Well, we're only one episode away in a week, and we'll have the first season behind us. Dragonborn is not a long series, each season will have a maximum of ten episodes, so a lot has to happen in those 10 hours or so.
In the penultimate episode, the ninth, of the first season, we pick up with the events that happened in the previous episode. During the last minutes of the life of the last sane king, Viserys, we learn that he is well past his age and his mind no longer serves him so well, and so he is not responsible for the last words he spoke to his wife instead of his daughter.
The next episode continues with the words overheard by the queen. For since the death of the king, it has been unimportant to find an heir, i.e. Prince Aegon, who has made no preparations for the succession and expects, it is his nature, that someone else will be queen.
We must commend the writers for, presumably, saving the action-packed carnage until the last episode, because even in this ninth episode, it is mostly talk and the actors living for their characters. Not only Tom Glynn-Carney as the fierce heir to the throne, but also, for example, Ewan Mitchell, who plays his younger brother, who has more respect for his ancestors.
Let's not forget Queen Alicent and her mentor Lord Larissa, who have a very strange, almost creepy, relationship with each other.
As you can see, the new King Aegon and has quite a bit of respect from his subjects, as he's always been at his best among the rabble. Unfortunately, however, he is a victim of his mother and grandfather's power, and so he probably won't enjoy his reign for very long.
Today's episode is not about Princess Rhaenyra and King Daemon's brother, who, in the previous episode, have returned to their castle. They don't know anything yet, but word will surely get back to them (the King's sister has escaped on a dragon) that a naughty brat has made his way into the royal court and has been installed by the Hand and Queen.
This episode is really about words. Everyone knows their place. Those who oppose it go against the king and must be silenced. There have been so many deaths in no previous episode before, yet you can see the creators are trying not to be so gory or tabloid. We learn, of course, what all is going on behind the walls of the royal mansion, that it's not exactly legal stuff, but the kingdom tolerates it, that, for the king to rule well, the poor must be made poor.
This episode was directed by Clare Kilner, who managed to make the female characters absolutely stand out. The men just stand there like bushes, trying to rule, but they are ruled cleverly by the women. Not only Alicent, but the other women manage to turn their men around.
I'm curious to see the last episode, I hope it's a proper slaughterhouse that shows us the battles of the dragons. Mainly the episode will be about how the king should never have married his "mentor" Alicent, whose father is even more interested in the throne. In fact, there are two sensible women vying for the succession, and they are stripped of the throne, by my orders. For when Rhaenys and Rhaenyra join together, neither king nor counselors stand a chance. Behind these women stands the entire house (and descendants and friends) of the Velaryons, to whom the kings have promised kinship with the ruling houses x times and never fulfilled it.
Original release of October 18, 2022 – Kritiky.cz
