Welcome back everyone It's Charlie, House
the Dragon Season 2 is finally back. This will be my full Episode 1 video Who is ready to commit some war crimes this Season? Seriously They started off with one of the most WTF moments
from the books they could have Like they wanted to start off with a banger. Wasting no time. There are tons of Easter Eggs and references, so we'll
break it all down If you're brand new to the channel, I'll be doing videos for all the Episodes this Season,
just like I did for Season one for the main show. be sure to subscribe to get everything. Also because a lot of you been requesting it
and bringing you back face cam for a lot of these Episode videos. Pay no attention to that magneto helmet. George RR Martin said it's period accurate.
It could totally stay. Matt Smith also just revealed
they're going to be filming season three later this year, so hopefully they'll get it out
faster rather than later. the actual Episode title was A son for a son,
which is clearly a reference to Damon's line during the Episode where he orchestrates
the events that will become known as Blood and Cheese in retaliation
against the Greens for the death of Lucerys. R.I.P. to him and R.I.P. to baby J Harris. the show made a couple changes to the way
blood and cheese goes down from the original Fire and Blood books,
but that's the whole vibe of the show itself. It's meant to provide extra context
for what actually happened, like the truth of History versus
the Fire and Blood book, which is a third party account and written by Master Guillotine in Mushroom
from his accounts, which are often unreliable. Ryan Condal
also revealed that when he was working with George R.R. Martin, way that George R.R. Martin described the Fire and Blood book is
that it's more of unreliable narration and very green leaning account, which is why it portrays Rhaenyra
in very poor light during times in the books. Apparently the masters not real big fans of Rhaenyra. but ultimately, the events of Blood and Cheese
go down the same way. The ultimate death of Helaena and Aegon's son Jaehaerys. and since the show is meant to be the truer version
of events, The full context we get for blood and cheese. Is it? Originally it was all about getting aemond. Head for Lucerys,
getting revenge against Aemond by killing him. But when they actually came to do the deed, sneaky
through the Red keep, they couldn't find Aemond. So instead, blood and cheese, who already kind of messed
up in the head, like, already pretty mad. Just decided, well, she's good enough. These babies are good enough. We'll go for them. he asked for son. We'll give him a son. This actually flies in the face of the long held belief,
based on the books that we've had up to this point, that Daemon and Myseria
specifically ordered that it be one of her children. so it kind of makes Daemon in the black seem slightly
less despicable. they didn't want things to go down like this. But this is the way it happened, which is also similar to
what happened with Aemond and Lucerys during season one. Like he didn't try to kill em like it was an accident. But that's not what Aemond says
when he comes back to the Red keep. the dance of the dragons just in general. Not just season one, but season 2. Future seasons is mostly about a bunch of different people inside the family
doing terrible things to each other. You're not really meant to truly align
with any one side, but based on the way things go down Episode to Episode. Particularly this Episode, they really do want to
sympathize both sides in different ways. More like they want you to sympathize a little bit
more with the Greens after what happens in this Episode. that will not always be the case, though,
because what happens in Episode one basically drives everything that happens later this season. Like it's all about retaliation, escalation
on both sides. one of the first major changes
everybody will recognize instantly for season 2 is that they change the entire intro scene. now, instead of the model of the Valyrian freehold
with the blood flowing down to represent the Targaryen family tree leading from Aegon
the Conqueror, like the blood of ancient Valyria, it's a tapestry you see hung on a wall
depicting the actual, more literal family tree, like the ones they'd hang up around Dragonstone,
the Red keep before Alicent found religion during that time jump and got rid of all their Targaryen
paraphernalia and designs all over the red keep. one of the funny details the showrunners revealed
during season one 2 is that Viserys, because he was such a nerd for Targaryen
in Valyrian history, is that a lot of the tapestries that he had hung around his room, particularly,
were dragons getting out like humping each other? as you can imagine, Alicent, not a huge fan of dragons,
humping each other everywhere she looks. the whole reason they said they changed the intro. This significantly is because each time
during season one, they'd only update the Valyrian freehold model
when somebody new was born. And up to this point now season 2, going forward,
nobody else is born. Essentially, like everybody that was going to be born
