“Driftmark,” this week’s episode of house of the dragon, featured perhaps the most intense fight on the show to date: a four-way brawl between children. What at first looks like a repeat of a training ground scuffle in the previous episode suddenly takes an eerie turn as it goes on until a horrible little boy loses an eye after a cute little boy defended his brother with a knife. And because of that, the entire royal court is caught in an R-rated speedrun of the NBC series The punch as they spend most of the episode in the same room trying to figure out what to do about it.
Part of what makes this fight so shocking is that we’ve only just met these kids. When Aemond and Aegon Targaryen face off against Jacaerys and Lucerys Velayron in a tunnel, we’re not quite sure how things will turn out – and house of the dragon
The fallout from this spans most of Driftmark, as King Viserys must arbitrate the resulting conflict between Queen Alicent, Princess Rhaenyra, and any other offended parties. The argument quickly stops revolving around the children and clearly revolves around the growing rift between Alicent and Rhaenyra, to the point where Alicent, who wants an eye for an eye, threatens to cut out Lucerys herself.
In a way, Driftmark is very reminiscent of The Kingsroad, the second installment of game of Thrones. In it, young heroine Arya Stark finds a new friend, Mycah, a baker’s son who is subsequently bullied by the stubborn and cruel Prince Joffrey. When Arya stands up to Joffrey, he knocks her out and her pet direwolf, Nymeria, bites his arm in defense. The end result is a “Driftmark-like” scene in which the royal family and others involved try to resolve the dispute between the children in a way that also reminds the adults of their place.
But while the premise is similar, what follows differs in key ways that further illustrate the how house of the dragon is a different kind of show than its predecessor. The Kingsroad finally resolves with Arya’s father Ned Stark being forced to make amends by killing his daughter’s direwolf. It’s a gutting conclusion to a conflict that has been effective game of Thrones on a small scale, where good people are often devoured as long as they continue to bow to an unjust system that rewards cold self-preservation that is indifferent to honor, no matter how much lip service there is. But despite his constant grimness, game of Thrones had a streak of optimism, believing that some of these children would survive the horrors and maybe even change the world for the better.
The kids inside house of the dragon not have such a rosy outlook. These kids are screwed. Aegon and Aemond are cruel, and while Rhaenyra is the series’ protagonist and her children seem like cute boys who don’t grow up into brutal little hells, there’s no room for the previous series’ optimism. As far as everyone in this room is concerned, the throne is empty now, and whatever comes next requires pages to be taken – and they’re not above using children or murder to get it. Things aren’t going to go well when they all arrive at King’s Landing, and even if little Jacaerys and Lucerys pull through with their goodness intact, it’s their lot to be at the center of a power struggle with no real good outcome where no one has it all other than selfish interests in mind.
At the end of Driftmark, Viserys is unable to make a judgment that will make anyone happy and hopes everyone will just make peace. By doing so, he only deepens the chasm that opened before him and leaves his children (and theirs) doomed to war.