Sunday’s Home of the Dragon was a standout episode for HBO’s new Thrones present, turning the dial of court docket intrigue all the best way to 11. There was the standard succession drama, outdated rivals going through off for the primary time in years, and an unexpectedly humorous decapitation.
You realize, the standard.
[Ed. note: Major spoilers follow for episode 8 of House of the Dragon.]
Within the episode a petition has been known as for who will inherit Driftmark from Corlys Velaryon, who apparently suffered a nasty wound within the Stepstones. This petition was organized by Queen Alicent and her father, Hand of the King Ser Otto Hightower, and fairly a number of potential heirs have been able to have their case made.
A kind of heirs was Corlys’ youthful brother, Vaemond. Vaemond, performed with scene-stealing depth by Wil Johnson, has a very inflammatory case, because it depends upon the illegitimacy of Princess Rhaenyra’s kids, a hot-button matter for the present and the court docket.
Vaemond, like others, was anticipating to make his case earlier than Queen Alicent and Ser Otto. He did, however shortly after, King Viserys, sporting a sick gold face masks, makes a shock look on the Iron Throne. When he immediately shuts down the proceedings, stating that this can be a determined subject and he has already decreed Rhaenyra his inheritor (and her kids the inheritor to Driftmark), this enrages Vaemond.
Vaemond not solely challenges the king’s proper to make such choices, he out-and-out calls Rhaenyra’s kids bastards and the princess herself a “whore.” Viserys responds, “I’ll have his tongue for that!” and, certain sufficient, his brother Daemon (now Rhaenyra’s consort, who had virtually begged Vaemond for the chance to kill him) lops off Vaemond’s head from behind.
Vaemond’s physique collapses on the bottom, and the digicam is angled in such a approach that we see the open prime of his now uncovered neck gap — displaying his still-wagging tongue and never a lot else. Daemon, in typical wisecracking style, retorts, “He can hold his tongue.”
It’s a brutally hilarious motion beat that effectively breaks the edge-of-your-seat rigidity of the scene with a visible punchline sandwiched by jokes within the dialogue. And the truth that the present was daring sufficient to pair the decapitation with a punchline shot from the digicam took it from vicious to transcendently humorous. The man is wagging his tongue on the king and is diminished to easily a wagging tongue. That’s gold, people.
The humor of the second can also be considerably aided by Daemon’s entire deal. Matt Smith is at his finest as an imp. We’ve seen it in Home of the Dragon, and we even noticed it in Morbius when he dances in his residence. Right here, he’s in a position to carry that power to the darker world of Thrones, goading a possible enemy into saying simply the fitting factor to permit him to commit homicide with none blowback, all with a depraved smile on his face as he virtually begs Vaemond to Go There. Thank the gods he did, as a result of it delivered some of the memorable moments of the present’s run to this point.
