First Impressions - House of the Dragon Season 2 (2024)

After a few years of wait, we finally have the first episode of the second season of House of the Dragon and there was plenty to talk about so here are my first impressions of the season and where I think it may be going. Obviously, there will be spoilers from the first episode here, so if you haven't seen it then go watch the episode first before reading this. 

The characters are still reeling from the events of the first season finale 

In the season 1 Finale we saw Aemond Targaryen kill Lucerys Velaryon thus causing the two factions of the greens vs the blacks to have their personal issues raised even higher. The death of Lucerys has made the blacks seem vengeful and ready to try and destroy the hierarchy led by Daemon who is especially vengeful. It has led to the Greens being nervous about the response and this leads to some distrust brewing. 

Cristen Cole and Alicent Hightower have started hooking up 

We find out in this episode that Cristen Cole & Alicent Hightower have been more then just the Queen's Mother and Head of The King's Guard they have been having a sexual relationship. From Hightower's point of view it makes sense as during her relationship with Viserys she never had a good sexual experience. However, it is totally hypocritical from Cristen Cole and continues in making him the worst character in this show. In the previous show he said he didn't want to be a sidepiece for a woman with Rhaenyra but has just started doing it with Hightower, showing his weakness and true colours. 

Will we see The Targaryen's turn on The Hightowers 

Currently Aegon is the king of Westeros but this episode does a pretty good job of sowing the seeds of dissent amongst The Targaryen brothers and The Hightower Father & Daughter. We see Aegon & Aemond both have disagreements with Otto Hightower and it is even suggested to the king that Otto be removed from his position of Hand of the King. We also see The Hightowers discussing how they can sort out the situation to bring them out on top, with events that take place at the end of the episode, this could cause a big friction between the entities at the capital. 

Rhaeyra wants Aemond Targaryen  

After finding the remains of her son, Rhaenyra only has one line in the episode and that is that she wants Aemond Targaryen. It isn't particularly clear if she wants him killed or whether she wants him captured and brought to her to maybe do the deed herself. The ambiguity of the statement leads to what happens towards the end of the episode. 

Prince Jaehaerys is killed

Later in the episode we see Daemon hire two common folk to kill Aemond Targaryen, his interpretation of what his queen wanted. However, when the two assassins arrive they instead kill off the young child Jaehaerys who is the heir to the throne of King's Landing. This is going to be the event that really triggers the war between the two factions, The Greens will believe that Rhaenyra assassinated the heir to the throne. 

Did Daemon want Jaehaerys dead?

In the scene with the two assassins, they ask him what to do if they can't find Aemond, with the show then cutting away. The question is whether Daemon told them to go after Jaehaerys who is another son of a Targaryen, Daemon has done some pretty awful things on this show and this would be right up there if he did order the death of a young child. 

Overall

Overall, I thought this was a decent but slow episode of House of the Dragon. It is clearly trying to find its feet and after that insane ending it should lead to some insane things happening over the show and I hope this can rise it to really high levels.