Aemond,
04:39they pursue their campaign
04:42Aegon is a very sensitive individual.
04:44He wants his mum's love.
04:46He wants his mum's validation.
04:48He wants her to believe in him.
04:50Alicent can coat her words
04:52in honey a little bit more
04:54to Aegon, if she chooses.
04:56But the tension
04:58is bubbling.
05:00Do you think simply wearing the crown
05:02imbues you with wisdom?
05:04She's lost a bit of the composure
05:06that you're used to seeing in Alicent
05:08and she simply tells him,
05:10There's nothing.
05:12And it's the most devastating,
05:14most demeaning,
05:16belittling thing that she could have said
05:18to Rusanne in that moment.
05:20It's the first time we see Alicent
05:22point-blank tell him
05:24everything that he can't hear.
05:26Especially the way, how fragile
05:28he is at that time, too.
05:30And how he's just becoming more and more naked
05:32and more and more alone.
05:34And that's one of the final straws for him, I think,
05:36before he fully, fully spirals.
05:40The thing that everybody has warned Rhaenyra against
05:42is you're the queen, you're the sovereign,
05:44you cannot ride to battle.
05:46Aegon has just muscled everybody out of the way
05:48and decided to ride into the battle
05:50to prove that he was just as much a man
05:52as Cole and his brother.
05:56Cole has arrived with his forces.
05:58He's facing a tiny keep
06:00that can't hope to win.
06:02Work's Rest is really not a significant
06:04strategic advantage. Why would Cole take that risk?
06:06He never intends or cares about the keep.
06:09He's there to draw out a dragon.
06:11You must send me, Your Grace.
06:13I will meet Cole.
06:15Rhaenys chooses to step in
06:17having said for the whole
06:19season, we mustn't
06:21use dragons, anything but using dragons.
06:23If it has to be done,
06:25if this action has to be
06:27taken, then it's better that she
06:29does it than anybody else.
06:31Ultimately, she is expendable
06:33where Rhaenyra is not.
06:35What should be a small campaign
06:37to take a small keep turns into a kind of
06:39watershed moment.
06:41The first act of
06:43full-on dragon conflict.
06:48All bets are off. All order is gone.
06:50Whatever you thought was important on the battlefield doesn't matter
06:52at all. It's basically just a
06:54collateral damage site
06:56because the real battle is going on
06:58over your heads.
07:04Aegon has arrived as the fly in the ointment
07:06so to speak.
07:08It's changed the strategy. Now, Vhagar and Cole
07:10have to contend with the fact that
07:12the king is in the fray and they have to protect the king.
07:14Dracarys!
07:25Light the guns!
07:27Dracarys!
07:29The question it raises, did he seize an
07:31opportunity where he could take
07:33two players off the board or
07:35did Aegon just collateral?
07:39When he's plummeting to the earth
07:41after being hit by a ball of fire
07:43all of his fears of
07:45Aemon's betrayal
07:47come true.
07:52Your Grace!
07:54Of all the people affected by this, Cole is the one
07:56who's most slammed by it because
07:58it was his plan. Cole has been in battle
08:00before. He's seen people die. He's seen people
08:02crushed beneath horses and so Cole had to be
08:04particularly touched by the distinct
08:06and specific nature of dragon war
08:08and how insignificant
08:10it made soldiers like him on the battlefield.
08:12He's playing
08:14chess and messing with things.
08:16He can barely get his head around.
08:22It's the sort of moral loss
08:24by his own actions.
08:26Cole is responsible for the worst
08:28possible thing that could have happened.
08:34No!
08:42I think it's a pyrrhic victory for both sides.
08:44We lose Rhaenys, one of Rhaenyra's
08:46most trusted counselors.
08:48We don't really know the condition of
08:50Sunfyre or Aegon. You just have to
08:52regard it as a great emblem,
08:54an example of how horrible
08:56and awful dragon war is and the reason
08:58that it needs to be waged with
09:00great restraint.
09:04DRAGON WAR
09:06DRAGON WAR
09:08DRAGON WAR
09:10DRAGON WAR