House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 7 - "The Red Sowing"

[Drizzle]

Rewatching all episodes before the finale, including s1. Watching s1, really emphasizes my issues with this season. It's good television, but the first season was great television, with real drive and focus. Every episode was built to matter from a character, plot, and memorability standpoint.

This episode would've been like episode 3 or 4 of s1. Not the second to last. I think the pacing issues are no more apparent then with Rhaey Rhaey and Daemon. Where their arcs stopped, running into repetition episode after episode.

I wonder if it's their desire to get a 4th season out of this show, then the cold as hell 25 episodes that would've been lean and mean.

While I've liked this season so far and consider it to be one of the best shows on right now (the competition ain't fierce this year ), it's pretty clear that they wrote themselves into a corner with the pacing issues due to the source material sidelining Rhaenyra and Alicent during this part of the story and also I guess the budget. Without delving into any specific book spoilers that haven't happened already, all I'll say is that there's a lot of action that's about to happen and frankly some that probably should have happened already but they keep kicking the ball down the field. I assume that they had to space it out for budgetary reasons, which is why we're treated to multiple scenes of Rhaenyra questioning her council, "What would you have me do?" and Alicent dealing with the consequences of her own actions.

I'm aware that they finished the scripts for season two before the writer's strike started last year but I can't help but think if there would have been any improvement if they were allowed to tweak some things during filming. Granted I don't think that would have added a great deal since the layout for the season was already planned out.

Either way, going into the season I was actually expecting them to stretch it out even further with the S2 finale being the Battle of Rook's Rest which we ended up getting at the halfway point so it's still ironically going faster than I had expected. Ha.

 

[Deck Rickard]

I think she's amazing and this isn't a criticism. But what do you think she conveying? I like the scene, but I get the vibe that a lot of people don't like it, because it's just her kind of having a pity party for a situation that is literally all her fault.

Oh it’s totally her fault. But to be fair to Alicent, she’s a product of what her father did to her. So yeah, it’s total self pity but I have some sympathy for Alicent, given her background. And it helps that Cooke is so good in the role that she could make such a loathsome character sympathetic.

 

[#root]

Olivia Cooke stans are going to come for me for this but I think I much preferred Emily Carey’s Alicent . I had a lot of sympathy for her version but older Alicent has become less and less sympathetic for me. Some of it is Olivia’s portrayal but a big part of it is the writing and the structure of season one. Seeing Carery’s Alicent slowly become hardened and come to be this version of the character would’ve been great. But we saw her do something like that one time with the green dress moment and then immediately there was a massive jump and she became Cooke’s more neurotic, always on the verge of tears version of the character.

I also think the story isn’t having her confront her hypocrisy enough. All this talk about honor and queer Targaryen customs and she’s the one ****ing Cole on the regular and marrying her kids to each other.

 

[Drizzle]

Olivia Cooke stans are going to come for me for this but I think I much preferred Emily Carey’s Alicent . I had a lot of sympathy for her version but older Alicent has become less and less sympathetic for me. Some of it is Olivia’s portrayal but a big part of it is the writing and the structure of season one. Seeing Carery’s Alicent slowly become hardened and come to be this version of the character would’ve been great. But we saw her do something like that one time with the green dress moment and then immediately there was a massive jump and she became Cooke’s more neurotic, always on the verge of tears version of the character.

I also think the story isn’t having her confront her hypocrisy enough. All this talk about honor and queer Targaryen customs and she’s the one ****ing Cole on the regular and marrying her kids to each other.

I agree to an extent but up until episode 9 of the first season, adult Alicent was more or less just as hardened as she was in the green dress moment when she was younger. After the time jump starting in episode 6, Alicent was fully about claiming that Rhaenyra's children weren't trueborn, including forcing Rhaenyra to bring her newborn baby before her after she had just given birth, holding court with Otto and Vaemond Velaryon later on to dispute their legitimacy plus manipulating Aegon in her own way to prepare for Rhaenyra's ascension. And let's not forget that she literally attempted to cut out a child's eye as an act of vengeance.

Then we get to episode 9. As soon as she learns that her father was planning Aegon's ascension with or without her (misinterpreted) information about Viserys's last words, that was it. That's when she first starts to realize how little she's valued and it's all downhill from there going into season 2, really coming to a head when Aemond becomes prince regent and dismisses her from the council.

I could never hate Olivia Cooke and I've still been enjoying her performance, but I do miss some of that iciness that Alicent had before the end of season 1, post-time jump.

 

[Deck Rickard]

I loved Emily Carey in the role too and I was more sympathetic to young Alicent overall. You can tell that Alicent might have turned out to be a decent (or better person) had her father not pimped her out to be borderline raped by a leper for 20 years or so. That said, she’s done truly terrible things in adulthood and her attempt to hold on to power, not to mention being a complete hypocrite. I feel like it’s kind of splitting hairs to debate whether Carey or Cooke is better in the role… both are great and I feel each is perfect for the version of the character they are playing.

 

[#root]

It’s really more about personal preference than who is better. Like I said, a lot of it is the writing. As great as Carey was, the writing was also making us root for Alicent a lot more in those episodes. I still feel bad for her but her actions and hypocrisy make it harder to root for her. Cooke is great too but I just wish certain aspects of her character were dealt differently.

Also, I haven’t seen season 1 since it aired so maybe I need a rewatch to see all the nuances.