Being the future-spoiler review of the two most recent episodes of House of the Dragon. The companion post will only spoil those two episodes; this one will spoil far more. (Not that any of this matters, because, again, Game of Thrones itself spoiled the ending, lol.)
So, again, major - MAJOR - spoilers for upcoming episodes in 3... 2... last chance... 1...
Harwin Strong, huh? Yeah, he's in this. He's totally in this. He's had maybe two minutes of screen time and, what, two lines of dialogue? And if the show's sticking to the book's chronology (it's not - Lyonel is shown to still be alive in the Episode 6 teaser, and Lyonel and Harwin die in the same incident in the source material), he'll die during the time skip and that's all we'll have seen of him. Oh, well done. Are they trying to make a rewatch mandatory?
(Okay, here goes, for those of you who don't know but stumbled over here anyway: Harwin is the real father of the kids that are officially Rhaenyra's and Laenor's. Because Laenor is gay.)
Like okay, Babylon 5, a rewatch is mandatory, because Season 1 isn't actually mind-blowingly brilliant until you know the whole story and go back and see how Season 1 foreshadows everything. (Just to name the most obvious example: in the first episode, Londo tells Sinclair exactly how he (Londo) will die... just without a key bit of context that gets filled in later. Or Neroon off-handedly telling Sinclair "You think like a Minbari," which boomerangs twice over the next two seasons.) But having Harwin Strong, father of bastards and a key reason why the realm tears itself apart when Viserys dies, relegated to three or four scenes and two lines of dialogue... that's not foreshadowing. That's a fucking easter egg.
Likewise, I'm so glad we got maybe 5 seconds of Daemon and Laena making doe eyes at each other, because they're going to be married next time we see them. Just fantastically done, that.
Also: whoa. According to Matt Smith, there are no more time jumps after episode 6. Taken at face value, this should mean that Episode 6 and all subsequent episodes this season take place in 128-129 AC. Meaning that when we get back, not only should Lyonel and Harwyn Strong be dead, but so should Laenor and Laena Velaryon (oh, checking the wiki indicates that all four died in 120 in the book - for whatever reason I thought the Velaryons died a little later. I'm probably getting the show's chronology and the book's mixed up). And Rhaenyra should be on her second husband and pregnant with her sixth child.
I, um, find this unlikely. Start with how Laenor's alive in footage we've already seen of Episode 6, and I don't know whether that's meant to be Rhaenyra's first baby or not - the line "was it terribly painful?" could go either way. I'm going with "third" just because I think they're out of time to cram five kids into a four-year window - post timeskip, we have to be in 125 at the earliest, and the Dance starts in 129 (and if they're not keeping that deadline, pushing the Dance back to, say, 135, why make Viserys so sick in the first half of the season? Dude looks like he's at death's door already and he's got to linger on for another decade?). Also, Laena's alive in the Episode 6 teaser. So... no, I am expecting further time skips this season, just nothing on the scale of ten years.
Also, Teenage!Aegon is played by David Tennant's son. As a Doctor Who fan this amuses me.
Anyways, the predictions for the rest of the season:
"The Princess and the Queen" (September 25th, 2022) (after 117 AC (book; the show could push this as late as 122, I think 125 for the show, unless they're pushing the start of the Dance back) - after the timeskip now, reintroducing us to Adult Rhaenyra and Adult Alicent. By this point Rhaenyra has had her first three kids. (These kids have to be old enough to convincingly ride dragons etc. in 130.) If they want to keep this anything like the book continuity, Lyonel Strong (at least) has to die around this point, and it makes sense that they'd do so; until he does, Otto Hightower has nothing to do, and Rhys Ifans is one of the show's best assets.
"Driftmark" (October 2nd, 2022)/"The Lord of the Tides" (October 9th, 2022) (120 AC (book; the show could push this out to 125ish)) - obviously these both focus on Corlys and his family. And his family tragedies. How late can they push this, realistically? Rhaenyra's first son by her second husband is present for key events in 130 and 131 (he doesn't have to do much except stand around and look cute/scared, but still), and has to be born around now. Which means you need an actor who's old enough to be in certain intense scenes to play him, which means he needs to be a certain age by 131; I just don't know what that age is. Speaking of the kids, Aemond can't lose his eye until after Laena dies, but presumably that'll happen around now.
"The Green Court" (October 16th, 2022)/"The Black Queen" (October 23rd, 2022) (129 AC) - Viserys dies. It'd be cool if these two episodes largely cover the same event(s), with "Green Court" staying in King's Landing and "Black Queen" staying on Dragonstone.
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