Top 10 Things You Missed in House of the Dragon Episode 9
#10: One Location in Episode 9
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Longtime “Game of Thrones” fans will know that the penultimate episodes to the seasons are nothing to sneeze at; in fact, they’re often more memorable than the finale. “House of the Dragon’s” “The Green Council” is no different, though it also joins the ranks of two other Episode 9s that only take place in one location. Granted, “House of the Dragon” is already less globetrotting than “Thrones,” but it is striking not to see neither Rhaenyra nor Daemon, as the entire episode takes place in King’s Landing. The other two single-location Episode 9s were Season 2’s “Blackwater” and Season 4’s “The Watchers on the Wall,” the former also set at King's Landing and the latter at, well, the Wall.
#9: Candle in the Window
Seeing as there’s no cell phones around to send texts saying, “Hey, king dead, enact scheme,” characters have to get creative with how they get the word out. That’s exactly what Talya does here by using candles as a signal for Mysaria, aka the White Worm. It’s a pretty clever tactic, and one that was almost used in “Game of Thrones.” While Sansa’s in the throes of being engaged to Ramsay Bolton, her maid shrewdly tells her to light a candle to signal to her allies in the North if she needs out. She does, and even suggests Theon do this, only for him to snitch to Ramsay and for Ramsay to kill the maid. Sansa later lights it herself, but Brienne barely misses it.
#8: Alicent Refuses to Play the Game
“House of the Dragon” has done a tremendous job of sewing in shades of gray into its character development. While we don’t side with Alicent per se, we do empathize with her perspective and refusal to be cold when dealing with dissenters. Though we certainly know what Cersei would say of her half-hearted playing of the game of thrones. In our breakdown of Episode 7, we remarked of how Alicent’s father Otto commended her ability to play the “ugly game,” regardless of her reluctance. Here we have another allusion to the game, as Otto once again commends Alicent, this time for her ability to get to Aegon before he could. Alicent rebuffs him again, but we know he’s still a proud daddy.
#7: Mysaria-Varys Parallels
Fans have already likened Daemon’s former paramour Mysaria to “Game of Thrones’s” Varys, seeing as they both deal heavily in espionage and spy networks in King’s Landing. And this episode made sure to hammer home that connection even further. While speaking to Otto, Mysaria remarks that power is only an affordance given by the people, a sentiment Varys also seems to echo while talking to Tyrion. Clearly they both understand the tenuous nature of power and how to best influence it. If that wasn’t enough to bind the characters together, Larys Strong refers to Mysaria’s network as “spiders,” the “Spider” also being a direct nickname for Varys.
#6: A New Lord Commander
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We knew Alicent’s appointment of Aegon as the “rightful heir” wasn’t gonna go well. In fact, it still isn’t. But it’s who specifically speaks out against it that feels familiar. After Lord Beesbury is so rudely silenced for questioning the Council, Ser Harrold Westerling resigns his post as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, leading to Criston Cole taking up the mantle. Seeing as Aegon’s improper succession already mirror’s that of Joffrey Baratheon, it’s even more interesting that Joffrey taking the throne also coincided with the replacement of the Lord Commander. Though Ser Barristan Selmy is outright relieved of his duty, it was secretly for a similar reason of not being a staunch loyalist to the House.
#5: Aemond-Daemon Parallels
Beyond their being closely related, Aemond is already displaying striking similarities to his Uncle Daemon in his young adulthood. Aside from both being exceptionally brutal, both are at one point the younger brother of the king, despite thinking they’re more suited for the job. Although in Aemond’s case, his brother is quick to admit it. If you needed a visual representation, this episode sees Aemond accompany Ser Criston in a search for Aegon in the streets of King’s Landing. To conceal his identity, he hides his Targaryen golden locks underneath a hood. Daemon employs a similar tactic in Episode 4 when he escorts Rhaenyra on a night of debauchery, to put it lightly.
#4: Viserys’s Dragon Dream
We’ve waxed poetic before about dragon dreams, prophetic dreams within House Targaryen that portend of coming events. From Aegon’s “Song of Ice and Fire” to Daenerys’s about her dragon eggs hatching, they always more or less seem to come true, and we can now add Viserys’s to the list. As he says early in the season, he foresaw his son wearing the Conqueror’s crown amidst a great warring. Though he initially thought it would be his son by Aemma, Aegon does indeed don his namesake’s crown, whereas Viserys’s is left with his body. Speaking of Aegon’s crown, another detail we noticed was it being placed upon a green pillow, a metaphor for House Targaryen now being propped up by House Hightower.
#3: A New Targaryen Sigil
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Longtime fans of both series will know the Targaryen sigil as being a red, three-headed dragon against a black backdrop. However, with the coronation of Aegon II comes a new sigil, that of a golden dragon. This falls in line with the books, as the gold is meant to represent Aegon’s personal dragon Sunfyre. While we’ve only seen Sunfyre in a single episode so far, we’re sure he’ll pop up more frequently as the Dance of Dragons kicks into full gear. One other subtle implication of the sigil’s appearance is how prepared the greens really were for Viserys’s death. Kinda like championship gear for sports teams, they had it ready to go for once things became finalized.
#2: Yi Ti
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Show-watchers will know next to nothing about Yi Ti, a region which lies in the far east of Essos, but book readers will pick up on its mention here as a hint of things to come. Here, Aemond offhandedly mentions it as a place Aegon might’ve run off to. While that might seem innocuous enough, the fact that HBO is reportedly developing an animated series set in Yi Ti makes us think it wasn’t just a random name drop. Essentially a “Game of Thrones” version of Imperial China, the Yi Ti series could flesh out the world in breathtaking ways. Coupled with the mentions of Nymeria, it seems the showrunners of “House of the Dragon” are also planting the seeds of future spinoffs.
#1: The Beast Beneath the Boards
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When the obviously prophetic Helaena mentioned the ambiguous “beast beneath the boards” in the last episode, we knew to keep that in the back of our minds going into this one. Sure enough, not only does it come to pass, but Helaena makes sure to remind us of the threat while talking to Alicent. We weren’t initially sure if the “beast” would be literal or figurative, but our questions were emphatically answered when Rhaenys and her dragon Meleys burst up during Aegon’s coronation to voice her disapproval. We could feel something momentous about to happen, and boy did it. Still, we can’t help but wonder if Alicent or anyone else will finally start to register the things Helaena says.
