After each episode of House of the Dragon, Slate writers will gather to answer a crucial question: Who is the worst person in Westeros? This week: senior editor Jenny G. Zhang and senior writer Rebecca Onion answer the call.
Jenny G. Zhang: Hello, Rebecca! I am pleased to be back here chatting all things House of the Dragon with you. I am also surprisingly pleased by how this season is turning out so far, with a jam-packed premiere (aka the Season 2 Finale That Never Was) and an equally jam-packed second episode this week.
We jump right into the aftermath of the Battle of the Gullet: corpses galore, the question of Lord Corlys’ fate, Baela bringing Jacaerys’ body back to Rhaenyra, who meets her (second!) dead son with initial denial and subsequent wild grief so well portrayed, I have to commend Emma D’Arcy for their performance. Rhaenyra turns an accusatory eye to all of her household, including her Queensguard member Ser Lorent (Max Wrottesley), who conspired with Jace to lock her up, but I think we can forgive a devastated mother for this display.
Also in the aftermath: Rhaena turns up in the Vale again, begging for asylum from Lady Jeyne Arryn (Amanda Collin), since she did just inadvertently cause the death of the Crown Prince by riding a wild dragon into a battle she had no business being near. Jeyne, ever the pragmatic, refuses, but does make clear that she’ll turn a blind eye if Rhaena and Sheepstealer happen to inhabit some unseen corner of her territory. Keep that in mind, going forward …
Daemon, meanwhile, is a busy bee this episode, gadding about the Riverlands with his men, returning to Rhaenyra’s side when he hears the news of Jace’s death, dealing with the dragonseeds’ insubordination, tussling with his former lover turned current rival Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), so on and so forth. There are a few things he does that make me raise him as an admittedly distant possibility for Worst Person in Westeros. For one, he basically laughs at Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) when the witch asks for Harrenhal in return for gathering the Rivermen, saying that the crown isn’t in the habit of doling out castles (even ruined ones, I guess) to midwives—I’m sure that won’t come back to bite the Blacks in the ass. Second, when he’s back at Rhaenyra’s side, he forces a bit of tough love on her and tells her, more or less, that she has to stop moping and resume action in the war, lest she let her sons “die in vain.” Was he wrong to interrupt a mother in her grief, or was he right to ask a monarch to do what she has to do?
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Rebecca Onion: Hello, Jenny, and thank you for setting this table, which is absolutely laden with corpses. The second time I watched the episode I had to fast-forward past the moment when Rhaenyra first sees Jace’s body. Emma D’Arcy wrecked me a few times in this episode, first at this moment, then when Rhaenyra is lying in her bed weeping, thinking about how the two boys who “hid their little faces” in her skirts are both gone. Daemon, who comes in and seems almost annoyed to have to console his niece-wife, is far from the best person to accompany Rhaneyra through these moments. These weren’t his biological children, but I have the feeling that even if they were, he would immediately begin scheming for the upper hand in whatever unfolds next.
But Daemon’s callousness (normal, by Daemon standards) pales in comparison to what happens back in King’s Landing, where Alicent finds herself accosted in her chamber by Lord Jasper Wylde (Paul Kennedy), who’s the Master of Laws on Aegon’s small council. Alicent is out on a limb, having gone to the City Watch’s locker room (very Hannah Wells of her) to speak with the Gold Cloaks’ commander, Ser Luthor Largent (Tom Cullen), to warn him that Rhaenyra will return to King’s Landing, and (by implication) ask for him to allow Rhaenyra to take the throne. After, she’s back in her chamber, packing things up in a hurry, when Lord Jasper comes in, talking all creepy about the way Alicent “snaked her way into the halls of power” at a young age and “found much enjoyment” with Ser Criston. Ramping up, Lord Jasper lets Alicent know that, thanks to a traitorous Kingsguard member, he knows that she was sneaking about, secretly meeting with the City Watch. A tussle ensues and Jasper has Alicent pinned on the ground, until her screams finally bring Grand Maester Orwyle (Kurt Egyiawan) into the chamber. Thankfully, the maester sides with Alicent, exerting his authority to put Lord Jasper in custody.
This is pretty bad. Not only was this man trying to rape Alicent, he also was so ready to do it the moment he heard anything irregular about her behavior. It felt like he’d been rehearsing these lines in his mind at every small council meeting, every time he bristled at a woman being present. Gross! What do you think, can we name Jasper the Worst?