has already been born. so we wanted a better way to visualize the family tree
together in changing that Episode to Episode. they really give us a taste in this Episode,
but they wanted to remind you about the White Walkers, the Night King, the Long Night,
But if the show winds up going for, say, like four seasons, they probably just stay
with the tapestry intro and change that. When people die, during the original show,
they change the intro Episode to Episode, mostly based on where you went
because it was a literal map representation. Personally,
I think that the original show intro is still peak. It has not been topped yet, but the intro for House
the Dragon season one was still pretty cool. You guys can let me know which intro you prefer. for the most part, the tapestry itself follows the same logic as the original Valyrian
freehold 3D model with the like. You start with ancient Valyria, the like. You see all the dragons here. The death of the dragons,
the 14 flames blowing up the Doom of Valyria, essentially Dennis the dreamer getting the dream
anus Targaryen taking his dragons. All of the Targaryens holdings
in going to Dragonstone before the doom goes down. then the rise of Aegon the Conqueror, the conquest. You see, may Gore the cruel here. Eventually, then Jarrus and his wife Alice,
and they're also mentioned later in the Episode the Division of the blacks in the Greens,
then Aegon on the Iron Throne, Rhaenyra separately on her throne on Dragonstone
in the way they depict the ending as if the tapestry is being woven inside the Iron Throne room
in view of the throne itself. the actual opening scene. The Episode starts with Cregan
Stark and Jacaerys up at the North. Welcome back. How stark it's been so long. saw how stark cameo briefly
during season one, Episode one. Cregan's father Rickon Stark for whom young Rickon later in the timeline
winds up being named on the main show. can be seen swearing fealty to Rhaenyra after
she was named the heir with the other lords of the realm also bowing to her, which they kind of renege on
like that's why we're in this whole situation now. There's a special ceremony
that Cregan created at the beginning of winter. Each season, 1 in 10 men inside
his forces are chosen to fortify the wall, including members inside the line of succession
to the stark family. Jesus references the time Torin Stark bend the knee
to Aegon the Conqueror during the actual conquest. Cregan references how his father Rick and brought King
George Harrison land and their dragons, vermouth and silver wing to the wall
in How the Dragons Refused to cross the wall because they were afraid of the Night King in the White
Walkers. there was a ton,
a ton of plot that happened up in the north around House stark, Winterfell during season one,
but the show just completely skipped it all. It happened during the time jump between Episode
five and Episode six. I'll probably do like a separate video
talking more about that. you could go on for like an hour talking about all the stuff that the show skipped over
Rick and passed away during that time. Jump in. At the time, Cregan was only about 13 years old,
So the title Lord of Winterfell passed to him naturally, as it would. But Riggins brother Starks served as his regent
while Cregan was still very young growing up. And as he got older, just refused to let go of that
power, causing their own little civil war in the North. as you can see clearly, Cregan one became
Lord of Winterfell proper, wound up marrying his childhood sweetheart. Where we see him now up at the wall with Josiah's. this is one of the reasons
why he's so sympathetic to Rhaenyra, why he pledges his fealty to her again,
or sort of reaffirms Winterfell is fealty to her. because the same basic thing is happening to Rhaenyra
with someone else trying to usurp her rightful Iron Throne. also the idea that Cregan Stark has a very Ned Stark
like sense of duty and honor and because Riggins swore the oath of fealty to Rhaenyra so many years ago,
Cregan feels honor bound to uphold that oath. When Episode one picks up in present day,
it's only been about ten days since the end of season one,
so not much time has gone by. Like, everybody's still grieving for a bunch
of different characters and a couple new ones. That list by the end of the Episode, But in that ten days, Jason is still the alliance
and obviously traveled north to the walls. We also get the Easter Eggs and references
to the Night's Watch, the White Walkers, the Night King. We The show
doesn't really have a lot of time to spend up there, but they're just reminding you
that that's a big concern in the background. One of the things that Rhaenyra is really worried about. Tom Taylor is playing Cregan Stark. You could detect a little bit of that northern accent,
like he's trying to do his best. Ned Stark best Jon Snow type of accent there. You get the sense of duty and honor for him. And this sort of baked into all the Starks
just in general. we get to see another resupply run with them
taking more men to the Night's Watch to Castle Black. And while they're there,
