House of the Dragon Episode 4: Power Rankings

Queen Alicent, sad Cole, and triumphant Aemond.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!

Episode 4 of House of the Dragon was so good that I had to jump in and write a review. I have not seen Game of Thrones and may not get all of the details of the world, but I think that even an uneducated eye can see how great this show is. 

Here are this week’s ratings:

8. Aegon

I’m biased towards the living, so being dead will bump you down in the power rankings. However, even without having been unalived, Aegon cuts a pretty pathetic figure. He is not respected, he is tolerated. The council has learned to work around Aegon’s presence like you learn to ignore an annoying bug. 

Aegon is temperamental, lazy, and indulgent. He demands respect without earning it. And the bitter lesson he learns is that respect has to be earned, even when the people around you believe that you are the rightful king. Aegon’s temper tantrums made me think about the fate of many nepo babies – powerful but shortsighted parents use their connections to get their children into the best possible positions but without a sense of duty and responsibility the kids end up flailing just like Aegon. This lack of respect for hard work was the downfall of all of Logan’s kids in Succession – mind you Shiv wanted to be the CEO without having ever worked inside the firm. EVER!

Leadership is also a game of perception: it’s not enough to be strong, you also have to project strength. And Aegon fails there as well. You can see how Rhaenyra has mastered the balance between clearly listening to her council and simultaneously not being visibly swayed by their arguments. She usually retreats to her private chambers before issuing final orders. Aegon, meanwhile, has the spinal strength of a dead fish. 

P.S. I was so sad to see his tiny dragon chewed up and fried like a chicken tender. Justice for the dragons!

7. Rhaenys

Okay, girl, I know your husband has been hiding something from you (probably a child)  but there’s no need to cultivate a death wish over that! While Rhaenys’s courage is admirable, her death is a huge loss to the entire war effort — her dragon Meleys, one of the biggest Targaryen dragons, is cooked after the first battle. I love her poise and her fearlessness, but why did she think she could take on Vhagar???? To be fair I didn’t expect Vhagar to be such a conniving girlie – how did she hide all that body behind that tiny castle? 

6. Lord Larys aka Gossip Girl 

Okay, so I didn’t realize Lord Larys controls Harrenhal’s finances!! The man is full of surprises. Lord Larys uses his disability as a deceptive tactic – he wants people to pity and dismiss him all the while he weaves his webs of gossip around them. While he does not openly say that he thinks Alicent is pregnant, his careful choice of words implies that he suspects that Alicent hasn’t been indulging in cake but rather in Ser Cole’s broad shoulders. 

Although Lord Larys visited Alicent to deliver a veiled threat, he left their meeting with newfound respect for the queen. He paused and listened to Alicent as she acknowledged that the war had lost its original meaning and was no longer bound by Visarys’s wishes. In that moment it seemed that Lord Larys recognized Alicent as his intellectual equal. It remains to be seen whether this brief moment will lead to any useful alliances. For now, we know that Lord Larys goes where the wind of opportunity blows.

5. Daemon

So Daemon is tripping in Harrenhal. Lost in the grand, abandoned halls of the castle he ends up having to face the uncomfortable personal truth that he wants the iron throne for himself. I get it, I get it – he has the posture, the dragon, and the hair. It remains to be seen if he will be able to subdue his jealousy and come back to help Rhaenyra or whether he will become a rogue agent. I doubt the latter will come true. It’s more likely that he will be an ally and await an opportune moment to claim the throne from Rhaenyra herself. 

4. Cole 

Ser Cole has not been getting a lot of love on Twitter, but I like him. He has tactical skill and has enough ruthlessness to subdue the other houses. Cole also falls into a familiar trope – a newcomer who rose through the ranks and seemingly stumbled from one great opportunity to another. Although it seems like Cole is not a conniving character, I find it hard to believe that luck alone is the reason why Cole is now the Kingmaker. 

I liked the scene at the very end of the episode that showed Cole regaining consciousness amid the ruins of the battlefield. For the first time, he realized the potential scale of the war and the devastation it will bring. 

I also don’t understand why Cole seemed genuinely upset by Aegon’s death. I guess he still feels bound by some concept of honor, even if he does not respect him.

3. Rhaenyra 

Rhaenyra has been quiet for four seasons and she is finally ready to unleash hell. Her willingness to speak with Alicent is admirable. I love that she appreciates the fact that going to war would mean disrupting 80 years of peace, a reality that seems to go over the heads of her action-hungry allies. Rhaenyra’s cause is also somewhat noble. If she truly believes that the Song of Ice and Fire requires a leader capable of uniting the Seven Kingdoms, then her claim to the throne is not a caprice, but a fulfillment of a prophecy. However, her belief in the prophecy is conveniently intertwined with becoming a powerful queen. Similarly to Paul Atreides in Dune, she feeds into the legend and amplifies it.

Rhaenyra’s silence has been annoying but it also really works to paint her as a patient and reasonable leader. Now, I want to see the breadth of her skill, from securing new alliances to outmaneuvering Cole on the battlefield.

2. Alicent 

Alicent – the woman that you are. Alicent has really grown on me and she really emerged as this complex, multi-dimensional character with passions (who can blame her?), dreams, and integrity(?). It is interesting to observe the way the men and women of the Dragon world show power: both Alicent and Rhaenyra derive power from showing restraint while the men capture it through action. Although we see Alicent beginning to question whether Viserys truly changed his mind, she is nonetheless committed to the vision and resigned to the war.

She began the episode as the most dominant figure – she has the biggest dick army, Cole is fighting with her napkin (I love that) as a guiding star, and her incapable son is on the throne. Why does she not want Aegon to do anything? Perhaps she thinks it’s best for him to recognize the limits of his capabilities and let the adults in the room make the decisions. 

The episode implies that she is pregnant and doesn’t want the baby. By the time Lord Larys comes to pay her a visit, Alicent is in pain from having drank the abortion potion, but we do not yet know if it will be effective. Nor is it clear whether a pregnancy would seriously jeopardize her position. What’s the maternity leave policy at the castle? 

1. Aemond 

Aemond’s BDE is unmatched. He has the biggest dragon, he has the longest hair, and he just cooked his brother. To be fair, Aemond first absolutely annihilated Aegon by speaking to him in High Valyrian and in the process revealing that Aegon can barely string a sentence together. The humiliation then spurred Aegon into his drunken dragon flight, which created the perfect opportunity for Aemond to kill him and retain plausible deniability. I have a soft spot for this cunning, more capable sibling that was left behind due to nothing more than birth order.

I also love how the show captures the different personalities of the brothers in everything down to their hair – Aegon’s curls are reminiscent of a naughty cherub while Aemond’s hair is severe, adult-like. 

While the murder lands Aegon the top spot this week, it’s unclear whether this death benefits him long-term. If the Greens were rallying around Aegon as the rightful heir to Viserys’s throne, then his death might throw the entire alliance into jeopardy. Perhaps Aegon is so useless that the counsel could pretend that he is still alive? Is Aemond even the next in line to the throne?