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00:00In this episode, Rhaenyra throws off all dissenting opinions around her and then takes her court
00:12of commoners all out onto the platform.
00:14Who among you would be first?
00:24I always talked about that coastline scene as a western showdown, a scene out of Sergio
00:28Leone, Once Upon a Time in the West, with the dragon being the colt on their hip and
00:34the way they carefully approach each other and size each other up.
00:39Until this point, she's thinking about people that are after their own rise and personal
00:43gain, and I think she wants to get a sense of whether she has to kill this man or kill
00:48his dragon to meet somebody that actually does this miraculous thing and then immediately
00:54bends the knee to her in a way that is a bit of a shock.
00:57Do you think you can get him to Dragonstone?
01:00The moment Adam claims Seasmoke, suddenly Rhaenyra understands that she was right, that
01:05people with some Targaryen blood somewhere in their lineage can claim dragons.
01:11These people are courageous, mongrels.
01:14Yeah, it's a big, big moment, you know, obviously last time that Jace probably would have said
01:20anything was in season one when little Jace said, am I a bastard?
01:24House Targaryen is the blood of the dragon.
01:26If any may lay claim to it, what are we then?
01:28Jace very simply looks at it as like, you're going to just take any gutter rat from King's
01:32Landing and try to put them on dragons.
01:34It makes me a common aristocrat with black hair and a checkered past.
01:45My lord.
01:46My lord.
01:48How you have come up in the world?
01:50Being initially shocked, Corlys is then very proud.
01:53It's because that's my son.
01:54Off his own back, he's made something of himself.
01:56And I think that's very important for Corlys, because that's how he sees himself.
02:02Well done.
02:03Yes, two words, but they mean just more than well done.
02:08They mean, I see you.
02:12Daemon goes out into the godswood expecting a certain outcome, and then the fun of that
02:16scene is seeing all the cards as they're turned over.
02:19Why should we now follow a boy when you will align with one who will desecrate the innocent
02:24to reach his aims?
02:25Not only are you going to have to show your belly to them in order to get your way.
02:28I may have been a touch enthusiastic in pursuing my aims.
02:33Seize him.
02:34Your grace, command them.
02:35I've only served you.
02:37But now if you're going to go one step further and actually take the head of this guy that
02:41pledged his life in service to you.
02:43No, no, no.
02:45Daemon isn't the most honorable guy in the world, but I think he does have that kind
02:48of mafia honor to him.
02:49He's made this sort of life and death pact with Willem Blackwood and said, you do my
02:53way and I'll see that the sky's the limit for you.
02:56He's so used to being in control, and it all just slips through his fingers.
03:00And you see how he just comes apart at the end of it.
03:07I had a long conversation with Paddy, and he said, I'll play the part, but I want to
03:11play the final scene when he offers the crown up.
03:14I want to do it in the decrepit makeup.
03:17It was Paddy's idea, which is just a clever idea, and then he turns around and Daemon
03:21for the first time sees the full kind of degradation of his face, and he presents him
03:27the crown.
03:28He's like, God, is that what I wanted?
03:29Do I need it?
03:30There's a lot going on in that scene.
03:32Do you want it still?
03:36One of the things I love about House of the Dragon is that it's a generational narrative.
03:41We have a lot of young characters that are all coming of age, one of whom is Reyna.
03:47Lady Jane's been promised a dragon.
03:49She receives two, but it's like asterisks, they're babies, they can't protect her.
03:54So when she embarks on her journey, she's desperate to find more than just a dragon.
03:59It's purpose.
04:00She doesn't stop, and she's not going to stop.
04:04In episode seven, Alicent has lost any power, any legitimacy that she held.
04:09She does notice a cup similar in placement to Rhaenyra's, and I think it sort of brings
04:16into focus the absurdity of it all.
04:20I wish to go out, Sir Icard.
04:21Her need to escape King's Landing is to sort of zoom out from it all a bit and get some
04:28clarity on the situation.
04:31Alicent's disillusioned.
04:32She doesn't know that she has a place in the Red Keep, or if she did, whether she wants
04:35it.
04:36And I think at the beginning of it, we're sort of wondering, is Alicent out here to
04:39end it all?
04:40This moment of peace that could potentially be the last time for her.
04:46We see her go through a bit of an awakening when her eyes open, snap back into reality
04:51with a sense of purpose.
04:52I mean, what that purpose is remains to be seen.
05:02The Dragon Keepers very much reject Rhaenyra's idea, so Rhaenyra is left alone.
05:05This was actually Emma's pitch for Rhaenyra to go and walk amongst the seeds as though
05:10a pastor amongst her flock in the terms of a religious cult.
05:14Suffering will be ended, and without bloodshed.
05:24When you realize that Rhaenyra is just basically throwing stuff against the wall and seeing
05:28whether it sticks, and seeing if somebody can emerge from this, it goes very bad very
05:32quickly.
05:33In many ways, I think there's a way of looking at that scene as ritual sacrifice.
05:41The whole sequence where I'm running through the cavern in front of Vermithor, it took
05:45a whole day of rehearsing running it through with a steadicam.
05:50They call Vermithor the Bronze Fury, and I think that's really fitting for Hugh.
05:54He's quite angry inside.
05:56Come on!
06:00It's a mystery.
06:01No one really knows how the Targaryens are talking to the dragons.
06:06We wanted to not just see the same thing again and again, which is a guy claiming a
06:10dragon and getting it to bend the neck.
06:16Every fiber of Ulf's body wants out.
06:20Close my eyes, pray for a quick death, which doesn't come.
06:24I think it's that supplication in the way that he showed deference to Silverwing that
06:28probably makes her choose him.
06:30But we didn't want to get too much into the whys and hows.
06:32We don't really understand why a dragon chooses its rider.
06:35I've said I'm a Targaryen.
06:37Turns out, I'm a Targaryen.
06:39Dragon!
06:40I don't think the news of Seasmoke really reached Aemond, and you can tell that by the
06:46way Larys and Ironrod exchanged glances when they hear the dragon flying over the city,
06:51because I think they both assumed that it's Seasmoke.
06:53Rhaenyra's raised new riders in the Dragonseeds.
06:56Aemond retaliates without even thinking, and he goes to meet them.
06:59Open the gates!
07:01He was supposed to be the special one.
07:03And the fact that somebody else is out there that did this just breaks his brain.
07:06So his immediate response is, of course, he rides and gets on his dragon with the intent
07:09of going out and killing Silverwing.
07:11And he gets more than he bargained for.
07:13The Horde!
07:14Vhagar!
07:15And for the first time since season one, we see fear in his eye.
07:22And literally the Dragon Queen coming out of the Dragonmont, not only Silverwing but
07:26Vermithor and also Syrax.
07:28And whatever questions she was faced with, she was right in the end and was able to assemble
07:32this army of dragons.