The following contains spoilers for House of the Dragon.

“Do you take me for a fool?”

It’s what Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) asks Larys (Matthew Needham) after he makes an obtusely unsubtle play for the position of Hand of the King. Larys, of course, does take him for a fool – but he isn’t foolish enough to ever admit that out loud. Larys, in this case, is correct.

Leadership is a complicated thing to get a handle on and this dance of trying to figure out who is the best person for the job is a dominant theme in all of A Song of Ice Fire. Is it fear? Is it love? Is it brutality? Is it efficiency? Is it patience? There are moral boundaries everyone believes they would never cross in the name of leadership but the definition of what counts as “good” leadership is almost always context-dependent.

Larys is correct that Aemond is a fool for while Aemond carries all of the trademarks of what people often think of as “strong and effective” leadership from a man, what he lacks is a significant warning of what is to come. He delivers efficient command after command, some good (“cut down the fucking rat catchers”), while others are clearly designed to remove anyone who dares question him out of the orbit of power. He was challenging Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) and, rightfully so, when he charged his brother with hiring his lackeys as Kingsguard. But here he is doing the same and the end result likely will not be any better.

The most telling of his responses was when Larys informed him that the small folk of King’s Landing were angry that they were running out of food. Aemond, like so many aristocrats and elites who don’t understand the fragility of their power, simply says, “So?” They’re cockroaches to him, the people who comprise his kingdom, the people whose taxes pay for the finery of his very existence. Unsurprisingly, man who sees himself as indestructible rarely stays that way.

As if to prove his point fairly soon thereafter, a riot breaks out in King’s Landing. Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), continuously frustrated with her position and though she is not one to see the value of her subjects either, at least has the sense to listen to Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno). And true to her word, Mysaria launches a two-pronged attack: a) to have her spices spread rumors about how the Greens are living lavishly while the civilians of King’s Landing are starving, and, b) send ships with Rhaenyra’s flag and good under the cover of cloud and fog.

And it works. It’s less an admission of undying loyalty to Rhaenyra than it is a recognition that someone who is in a position of some power is upholding her end of the social contract: you pay taxes, I make sure you are safe and have food and medicine. That Rhaenyra is fulfilling her end of the bargain even while not on the throne only deepens the anger of the populace – anger that while they are starving and dying, cartloads of sheep are being unashamedly carted through the streets to feed dragons.

Alicent (Olivia Cooke) and Helaena (Phia Saban) are at the Sept when the anger starts to boil. It’s not an immediate riot but as soon as a peasant man grabs Alicent’s arm and a member of the Kingsguard (great idea, Aegon, hiring your drinking buddies to be in the Secret Service) chops off his lower arm and hand, all hell breaks loose. It’s almost a miracle that the two of them escape at all.

Rhaenyra is not escaping the weight of her grief. She is thankful for Mysaria’s efforts in executing the plans to boost her political support among the populace but hasn’t fully come to terms with the loss of Luke (Elliot Grihault) and his dragon, with the loss of Rhaenys (Eve Best) and her dragon. That she sent both of them out, even if Rhaenys initially volunteered, is magnifying that grief with an intense guilt. Then, she ordered revenge upon Aemond and instead a child ended up decapitated. Every time she chooses decisive action, the consequences unfurl in a way that shakes her and her resolve.

It’s not helping that everyone seems to speak at her as if she were nothing more than a vessel for their own thoughts, agendas, strategies or more often, a lack thereof. And that reality that has set within her so firmly instantaneously clashes with the perceived political power of her position. She knows, as she tells Mysaria, that the men around her see their mothers, daughters, but they don’t see someone who commands them. So in a moment of anger after her initial dragon rider plan collapses, she strikes Bartimos Celtigar (Nicholas Jones) across the face.

If her striking Bartimos was an indicator of her taking inspiration from Visenya the Conqueror, the vulnerability of the Rhaenyra we know comes forth in her conversation with Mysaria. This fear, this apprehension that everything she has been working on this season has been for naught, that the sacrifices others had made in her name have been for naught. The campaign has been largely a disaster for her and a melancholic stagnation has taken root.

Queerness, to paraphrase bell hooks, is not just a descriptor of love, attraction, and sex between people who identify with the same gender. It’s a descriptor of how queer people navigate a world whose boundaries our very existence proves to be false. It affects so much of how we perceive ourselves, the world around us, and our place within it. You can see it in both Rhaenyra and Mysaira for different reasons, on different margins and in each other, they find an anchor for safety, stability, and a little bit of cherishment. It’s romantic and crucially, romantic with an intimacy that builds organically towards that kiss, a moment when two people are finding that human connection amidst a cascade of catastrophic storms.

Notes:

• Every time someone in a story says something along the idea that “the people who don’t want power are the best suited for it” I lose my mind. It’s at best a sophomoric ass idea and I will be addressing it in a future piece, likely after the season is over.
• I really, really love how they’re writing Aemond. An exquisite portrayal of how the traditional concept of strong male leadership in wartime is rotten to its core – the scene where is softly threatening Aegon is a highlight – and for Aemond, possibly a mistake.
• “It is my fault, I think, that you have forgotten to fear me.” Absolute banger line.
• Just a curious note that Rhaenyra is studying Visenya the Conqueror.
• It remains important, especially in this backlash era, to see an explicitly queer main character in a show as big as this one. Will have a separate piece on this relationship after the season’s conclusion.
• Seasmoke claiming Addam (Clinton Liberty) was so, so good.
• Shoutout to Paddy Considine being back on our screens, even if it was only for one episode.

Catch up on previous House of the Dragon recaps and reviews.