House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 6 - "Smallfolk"

[Drizzle]

House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 6 - "Smallfolk"

Directed by Andrij Parekh

Written by Eileen Shim

​

New director alert. He's got some episodes of Succession as well as an episode of Watchmen under his belt so I'm interested to see what Parekh brings to the table here. In any case, going from the preview it looks to be a little more fast paced compared to last week's episode.

 

[OrbOfConfusion]

Now imagine if they'd chopped off Alicent's hand instead during that riot. Then you'd just willingly let the crowd have that guard.

 

[CB Fan]

Idk if spoilers are allowed and I cant be vague with any of this so

Spoiler

So I was right in my suspicions about Corlys two sons being the riders but that’s a lot of family drama to unpack...I’m guessing Seasmoke senses the relation to Lenore? Was Allicent cut in the same spot she cut Rhaenrya in season 1 as the towns people are calling for Rhaenrya? What a mess lol.

I am now over Daemond tripping on acid at Harranhaal lol. No more please I beg.

This was the ep the actor for Aemond went full anime villain mode and idk if I liked it. There was this balance in other episodes that was missing here; director should’ve told him to dial it back just a wee bit.

Lastly it was hilarious to see Aemond pretty much call out Larys for having his family killed. It’s an open secret at this point. And he thought he was gonna be hand lol.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

I thought this episode was pretty awesome and much better paced than last weeks. Also, I'm not 100% sure of this but it feels like they are definitely building up another battle by the end of this season.

Loved seeing Paddy again as Viserys and all the stuff with the Dragonseeds. I already see a ton of discourse over that kiss between Rhaenyra and Mysaria but I'm at least curious to see where it goes.

I wish they would have set it up better though.

 

[Kane52630]

 

[Kane52630]

 

[Stringer]

Now that I think about it, who the hell is keeping Addam's locs so well kept?

 

[Drizzle]

Seasmoke chose Addam like a cat, lol. I've seen it theorized that Seasmoke was restless because he may have sensed that Laenor possibly died in Essos and that's what drew him to one of his blood relatives.

I was loving Aemond putting Larys in his place and his threatening bedside visit to Aegon.

Gwayne is quickly becoming the other "good Green" apart from Helaena. His constant trolling of Criston Cole won me over but I really liked his moment with Alicent talking about Daeron.

As tired as I am of Daemon wasting time at Harrenhal, I did love seeing King Vizzy T again. I've sorely missed seeing the interactions between Matt Smith and Paddy Considine.

That Rhaenyra and Mysaria scene threw me for a curve but it's definitely an interesting development. At least it was until that interrupting guard barged in like C-3PO in Empire.

And of course the Lannisters would bring an actual ****ing lion to battle with them like it's a college football mascot. Also a testament to how much of an impact Tywin Lannister had on this franchise that Ramin used the Rains of Castamere in the beginning of the episode a hundred years before he was born.

Idk if spoilers are allowed and I cant be vague with any of this so

Spoiler

So I was right in my suspicions about Corlys two sons being the riders but that’s a lot of family drama to unpack...I’m guessing Seasmoke senses the relation to Lenore? Was Allicent cut in the same spot she cut Rhaenrya in season 1 as the towns people are calling for Rhaenrya? What a mess lol.

I am now over Daemond tripping on acid at Harranhaal lol. No more please I beg.

This was the ep the actor for Aemond went full anime villain mode and idk if I liked it. There was this balance in other episodes that was missing here; director should’ve told him to dial it back just a wee bit.

Lastly it was hilarious to see Aemond pretty much call out Larys for having his family killed. It’s an open secret at this point. And he thought he was gonna be hand lol.

Show spoilers are fine for these individual episode threads, as long as they're not book spoilers or leaks for anything that's yet to come on the show.

