Review: House of the Dragon, "The Green Council" | Season 1, Episode 9
Oops, All Hightowers! or: the prequel finally addresses its uneven foundation
Last week’s episode of House of the Dragon was unquestionably a breakthrough moment, but it largely achieved this by focusing on a character that dies at episode’s end. The show proved that Viserys’ life had served as a catalyst for compelling drama and meaningful pathos, but his death—and the war the show has always acted like it would start—doesn’t automatically ensure the show has a stable foundation to continue to reach these heights.
“The Green Council” is an effort to create this foundation, an attempt to rebalance the scales after a season largely invested in the dynamics of Rhaenyra’s claim to the throne. By choosing to tell so much of the season through Rhaenyra’s perspective, and as a byproduct of Daemon’s substantial (if scattered) arc intersecting with hers through their marriage, the show anchored itself to their side of the story, to the point where it has felt like the writers were outright taking sides. Whereas Game of Thrones at least gave us Tyrion amidst th…