After each episode of House of the Dragon, HBO’s prequel to Game of Thrones, Slate writers gather to answer an age-old question: Who is the worst person in Westeros? This week: senior editor Sam Adams and pop critic Jack Hamilton answer the call.
Sam Adams: Jack! Welcome to the Worst Person in Westeros. You are a longtime George R.R. Martin fan and diehard Thronesie, as I believe they prefer to be called, and yet this is the first time you’re weighing in on House of the Dragon. It’s a week of firsts, in fact, since with the show’s sixth episode, “The Princess and the Queen,” the narrative jumps forward by about a decade and introduces new actors to the roles of Rhaenyra, Alicent, Laenor, and Laena (although in one case, not for very long). Before we start throwing out candidates for the Worst, what do you make of the show’s new blood?
Jack Hamilton: Thanks, Sam! Glad to be back in the, uh, jousting saddle as we hash out who was the very worst person in the ol’ seven kingdoms this week. I have to say, I knew that the great actor swap was coming this week, but it was still a pretty weird adjustment, particularly since I don’t think the characters are really supposed to be all that much older. I don’t really think most of us look like completely different people between the time we’re 20 and the time we’re 30, and I kept wondering if with a little more creative makeup they could have kept some of the old crew (young crew?) around. For instance, the older version of Laenor Velaryon looks nothing like the actor who played him last week save for a similar hairstyle, and I’m particularly sad to lose Milly Alcock, who I thought did really terrific work as the younger Rhaenyra Targaryen through the first half of the season, although I did think Emma D’Arcy acquitted themselves quite well in the role this week. I’m sure I’ll get used to it soon enough, but it was still an interesting decision.
Adams: “The Princess and the Queen” has a lot of business to attend to, not just introducing the new cast but setting the table for the back half of the season, and perhaps because of that, it actually features people acting somewhat reasonably for once. We’ve held off naming Daemon as Worst because it’s always seemed too obvious, but this might be the first week he’s not even in the running. When his wife, Laena, is having difficulty giving birth, a maester offers Daemon the same choice that his brother Viserys was faced with in the first episode: Namely, should we perform a C-section that will definitely kill your wife but might save your child? And he says … no! The woman he loves is more important to him than his potential heir. Unfortunately this isn’t a world where good news always bring good results: She’s still unable to deliver, and faced with the likelihood of slow and agonizing death, she chooses death by dracarys, ordering her own dragon to burn her alive.
Back at King’s Landing, Rhaenyra is enduring a grueling labor of her own, and though mother and child both survive, she hasn’t even had time to deliver the afterbirth before Queen Alicent summons the baby to be brought to her. Rhaenyra isn’t about to let her newborn out of her sight, so she pulls herself upright and winces her way up the stairs, leaving a trail of blood behind her. (Veteran Game of Thrones director and recently departed HotD co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnick shoots both actions in long, unbroken takes, emphasizing Rhaenyra’s physical exertion and giving D’Arcy the opportunity to make a strong first impression.) Alicent is quite the busybody in this episode, fretting about how obvious it is that Rhaenyra’s children are not the product of her marriage to Laenor but her ongoing affair with Harwin Strong, the commander of the city watch and son of the king’s hand, Lyonel—and though she’s ostensibly worried about her old friend’s safety (royal adultery, at least by women, being punishable by death), her real concern seems to be for the safety of the crown, which is to say, herself. So what of it, Jack, could Alicent be the Worst?
Hamilton: Alicent certainly has a strong case. Despite the years that have passed since last week’s episode, Alicent’s bitterness toward Rhaenyra seems to have festered to the point of outright poisonousness. It’s not entirely clear what’s driving the rift, which does at the moment seem rather one-sided. (If Alicent is still nursing a grudge that Rhaenyra lied to her about her virginity 10-plus years ago, I’m declaring that to be 100 percent an Alicent problem.) Rhaenyra seems pretty genuine when she offers her former bestie an olive branch in the small council meeting, which Alicent seems to promptly swat away like Westerosi Mutombo. And then of course there’s Alicent’s dealings with the various men in her life, all of whom she seems dead-set on turning against Rhaenyra. Last week’s WPiW, Criston Cole, who in the 10 years since Rhaenyra rejected his marriage proposal seems to have gone full-blown incel misogynist, calls the heir to the Iron Throne a “cunt” in Alicent’s presence, and she doesn’t exactly protest. (Side note: Was the C-word used this much in Game of Thrones? It feels like this show has a weekly quota to fulfill or something.) Alicent also tries, with increasing stridency, to rub King Viserys’ nose in Rhaenyra’s philandering and her children’s lack of resemblance to her husband, Laenor. And then of course there’s her vent sessions with Larys Strong, whom we first met briefly last week and by the end of this week’s episode has certainly announced himself as an up-and-comer in the WPiW standings! Sam, what do you make of this seemingly full-blown sociopath?