he also gives just a bit of a PowerPoint tutorial on how the Night's Watch works, Because if it wasn't
clear during season one, they didn't really get into it. Jesus had never been to the wall before. notice he's also carrying ice on his back. The blurring great sword
of how stark it has been melted down by Tywin. Yet later in the timeline, rip Ned Stark. he's also wearing that similar northern armor,
basically the same type that Jon Snow wore later in the timeline, because that's just the type of armor
that they wore in the North across the ages. we see the direwolf sigil in the middle of his chest. in while he's giving this big speech
about honor in the Night's Watch. They're also playing some of the theme music from how stark and the main show
is a slightly different version like remain. Djawadi updated for this Episode, but it's meant to evoke a lot of the vibes
of how stark from the original main show. a lot of people will be asking about
what's going on with The Night King during this Episode, when they're looking out over the wall
like, is he around? Are the White Walkers active? they're still mostly just in the lands of always winter probably running
brief raids to actually boost their numbers. They're probably people making sacrifices to them during
this part of the timeline in the north, like Craster. For instance. Good example. Craster would not be born yet
during the events of this show. But you still have people like Craster in the North
that are making sacrifices to them. in general, one of the reasons
why the Night King was not as active during this particular period
is because there are so many dragons. there's a very important event that will happen
during the events of this show in future seasons that we'll talk about,
because it'll involve the small folk in King's Landing. but it's probably the major reason why the Night King
just waited a hot minute until that big event happens. Before he started marshaling his forces again. You have to remember. The dragons are fire made flesh.
They're like nuclear weapons. And right now, the Targaryen family has many of them,
even though they're in the middle of this civil war right now. so the Night King and the White Walkers were to suddenly
show up at the wall to try and break through. They fly all their dragons up north. Unified civil war is over
and they waste the Night King easily. He knows this. That's why he's biding his time. We also get a chance for a callback to the whole idea that winter
is coming in the long night in the main show. We will see plenty of how stark in future seasons. They're a much bigger part of the story. Later,
during the Dance of Dragons. They're seeing up on the wall. Looking out over
the North is also meant to be a direct parallel to Jon Snow on the main show, doing the same thing
with Ben during season one. there's a lot of book plot of things
that Jasper's also did while he was up in the north, hanging out with Cregan Stark
like they became real bros. He's supposedly got secretly married to Sarah Snow,
his bastard sister Kerrigan's bastard sister. There's a lot of rumors about him
having a love child with her. But the show doesn't have a lot of time
to actually spend on that. so I'll probably add that to one of my bonus videos
later this week and talk about a little bit more. because they are blowing through plot really fast. This season is probably one of my biggest complaints
of the season so far, even though we're pretty early
on, is that they cut 2 Episodes. It's only going to be eight Episodes
instead of the usual ten. then Jace gets word from Dragonstone
about what happened to Luke. Sarah's with orders to return home, We get a much better
look at the entrance of the Dragon Mont. Here. Paulus Bellerin comes to see Alan Hall,
one of his bastards. But it's not clear
if Allen knows that he's one of Crowley's bastards. But we get some backstory between the 2 of them. Like he's been working with his fleet for a long time,
and he's the one during the events of season one who personally saved Curtis's life
when we saw him return to Dragonstone. When he mentions his brother
that's calling his other bastard Adam Hall, who winds up writing Silver Wing,
becoming one of the other dragon seeds. We meet a couple of them during this Episode. Notice how the Kingsguard in the castle guard have all
their colors changed to green for Aegon in the Greens. They make it a point to show the meaning. The scorpion. Because during this period in history, there was a lot
more knowledge of how to actually fight dragons. and we jump to King's Landing to show you
what's going on with the Greens. After the season one finale. and surprise, surprise, goody goody 2 shoes. Alicent is totally getting it on with Criston Cole. It's basically meant to herald the beginning
of a downfall from her being this very prim and proper person, like the mask
that Alicent had been wearing her whole life, where she's spent all this time
being a bastion of tradition, following rules, doing anything people told her to do,
including the small council business and her father. But you can kind of see her whole relationship with her. Lord.