 

[Weather Witch]

I like how the plan with Darklyn failed, but we still get a new dragon rider. It's fun to see Considine again, but I'm honestly over Daemon hanging out at Harrenhal. The propaganda stuff was really solid. Also, it seems like the Rhaena leaks were legit and Aemond has gone full anime villain.

Despite myself flying the rainbow flag, I'm not entirely sold on Myseria and Rhaenyra yet. I think I'll have to rewatch the previous episodes for those hints. Daeron teasing continues. That whole conversation between Alicent and Gwayne was really good. It's tragic to see Alicent being stripped of what little influence she had left. The greens and blacks are completely unraveling and there's still solid drama there.

Overall, I think this might be my least favorite episode of the season so far though. Feels like in a holding pattern waiting for two expensive final episodes. By which point all will likely be forgiven.

 

[Drizzle]

I've been a fan of season 2 for the most part but this is accurate.

 

[Stringer]

I like how the plan with Darklyn failed, but we still get a new dragon rider. It's fun to see Considine again, but I'm honestly over Daemon hanging out at Harrenhal. The propaganda stuff was really solid. Also, it seems like the Rhaena leaks were legit and Aemond has gone full anime villain.

Despite myself flying the rainbow flag, I'm not entirely sold on Myseria and Rhaenyra yet. I think I'll have to rewatch the previous episodes for those hints. Daeron teasing continues. That whole conversation between Alicent and Gwayne was really good. It's tragic to see Alicent being stripped of what little influence she had left. The greens and blacks are completely unraveling and there's still solid drama there.

Overall, I think this might be my least favorite episode of the season so far though. Feels like in a holding pattern waiting for two expensive final episodes. By which point all will likely be forgiven.

The sexual tension between them was immediate from their first scene together in the holding cell I thought.

 

[Kane52630]

I've always felt the King's Landing scenes were more interesting than Dragonstone but that has to do with Dragonstone being isolated from everyone else.

 

[Weather Witch]

The sexual tension between them was immediate from their first scene together in the holding cell I thought.

Really? Going to be interesting to rewatch those scenes with fresh eyes. Maybe my gaydar is just broken.

 

[emielaen]

Still enjoying both sides of the story. Don't really see this massive gap in quality between Black and Green scenes like others seem to tbh.

 

[The Big G]

NGL I love the Dragonstone Dragon Garage

 

[Drizzle]

I've always felt the King's Landing scenes were more interesting than Dragonstone but that has to do with Dragonstone being isolated from everyone else.

Still enjoying both sides of the story. Don't really see this massive gap in quality between Black and Green scenes like others seem to tbh.

For me it just boils down to the Greens' drama in King's Landing being more interesting. With Daemon gone for the time being, there's not much inner conflict among the Blacks at Dragonstone at all. That's not to say the scenes at Dragonstone are bad but they've just kind of kicking the ball down the field by comparison apart from a few moments.

It's really not a whole lot different from season two of Game of Thrones where you'd have the King's Landing scenes with Tyrion gearing up for Stannis's fleet or otherwise dealing with Cersei and the council and then the story would shift to Daenerys in Qarth or Jon north of the Wall and lose momentum a bit. Though the Dragonstone scenes in this are far, far, faaaar better than the Dany in Qarth scenes.

 

[CaptainWagner]

Really liked this episode overall. Getting VizzyT back rocked, and both the riot and attempted dragon-claiming were great scenes. And yeah, the kiss was awesome.

That said I'm pretty peeved that the rumors seem to be true that they've cut Nettles and given her story to Rhaena. It sucks to see them cut the only POC character in the original story, and I have no idea how Rhaena claiming Sheepstealer in the Vale of all places is going to change the direction of the story.

 

[#root]

Seasmoke claiming his own rider . I liked a lot of stuff in this episode like Aemond putting Larys in his place and Gwayne and Alicent talking about Daeron. But I haven’t really enjoyed these past two episodes for some reason. Maybe the pacing. Or the dialogue. Something but I’m not sure what. Curious to see what happens between Rhaenyra and Mysaria next.

