We once again find ourselves in the time window when we have to kick our heels waiting for the next House of the Dragon episode to invite us back to Westeros. In the meantime, the fandom and the internet have been busy over the past day discussing the Seven Kingdoms and the numerous parallels that have already popped up in the prequel series.
One of them involves the Kingsguard and how they were way more competent during Robert Baratheon’s reign, while the other brings to attention a very deliberate contrast between Queen Aemma from the first episode and Laena Velaryon from episode 6. Check out all of this and more in today’s Game of Thrones roundup below.
Should you root for anyone in House? Are there even any good sides to this conflict?
George R.R. Martin remains ever boastful of the fact that his world of Westeros doesn’t have good or bad people, but an ensemble of grey characters that define morality from a vantage point of personal gain. And yet, even Game of Thrones featured characters who were genuinely good, Ned Stark and his sons namely among them. With House of the Dragon, it feels like Martin has taken that to an extreme, and the community has been racking its brain trying to find one side to genuinely root for. Of course, that begs another question: Is that even possible anymore in the grimdark world of Westeros?
Aemma and Laena went through the same tragedy, but faced it differently
Try as they might to cram progressive ideas into its narrative, House is ultimately a fantasy story taking place in a world that’s roughly the equivalent of medieval England. That being said, the parallel between Queen Aemma’s story and how she was helpless in labor during those final moments, and Laena Velaryon who basically chose her own fate in the face of that grim reality, hasn’t gone unnoticed by the fandom. Collider explains how the staggering 10-year time jump gave one person the opportunity to do what the other never could.
Did Robert Baratheon have the better Kingsguard?
Not to disparage the brilliant Graham McTavish in any way or even the actor who portrays Ser Criston Cole, for that matter, but it seems to fans that Robert Baratheon definitely had the more badass Kingsguard, featuring not one but two of the greatest swordsmen in the history of Westeros— Jaime Lannister and Ser Barristan Selmy. On the other hand, King Viserys admittedly has dragons, a whole host of them, in fact, so maybe the robust personal detail felt redundant. But his successor definitely had the more prestigious bodyguard lineup.