Weird foot stuff is kind of been grating on her whole. Like all these sacrifices that she's made,
these personal sacrifices And ultimately she finds that it leads to nothing for her, like being a good girl
her whole life got her nothing, nowhere. after Aegon is crowned, very clearly
he stops listening to her, has no intention of doing what she says,
or listening to her suggestions at all. Everyone on the Green Council
kind of derides ignores her. Nobody seems like they even care what she has to say
or what she thinks. Aemond even makes fun of her during the traitors,
like she's a fool. so the idea with Alicent this season is that she
no longer feels like she has any purpose in her life. Nothing matters. So she starts to give in to her baser instincts,
which leads to her getting it on with Criston Cole. There are a lot of theories
about this during season one, because in the books there is no mention of her
ever getting it on with anybody. After the death of Viserys. Clearly,
that is not the case. She is DTF now. And even during season one, up to this point,
it seemed like Criston Cole had been simping for her ever since Rhaenyra turned down his offer
of running away to Essos together like he's been punishing her ever since. And, low level. Like holding this grudge against her. you kind of saw this weird relationship
forming between the 2 of them. But I don't think that she ever actually
did anything with him until very, very recently. Like Episode one, here
is probably the beginning of them getting it on. when they're entering the council room. This is cheese. Just like an early teaser. Notice the map of Westeros in the background
they have for war planning. Aegon also makes Tywin Lannister
give Johannes a pony ride until Alicent stops him. we find out Rhaenyra's blockade using Corliss
the ships is causing food shortages in King's Landing, which will cause problems
with the small folk later this season. That'll become more important later. Like you see all the riots during The Traitors.
That's what that's about. they also mentioned the Greyjoy is like they're bringing
the Greyjoy is back in the story as Dalton Greyjoy, the Lord of House Greyjoy at this time
might become the Greens master of ships. We see that Aemond is also obsessed with Harrenhal,
just like daemon. He's also got a picture of it on his wall. Alicent runs afoul of Lord weird foot stuff,
who clearly knows that she's getting it on with Criston Cole,
and he's killed all their enemies inside the castle. Who supported the blacks. it also seems like later he's the person to give Aegon
the idea to fire Otto Hightower as his hand of King. When Aegon enters the Iron Throne room to answer all the petitioners, this is Martin Raine
announcing him here from House reign. Remember reigns of Casimir,
but that hasn't happened yet. That doesn't happen
until closer to the events of the main show before the events of season one, House
reign rebelled against House Lannister. They're one of the bannerman to House Lannister,
So he basically killed their entire house in thereafter. What would happen is that for intimidation,
he would play the reigns of Casimir Song. So people would just get freaked out
because they remember what he did to House reign. inside the throne room. You can also see in the background
they're building King Viserys statue because around all the pillars you see statues depicting
all the previous kings of the Targaryen family. Back to Aegon the Conqueror. we meet Hugh Hammer, who's one of the dragon seeds. He'll be important later this season. He's a blacksmith
working in King's Landing. They just want to set up the idea
of why he's dissatisfied with the Crown. why he might be willing to support Rhaenyra eventually. the showrunners said this season, just in general,
they're focusing more on the plight of the small folk in the way that they react and handle everything
that's happening within the dance of the dragons, like how it winds up affecting them and how pissed off
they get at all the royals on both sides. Then we finally check in with Rhaenyra. Post Lucerys in the finale,
and she looks like about ten bucks. Like she is not rested at all in the past ten days
except to pass out on the beach, spending all that time looking for his body, just going mad with grief
Emma Darcy's performance in this was amazing. Probably going to wind up winning an Emmy for this,
or at least getting nominated. Jace winds up returning. They have their very emotional reunion where they have a good cry together,
and he tells her that he's secured the North for her. this is still pretty early days for her. Like, remember it's only been ten days. So slowly she'll begin to think about actually
making war against the Greens. all those extra troops
from the north in the north has a large a large number of forces are going to come in
really handy, especially the forces from the Vale. They introduce Aegon's son Jaehaerys in a bigger way
than they did during season one. Like this is the second time we've seen him,
but they had to recast the child actor. Just because kids grow so fast. the show's playing a couple dirty tricks here
to get you to care about his character even more before they give that big rug pull
where they wind up killing him during the Episode. Like, we see what you're doing.