Jenny: This was a disturbing scene to watch, even for a franchise that is notorious for (both gratuitously and non-gratuitously) dipping into sexual violence. The way the Master of Laws’ predatory lust ramps up throughout the course of the interaction, even getting turned on by Alicent’s pleas to not cross this unforgivable line, made my skin crawl. I think it’s safe to say that this sex pest is most definitely one of the vilest characters around.
But before we mete out his appropriate sentence, there are a couple other names I want to bring up for discussion. There’s a perennial Worst Person in Westeros candidate: ol’ one-eyed Aemond. After taking an Oedipal turn in Episode 1, Aemond finally heeds his mother’s advice and flees King’s Landing, flying Vhagar to Harrenhal, which has been left unguarded by the dragonseeds. He burns the garrison of Rivermen and singlehandedly storms the castle, finding an unarmed Ser Simon Strong (Simon Russell Beale) dining with his family. Strong is a bit of a fan favorite, partly for his jolly demeanor and partly for his pragmatism in the face of threatening presences like Daemon’s and Aemond’s. Well, sorry to his fans, because Ser Simon finally meets his end here, slain by Aemond even as the chastellan attempts to surrender without bloodshed. Aemond then kills Simon’s sons, but not before receiving a nasty stab wound from one of them. It feels like immediate karma for Aemond to be seriously injured, beseeching a watchful Alys Rivers for help, just moments after he needlessly killed everyone’s favorite remaining Strong. What do you make of that bit of rudeness, Rebecca?
Rebecca: I worry Aemond is in danger of becoming a “so evil he’s not interesting” character. His brother Aegon was in the same boat, until he got his burns—now he’s still bad, but lacking power, which makes him interesting again. And Daemon is evil, but his wiliness is entertaining, and he often does the right thing for the wrong reason, which softens up the viewer. (Maybe just this viewer.) Daemon is also quite competent when it comes to murder, while Aemond coasts on his sociopathy—and his dragon. The killing of Ser Strong, an old man in an almost empty castle, was such child’s play for Aemond, it was horrible to watch. But maybe the wound the prince got in the process will push his character in a different direction. In comparison, I do think Lord Jasper’s attempted rape trumps this cold-blooded murder, which did have political import—even if it didn’t need to be carried out in quite that cruel of a way.
There’s one more candidate, and that’s Rhaenyra, who flies to King’s Landing with Daemon, ready to take the Iron Throne with the help of the Gold Cloaks, who are loyal to their former commander Daemon. She is still misty-eyed and trembling from Jace’s death, but not so much so that she can’t get it together to take the sword from Daemon and chop off Lord Otto Hightower’s (Rhys Ifans) head when he charges her to do so for the sake of publicly solidifying her takeover. (It takes her two chops, which is frankly disgusting.) For a few days, Rhaenyra had second thoughts about the cost of her crusade, but when it comes down to it, she’ll kill for power, like we always knew she would.
What do you think, Jenny—does Rhaenyra have a chance, or is Lord Jasper our No. 1?
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Jenny: Yes, this is the day Rhaenyra finally becomes queen, in a sense. I was admittedly tickled by Otto Hightower’s reemergence and the culprit responsible: Larys Strong, that sly Master of Whisperers. Fully prepared for either scenario—Aegon winning or Rhaenyra winning—he imprisoned Otto, which we caught a tantalizing glimpse of in the previous season. Daemon’s sheer delight upon finding his old rival in the dungeons was also amusing, partly for those reasons you articulated about Daemon’s appeal: He’s not a good person, but he makes no pretenses to be, and he keeps things entertaining. (Plus, Matt Smith is just charismatic as hell.)
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Rhaenyra’s initial reluctance to kill her father’s Hand, followed by her decision to do so anyway, followed by her inability to land a clean cut (which, ouch, this is why Otto asked for Daemon to behead him, so he wouldn’t have to suffer being “hacked” at), sums up many of Rhaenyra’s flaws as a leader: She can be indecisive, not yet ready to pay the full costs of power—and even when she commits to a course of action, her wavering still brings avoidable messiness.
I’m sure, when she sees Alicent—apprehended, along with Helaena and Jaehaera, by the City Watch as they try to escape King’s Landing—enter the room and spy her childhood friend sitting on a throne above her father’s decapitated head, Rhaenyra may feel like one of the worst people in Westeros. (Hey, that’s being a ruler for you!) But this was, in theory, a necessary step to ending the larger conflict. Lord Jasper Wylde, on the other hand, was going to assault Alicent purely for his own twisted pleasure. He ultimately gets what’s coming to him: a swift beheading at the hands of Daemon, and, now, our bequeathing of this week’s Worst Person in Westeros title. RIP, ya filthy animal.
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