Parental Relationships in House of the Dragon

One of the most intriguing aspects of both Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon are the familial relationships. So I thought I would analyze and give commentary on each of those relationships. Now it is important to note that this is strictly based off of the HBO adaptation and has absolutely nothing to do with the book whatsoever.

Viserys has had me dead split on him since episode 1. He murdered his wife for an heir that also died. This pissed me off for many reasons but mostly that he put his need for a male heir over his wife’s life when Rhaenyra was right fucking there. That said he does then name Rhaenyra heir and he stands by that, he doesn’t waver and he does everything he can to secure the throne for her. Killing or casting out anyone who would besmirch her name. When Rhaenyra grew up a little bit she grew closer to her father, and did as he asked; getting married and having children. We could go on forever on whose kids they were but it literally doesn’t matter. She is the heir and therefore her kids have a legitimate claim on the throne regardless of who the father is. They have a tense but loving and supportive relationship and it took them a long time to get there (something we didn’t really see because of the time jumps but that's an entirely different discussion).

When it came to Rhaenyra being a mom she was also loving and supportive. She is fiercely protective of her children and she won’t let anyone say a negative thing about them. Watching her deal with them is actually an excellent contrast to how Alicent handles her children. When Rhaenyra’s babies cry she comforts them, holds them close and soothes them. When Jace is studying she encourages him and when he gets frustrated she comforts and reassures him. When the boys are sad she is loving and gives them plenty of physical affection. She is a good mom. Her children are loving, kind, and thoughtful.

In direct contrast Alicent resents her children. Though understandable considering the circumstances of their conception (marital rape) it's not the child’s fault that she’s in the spot she’s in. They in fact had nothing to do with it and therefore her being a shit mom is inexcusable. When her babies cried she was numb inside, bouncing them up and down and desperate for them to stop, not for their sake but for hers. When the boys clearly need something she is aggressive and angry. Her children suck because she’s a bad mom and she responds to their wrong doings with violence. Her children are exactly who you would expect them to be; violent, angry, sociopaths.

Now the source of Alicent’s suffering is her father. Otto, being the power hungry snake that he is, pimped her out to the king. Hoping that it would position him closer to the throne (he was already hand to the king so he was as close as he was ever gonna get). He forces her into very harmful situations and then belittles her when she shows any signs of resistance. In the penultimate episode we see it plainly, he has been working with the council behind Alicent’s back to MURDER Rhaenyra so that she doesn’t try to fight for her rightful place on the Iron Throne. Alicent attempts to talk him down from murder to negotiation but something tells me that Otto is still going to try to have Rhaenyra killed.

We haven’t gotten to see much of some of the other parental relationships in the show, namely Daemon and his girls. Apparently there was a cut scene of him comforting the girls after Leana died. The only reason I can think of for them cutting a scene like that would be to harden the audience's view of Deamon. They want us to believe that he’s evil and incapable of love and compassion but really all we’ve seen tells us directly the opposite (also if you wanted us not to love him you shouldn’t have casted Matt Smith). One of the writers has admitted to disliking Daemon and wanting to take his actions as storyline down a darker path, currently that doesn’t make any sense. All we’ve seen from Daemon is that he is a loving brother, husband and father.

The other relationship that we’ve felt but haven't seen much of is Rhaenys and Leanor. We know that Rhaenys blames Rhaenyra for the death of her son, but we also know that Rhaenyra truly loved Laenor and he is safe. So I’m hoping that we get a moment where Rhaenyra and Rhaenys have a heart to heart about what really happened and why, or even better Leanor comes back to fight for his queen and he tells his mother what happened.

Overall I think the relationships and how they are written can make or break a story so well written ones are a must. House of the Dragon is about 70/30 in favor of writing good, fleshed out relationships. Though the ones they are lacking in are desperately important to the story as well as the development of individual characters. So I hope they do better with it in season 2 but time will tell.