I’m also a little bummed that it looks like they’ve cut a particular character and given at least some of their storyline to Rhaena. I don’t particularly care that they’re making changes to the book but from what I’ve read online, that character sounded really interesting.

Spoiler

Especially because Nettles was the only female dragonseed. And then there’s all the stuff between her and Daemon, which I'm assuming will be cut because Rhaena is his daughter. Although… who knows with this universe .

 

[Drizzle]

Either it's bigots review bombing because of the kiss or people are really impatient about not having a proper action scene for two whole episodes.

 

[Drizzle]

It is review bombing, but not in the traditional sense. Usually review bombing starts in American-based anti-woke spaces, but these one-star ratings are largely coming from the Middle East.

All the other countries in the top 5 of most ratings (US, UK, and Germany) have an unusual amount of one-star reviews as well, but their averages are still 6-7/10. It's no secret that the Middle East is an insanely homophobic region, but I don't know if it ever surfaced like that in regards to review bombing. Saudi Arabia's one-star ratings cover 50% of all the one-star ratings this episode has.

I wonder if they did the same thing with Game of Thrones for whenever Loras Tyrell, Renly Baratheon, Oberyn Martell, Asha Yara Greyjoy were in an episode. Hell, even Laenor in S1 of House of the Dragon.

 

[KaijuDude1992]

Either it's bigots review bombing because of the kiss or people are really impatient about not having a proper action scene for two whole episodes.

It is review bombing, but not in the traditional sense. Usually review bombing starts in American-based anti-woke spaces, but these one-star ratings are largely coming from the Middle East.

All the other countries in the top 5 of most ratings (US, UK, and Germany) have an unusual amount of one-star reviews as well, but their averages are still 6-7/10. It's no secret that the Middle East is an insanely homophobic region, but I don't know if it ever surfaced like that in regards to review bombing. Saudi Arabia's one-star ratings cover 50% of all the one-star ratings this episode has.

Sadly, I think its a combination of factors that's causing some backlash against this season. Even before this latest episode I noticed a lot of complaints about the pacing of this season which I do understand to a degree but its not like GOT hasn't don't this before especially during those earlier seasons.

I mean we spent a whole season and a half with Jamie as a POW or Arya at Harrenhal as a cupbearer to Tywin which gave us some of the best character development in that show IMO.

I would even bring up that whole boring arc with John Snow and Ingrid where pretty much nothing happened for long stretches and yet people still call those early seasons of GOT the best.

I'm just saying its not like this show has been action packed from the start and while I get some of the frustration with the Harrenhal stuff I still think we are getting some great character development this season.

Hell, even Lary's got his moment to shine in this episode.

 

[flickchick85]

This episode was way better than last week's, but I'm still bored to tears by all things Daemon.

 

[Drizzle]

It's beyond hilarious at this point.

 

[Mjolnir Reborn]

Another building episode, which is not something I have any problem with. I'm enjoying the build and seeing some new facets of some characters. In particular it was nice to take a peek through a crack in the walls of Larys, still trying to get what he wants but showing a bit of himself to do so. It was also funny seeing Aemond not buying Larys' manipulations at all.

I like seeing that the Lannisters are as pompous as always and the two lions are perfectly in line with the excess and self-importance one expects from them.

A bit more happens with the black small council members but they won't be able to match the green one as they still haven't really given us much of the characters that make it up, save for Rhaenys and Corlys. They seem to work more in line with the rest than the green council does but that further helps them feel the same. None are really from notable houses either, at least not in terms of what the audience has seen in the stories that have been told.

 

[Drizzle]

Another building episode, which is not something I have any problem with. I'm enjoying the build and seeing some new facets of some characters.

I'm feeling mostly the same. Funny enough, for some reason I was expecting it to be even more of a slow build because way before this season started I thought they were going to end the season on the Battle of Rook's Rest instead of it being the midway point.