House of the Dragon Season 1, Episode 7: "Driftmark"

[Elayis]

Still don't like Allicent, and I'm assuming I never will. Her trauma truly warped her into an awful person, where she will cold-bloodily demand for her ex-best friend's young son's eye to be cut out. She's deranged, seeking the approval of terrible people like her father and Larys, without any self-examination or guilt over her actions. Apparently she's completely fine with the Strongs' murder, despite her protestations last episode. Even her children are awful, that entire fiasco with the children was Aemond's fault.

I'm glad the show gave us more detail on what happened with Laenor. It never sat right with me that Rhaenyra would marry Daemon so soon after her husband's death, when he obviously had something to do with it. I just wish they had been smarter about their scheme and informed the Velaryon's. That's going to bite them in the ass.

All in all this conflict is very one-sided so far. There's a clear good and bad side in all this, the only blemish on Rhaenyra's side being Daemon.

 

[CB Fan]

There was a point where u was getting bored of the show then luckily two eps later the time jumped happened and I’ve been liking it again. That said, this show is ugly to look at I hate how dark and grey everything looks.

 

[Persona]

While I can appreciate the quality of some aspects of this show, on a purely personal level it is getting harder and harder for me to watch. I get it, this world/society is royally messed up and everyone's terrible towards each other, similar to medieval society or what modern society tries to repress. But man, where this episode went felt like borderline ugly parody to me with the children violence and all that. I basically detest nearly all these characters now. Allicent has completely lost me with how she is acting, I have no horses left in the race.

And I do have to echo some of the complaints about the visuals. After a wonderfully staged and shot sea funeral, for some reason this episode felt the need to devolve into murky sludge. I really, really hated how they did the day for night stuff and the post-filtering was downright intrusive.

Thematically, I am also not sure what I am supposed to be taking away other than "People suck."

Hopefully I like the next episode better.

 

[Persona]

Uh, no.

1. He didn't get jumped. He started beating up little kids, far smaller then him.

2. He did this after insulting children who had just lost their mother and others he was accusing of not having their father. It wasn't insenstive, it was proper entitled sociopath behavior.

3. He got the knife to the face, because he was threatening to murder a small child with a rock.

I honestly have no idea how you got what you got out of that encounter.

Yeah, the kids maybe should have brought the rock thing up in their defense, I found it comical they never did but kept focusing on "He called us bastards!" But I get it, they're kids, not lawyers.

 

[Spider-Fan83]

Bastards or not, they are still of her blood line (if they were his bastards it'd be a different story) but, she is the heiress, she is of the Kings blood, and so are they

I get that she didn't honor her arranged marriage (to bond the families with their heirs) but, they had their own agreement/arranged

her kids have just as much of a claim to the throne

their claim to the driftwood throne is more of grey area (but, since he was betroth to his sister/first cousin/3nd cousin/...? who is of that land/bloodline) so, there's that, I guess

side note: I get that their agreement was to allow them both to still be with who they want too, but, in-terms of trying to pass off her kids (with another man) as their own... she should have at least tried to get with someone who could give her offspring that shared a resemblance to either her or his side of the family (find a blond/white haired guy, find another black guy) I mean I guess you can't help who you have feeling/ connection with (not to mention limited those who will keep in on the DL) but, still

 

[Dr.]

...side note: I get that their agreement was to allow them both to still be with who they want too, but, in-terms of trying to pass off her kids (with another man) as their own... she should have at least tried to get with someone who could give her offspring that shared a resemblance to either her or his side of the family (find a blond/white haired guy, find another black guy) I mean I guess you can't help who you have feeling/ connection with (not to mention limited those who will keep in on the DL) but, still

Out of curiosity… Do the books ever get into the question of “hair genetics”?

The reason I ask: Brunette Alicent managed to birth all white-haired kids (a trait from Targaryen Dad). Meanwhile, Rhaenyra’s first batch of kids were dark-haired (a plot-convenient way to indicate their illegitimacy). So in both cases, the Mom’s/female genetic contribution seemed to be non-existent — not even producing occasional intermediate hair color (which would be more realistic).

Is this just the way biology works in the Seven Kingdoms?

 

[Mjolnir Reborn]

Bastards or not, they are still of her blood line (if they were his bastards it'd be a different story) but, she is the heiress, she is of the Kings blood, and so are they

I get that she didn't honor her arranged marriage (to bond the families with their heirs) but, they had their own agreement/arranged

her kids have just as much of a claim to the throne

their claim to the driftwood throne is more of grey area (but, since he was betroth to his sister/first cousin/3nd cousin/...? who is of that land/bloodline) so, there's that, I guess

side note: I get that their agreement was to allow them both to still be with who they want too, but, in-terms of trying to pass off her kids (with another man) as their own... she should have at least tried to get with someone who could give her offspring that shared a resemblance to either her or his side of the family (find a blond/white haired guy, find another black guy) I mean I guess you can't help who you have feeling/ connection with (not to mention limited those who will keep in on the DL) but, still

A bastard can't have a claim on anything in that society, only "true born" children can inherit. That's why all bastards have basic last names depending on the region, and Rhaenyra's children should technically have the last name Waters. The king does have power to legitimize a bastard though, as we saw being done with Ramsay Snow becoming a true Bolton in Game of Thrones, so that's technically a different way they could do it. I do think that the fact that Rhaenyra is a woman complicates things in that regard though.

So the claim to the throne and Driftmark are equal. Both obvious heirs if they are deemed "true" and neither have any claim if they are deemed bastards.

 

[Roose Bolton]

Out of curiosity… Do the books ever get into the question of “hair genetics”?

The reason I ask: Brunette Alicent managed to birth all white-haired kids (a trait from Targaryen Dad). Meanwhile, Rhaenyra’s first batch of kids were dark-haired (a plot-convenient way to indicate their illegitimacy). So in both cases, the Mom’s/female genetic contribution seemed to be non-existent — not even producing occasional intermediate hair color (which would be more realistic).

Is this just the way biology works in the Seven Kingdoms?

Oh you want to talk about hair? Ok let’s open that can of worms.

In the books, Rhaenys, Laenor’s mother, has dark hair because her mother was a Baratheon, and Rhaenyra’s mother Aemma, was an Arryn (and had silver-gold hair because her own mother was a Targaryen princess married to Lord Arryn).

The argument was in the books that there’s room for belief that the boys were actually Laenor’s kids, because they could have inherited their hair colouring from their grandparents. Show obviously went a different way there.

But let’s go even further down this rabbit hole, shall we? Jon Snow is the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen. Pretty much all of his look came from his mother’s Stark genetics. Jon had two half siblings, Rhaegar’s son Aegon and daughter Rhaenys with his wife Elia Martell. Aegon had the Targ colouring, whereas Rhaenys was a little brunette.

To make a very long story short. Unless you’re a Baratheon or you practice incest, it’s random AF how the kids will turn out. With Rhaenyra and her Strong boys, it’s bad luck more than anything.