We watch the Red wedding. We know how this goes. We learned that Alicent is furious
with Aemond, horrified as his actions. Even though Aegon still wants them around the rest of the Green Council
seems like they don't care that much either. Like one of the big changes or additions of the book to is how Aemond tells the story
of what really happened during that finale. he basically plays it like he killed Lucerys on purpose,
knowing that if people think that he did it on purpose, he'll eventually become the most hated and potentially feared man in Westeros
because he's also riding the most powerful dragon. his whole quest is to become the greatest warrior,
the most feared person, the most powerful Targaryen in the realm. He also feels like he should have been king,
not Aegon, like he's the person that wants it, whereas Aegon is like full Jon Snow. I don't want it. this is also one of the reasons
why Aemond is so obsessed with daemon, because currently, daemon has the reputation
of being the most fearsome fighter in Westeros because of his past deeds
and the words that we saw during season one. Also, Aemond notice is an anagram of daemon so the show sort of setting them up is 2 sides of the same coin,
like they're very chaotic good. I would say like not chaotic neutral
because they do advocate for both those sides and they both do think that they're doing
the right thing for their sides. but they're the ones on both sides of this
that are pushing each side further and further towards Civil War,
the actual dance of the dragons. Whereas a lot of people on both sides
don't actually want any fighting to go down, particularly Alicent and Rhaenyra. so basically, they're the ones that are making things
way, way worse than they need to be. but also as we see Aegon himself starts to go into full
Joffrey mode when he lets on that Alicent Otto Hightower, the Green Council will not be able
to control him the way that they thought they would. kind of the same vibe as Sersi
never being able to control Joffrey. Only Tywin can control Joffrey. And that's because Joffrey was terrified of him. And there's not really anybody like that here at this
point in the timeline that Aegon is terrified of. as you can see, he's a very, very crap king,
like a feckless king. so a lot of them like Otto Hightower, Alicent start
to regret what they did, putting him on the Iron Throne. Like maybe we should not have done that. We get another dragon dream from Helaena Targaryen, who
became famous for telling the future during season one. Even though nobody listened to her or understood
what was going on. Maybe Viserys that like they didn't
have any scenes together where they shoot it on screen. But I think the idea is that Viserys thought of her as
his favorite child and knew all about the dragon dreams. When Aegon clocks are acting strange,
he mistakenly assumed she's worried about the pending dance of the Dragons
and what Rhaenyra's side is going to do, but she's actually afraid of the rats,
and that's her foreseeing the events of Blood and cheese, because cheese was a rat
catcher working in the Red keep. That's how he knew about all the secret passageways. they juxtapose this scene of Alicent in the Sept
saying prayers for all the people that she's lost, along with Rhaenyra
holding the funeral for Lucerys. When she mentions Alaric, that's her mother. She's part Florent. the other candle she lights obviously for Lucerys
because she is sad that he died, during the burial. For Lucerys, though, the reason why they're just burning
clothes is because there's no body that she found. The only found air is wings. so. They're burning clothes in remembrance of him. and then we get more context
for how the actual events of blood and cheese go down. Daemon wanted to kill Vhagar to remove the greens
greatest weapon, which is a pretty sound plan. you can see from his conversation with Rhaenys, like
he very clearly wants to take the iron Throne by force. the way that Matt Smith described his character this season is that Daemon, over this period,
like since the time jumps, since the last major conflict has grown fatter, lazier and slower,
and it's slowly causing him to unravel. you can kind of see that it's also creating tension
between him and Rhaenyra. So you have like a Daemon versus
Rhaenyra situation developing. and at least at this point,
Rhaenyra isn't ready to move to open war. She wants to try and prevent
as much fighting as possible, but she does want revenge for what happened to Lucerys. So they do come to the arrangement
that it will be Aemond like, get me Aemomd's head. Welcome back. Miss Arya, who's also Rhaenyra's new mistress of whispers, like,
basically Vera's position on the Black Council here. She helps them plan. Like there are many ways to fight a war. Notice another big change from season one. They fixed her bizarre ax, and that was probably one of the biggest complaints
