Season 1, Episode 5: “We Light the Way”
It’s not a real Westeros wedding until someone starts screaming.
In fact, the wedding of Princess Rainyra Targaryen and Ser Renor Velarion hadn’t even started when the crying began when the rehearsal dinner from seven hells erupted into Paramore-on-Paramore violence. By the time it’s over, Rayner’s sparring partner Joffrey (Solley MacLeod) is lying dead on the ballroom floor with a disintegrated Jell-O mold-like face, and Ser Christon has his blade cut. I was ready to fall.
They are the latest victims of the big night Rhaenyra and Daemon waged on the streets of Silk, whose effects continue to reverberate throughout the realm. Last week, Otto, who was fired for revealing a rebellion to the King, was enveloped in fallout. Rhaenyra, finally forced into a forced marriage. And the daemon was banished again (he only comes back again).
This week’s toll was more lethal. After Sir Joffrey decided that Damon would rather kill her wife than settle down with him, he died with his bronze bride, Lady Rhea (Rachel Redford). . (Contrary to what we’ve heard, she was very pretty, but Targaryens prefer blondes. And cousins.) It turned the life of a certain Sir Jerrold Royce upside down.
Meanwhile, sly Larrys Strong (Matthew Needham), who may have worn a sign around his neck reading “Evil Plotter”, is lighting the embers of Aricent’s suspicions in the royal gardens. I was. I heard the other day that her princess was delivered after tea not in the morning, he told her.
The revelation and the subsequent admission of Ser Christon sent Aricent in search of a Hightower Green wedding crush dress. It also served as an expression of allegiance in a certain Iron Throne derby.
Return to Westeros in “House of the Dragon”
HBO’s long-awaited ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel series is here.
In other words, the scandal that started in that dressing room is engulfing everyone in the realm.
One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about George RR Martin’s storytelling is the way its momentous, world-changing events erupt from recognizable human impulses and imperfections. Jealousy, greed, insecurity, the desire to protect one’s family, to hide shameful secrets, and so on. The sleazy but genuine love between Cersei and Jaime Lannister made ‘Game of Thrones’ animated. The Red Wedding was revenge for the broken engagement. Daenerys’ deep sense of dissatisfaction drove her across the globe to massacre.
Similarly, the current struggle for the throne was caused by Viserys’ stubborn and possibly misplaced loyalty to his daughter, born out of his grief for his wife. Now, the by-products of Daemon’s greed and desire to fight back against his brother, coupled with Rhaenyra’s selfish recklessness and dishonesty, seemingly deepen the initial rift to an irreparable extent.
Did you buy? Aricent’s fussiness has hitherto seemed extreme to the cautious and flexible. Especially since it seemed motivated by the fact that Laenira had deceived her. Otto also frightened her on her way out of town, warning about her near future and the safety of her children if Laenira remained her heir. Apparently all of the above, combined with the stark reality that Viserys is circling the royal drains, as her uncle put it, forced her to stand her taller to stand out .
Less convincing was the collapse of Ser Christon, who turned from a stalwart defender into a violent basket case in a week or so. (The timeline for this episode was a little vague.)
We are to believe that Christon has been pushed beyond his limits: his quarrel with Raenira, which breaks the Kingsguard vow of chastity, shatters his self-image, and the Princess Rejecting his marriage plans and making matters worse by dismissing his dreams, Essos is nothing more than an “orange bushel.” The Queen already knows all about his dirty cloak, thanks to a sitcom-level misunderstanding of her question about a night on Silk Street. It was intolerable for Kriston to know what would stick in his head. Apparently the only solution was to beat the man to death on the dance floor.
The speed and scale of Christon’s decline strained credibility. His attacking mania suggested a sort of mental break, but he may have been desperate to keep the secret hidden. However, from a narrative point of view, the beating foreshadowed future bloodshed, as it shows the unintended consequences of royal behavior and carelessness.
On Daemon’s advice, Rhaenyra thinks she can have her own wedding cake and a boy’s toy too. (She promised Laenor something similar.) What she got instead was a wedding that sucked even by Westeros standards. And the boy’s toy is claimed by her rival, who presumably plans to turn him into a different kind of toy.