Adams: I will admit I had to refresh my memory about who Larys Strong was, and based on the frequency with which people say things like “your father” and “my brother” it feels like House of the Dragon knows I’m not alone. But having squinted at the Wiki a little, he seems like a strong choice. Larys is both the son of the king’s hand and the brother of Rhaenyra’s lover, but he’s more loyal to Alicent than to either of them—or, put another way, he sees more advantage in being her fixer than he does in being House Strong’s less-favored son. After Criston Cole and Harwin Strong get into a fight in the castle courtyard—a fight that starts by proxy when they’re teaching swordcraft to Rhaenyra’s sons, who are all such squirmy little weasels I’m surprised one of them isn’t named Laramie—Lyonel tries to resign his position in disgrace, knowing that a public brawl between the princess’s current lover and her former lover puts her potentially fatal secret about as close to public discovery as it can be. But Viserys, in a display of power that, like most of his attempts at wielding it, comes across as weakness, effectively dares Lyonel to name the queen’s transgression out loud. (The actors in this episode seem like they’re in a contest to see who can come the closest to saying the word “bastard” without actually doing so; at one point, Alicent refers to Rhaenyra’s sons as “bbbbb-plain-featured.”) Lyonel dare not risk it, and the king won’t accept his resignation, so poor Lyonel is stuck, although he gets leave to escort Hawin, who’s now been kicked out of the city watch, back to the family seat at Harrenhal. Alicent, who feels awfully short on allies at King’s Landing, tells Larys she wishes her father, Otto, could be hand again, which Larys takes as the Westerosi equivalent of “Will no one rid me of this troublesome priest?” Within a few minutes of screen time, he’s put together a secret squadron of cutthroats from the castle’s deepest dungeons, cut off their tongues to prevent them telling tales, and sent them off to burn down his family home, resulting in the presumed deaths of his father and brother. You wanted a power vacuum, m’lady, you got one.
There are a few other candidates we haven’t mentioned, namely Alicent’s eldest son, Aegon, a smarmy little brat who likes to wank it through an open window in her bedroom, and Laenor, who sees his wife dragging herself up a flight of stairs moments after giving birth and can only offer by way of comfort how glad he is that he’s not a woman.* But they’re merely annoying, whereas Larys might be straight-up evil—albeit in a pretty juicy way that we haven’t seen since the death of Petyr Baelish. Is there anyone you want to throw into the mix? Or shall we just hand Larys the crown?
Hamilton: I’m glad you mentioned Petyr Baelish, because that’s exactly whom Larys reminded me of, albeit in a somehow even more slimy manifestation. At least Littlefinger seemed to have a sliver of humanity in his unrequited, boyish pining for Catelyn Stark, whereas Larys just seems like a power-hungry monster. (Granted, this might have to do with the fact that the character development in the early seasons of Game of Thrones was far superior to what we’ve seen so far here.) I think it’s a pretty stacked race this week between Alicent, Larys, failson Aegon, and the bumbling Laenor. And let’s not forget Criston Cole, who seems intent on working through the feelings he caught for Rhaenyra a decade ago by subjecting her children to physical abuse at the hands of their cousin. Alicent and Larys do seem at the head of the pack, though. As awful as Alicent is, by episode’s end she does seem genuinely horrified when she realizes the atrocities Larys has committed on her supposed behalf, and Larys seems all too eager to let her know that he now considers her in his debt, with no small amount of menace. Plus I’m inclined to cut Alicent just a little slack because I do think she’s doing what she’s doing out of a real concern for the well-being of her children, who, bratty as they are, probably should be looking over their shoulders once their half-sister (ew) Rhaenyra ascends to the Iron Throne. Congratulations to Larys Strong, this week’s Worst Person in Westeros! Something tells me this won’t be his last appearance on the dais.
Correction, Sept. 27, 2022: This post originally misstated that Aegon is Rhaenyra’s eldest son. He is Alicent’s eldest son.