of season one, if you could call it a complaint. Now she sounds more like
she came from a specific place in Westeros. Like they tried to tie her accent down
to a specific region. she comes up with the actual plan
to hire blood and cheese. Damon pays them off to get them inside the red. Keep in blood. And Damon do have history like Bloods
real name is unknown in the books. He's just remembered his blood. The butcher. but he was a former commander in the city. Watch the gold cloaks which Damon created
who was eventually kicked out by the Greens for brutality after he killed a woman in a brothel. So he has a grudge against the Greens,
and he's still kind of loyal to Damon. in, they're very careful to show you specifically,
he tasked them with bringing them almonds. Had an eye for an eye, a son for a son. during their meeting,
when blood mentions May gauze tunnels may or the cruel finish construction of the red keep itself. That's why the inner part is called Magus. Hold fast. He also had the secret tunnels
and passageways built into it, and afterwards had all the builders killed so they couldn't
pass on the secrets of the existence of the tunnels. this actually a big part
to a lot of people will be talking about this blood. Ask Damon what they should do if they can't find Aemond. The show doesn't reveal what he says,
but clearly he said something. They want you to wonder
if he actually told them to kill one of Aegon's children, like Jarrus, for instance, a son for his son. But I think what actually happened here, like the reality is that he just told them, well,
if you can't find Aemond, it's a son for a son. So just find another son. it, as we see them get lost. Eventually, inside the upper chambers of the red keep, Cheese just winds up happening upon Helaena's
Chambers like, oh, well, there's a son here. Let's go for this one. So again, I don't think Damon
specifically told them to kill young baby Jarrus. It just told them to get another son
and they saw another son. they sneak through the red, keep in the secret passageways to Aemond's chambers,
passing through the Iron Throne room. Really funny. WTF kind of messed up moment here
where Aegon is getting drunk with his friends. Notice how unaware of them
he is like his situational awareness is at rock bottom. working hard or hardly working. When they pass by him to notice. He also drops a couple Easter Eggs, even though he
himself doesn't know that they're Easter Eggs. When he says that Aemond is loyal as a hound,
that's a bit of a wink at Joffrey talking about the how, like Joffrey talked about The Hound
that same way to your loyal as a hound. That's why he called him the hound. They begin to lose their temper
as they can't find Aemond fast enough. They're already pretty crazy people to begin with,
so of course they call an audible settling their sights on Helaena
because she's the closest this part of the Episode goes down
pretty similar to the way it did in the books. they force her to choose. She chooses jarrus who they then
kill or rip, is probably one of the most messed up things that happens during this part of the timeline,
but I don't think is quite as bad. Is what happened during the Red wedding. You can let me know. Like what is the most messed up thing
that they've done on the shows? Red wedding is still probably going to be peak. a lot of people also asking,
what about her other son with Aegon Maelor? He just not here, right? It's
just the twins that are here for this. they then bolt. She takes Chara, the other
surviving twin, running to Alison's chambers, finding her mid hump with Criston Cole,
who then realizes the horror of what's happened. you can kind of see why they did things this way,
like how ultimately they will feel blamed for a lot of what happened in Criston
Cole in particular, and how it drives a lot of his aggressiveness against the blacks
in retaliation the rest of the season. Like why did he want war with Rhaenyra so badly? Well, it's
because he feels guilty for what happened to Jara's. there's so much stuff going on during the Episode. It's like eight little movies every single week. So if you spotted any other Easter Eggs or references in the Episode that I didn't talk about in this video,
be sure to write them below in the comments. I'll add that in my bonus videos. my next big video will be for the Episode 2 Trailer
that should post Monday morning. Be sure to enable alerts for my channel
so you don't miss any of that or the Episode videos in my full Episode
2 video will post next week after they release it seriously. It is going to be a good summer We are going to be eating good everybody click here for that Episode 2 video update the link as soon as I post it and click here
for all my other House the Dragon Episodes Thank you so much for watching,
and I'll see you guys in the next one!
