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House of 9. House of 9 is a 2004 psychological horror film directed by Steven R. Monroe and starring Dennis Hopper and Kelly Brook. It follows nine strangers who have been abducted and locked inside a house. A mysterious voice called The Watcher (voiced by Jim Carter) tells them that they are to play a game: the last person alive can leave the ...
House of 9 is a captivating thriller that keeps viewers on the edge of their seats with its gripping storyline and unexpected twists. Released in 2005, this psychological horror film takes us on a journey of nine strangers trapped in a house, forced to compete against each other for survival. As the tension rises, secrets are revealed, leading ...
Aug 5, 2024 · Here’s Why House of the Dragon Season 2, Episodes 9 and 10 Were Canceled. Max. Turns out that House of the Dragon Season 2 was originally set to have ten episodes, but both Episodes 9 and 10 were canceled. The story of what happened to them starts with a report from Deadline in March 2023. According to the article, the outlet heard that ...
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Aug 5, 2024 · Lady Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell) on 'House of the Dragon' season 2. Of the characters who play a big part in the Battle of the Gullet in the book, a young woman named Nettles is among them ...
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By Jim Vejvoda
Updated: Nov 1, 2022 8:11 pm
Posted: Oct 17, 2022 1:30 pm
Full spoilers ahead for Season 1, Episode 9 of House of the Dragon.
The king is dead. Long live the new king whether you like it or not. That’s the position of Ser Otto Hightower, the Hand of the late King Viserys I, and his fellow conspirators on the Small Council as they set in motion nothing less than a coup against the true heir, Princess Rhaenyra.
Due to Viserys’ deathbed mistake, Queen Alicent wrongly believes he changed his mind and named their son Aegon II as his new heir. Once the king is dead, Alicent tells her father, Otto Hightower, of what she believes was the king’s final wish. Whether Otto truly believes it or not doesn’t matter as it turns out to be precisely the justification he and his fellow co-conspirators need for seizing the Iron Throne.
This tension between Alicent and Otto is not there in Fire and Blood, which portrays them as a far more united front than the TV series does. House of the Dragon adds nuance and emotional complexity to Alicent’s arc that wasn’t evident in the book, casting a tragic pall over events even as Alicent still chooses to play politics and manipulate people.
An even bigger difference between the events of Fire and Blood and House of the Dragon when it comes to the depiction of the Greens’ coup d'etat is the presence of Rhaenys Velaryon, the Queen Who Never Was, a character absent from King’s Landing before and after Viserys’ death in the book. Rhaenys, a Targaryen who in HotD Episode 8 backed Rhaenyra’s claim, finds herself locked in her chambers within the Red Keep. She is visited by Alicent, who insists it was Viserys’ dying wish that Aegon II be made king. Naturally, Rhaenys doesn’t believe her. To Rhaenys, this is nothing less than the Greens usurping the throne.
Alicent wants House Velaryon’s support and asks Rhaenys what her alliance with Rhaenyra has actually gotten her except grief. She claims it's Rhaenys’ husband, Corlys the Sea Snake, who has “grasped so heedlessly for the throne. And even he has abandoned you, gone these six long years.” But the Queen Who Never War says the word of her house “is not fickle.” In one last-ditch effort to win her over, Alicent concedes Rhaenys should have been monarch, not Viserys. “The Iron Throne was yours by blood and by temperament,” Alicent said, adding that Viserys would have been content to have lived his life as a simple country lord rather than to have been king, but that’s now how things turned out.
The real reason why Rhaenys now finds herself a political prisoner is that she has a dragon, Meleys the Red Queen. If Rhaenys and her dragon were to return home then Rhaenyra would be tempted to attack them as the dragons the Blacks possess outmatch those of the Greens. Without that additional dragon, Alicent wagers, Rhaenyra may be persuaded to negotiate. She even promises Rhaenys and her granddaughters Driftmark in perpetuity. But still, Rhaenys refuses. She says Alicent just serves the men in her life, that she doesn’t want to be free but to make a window inside the wall of her prison. “Have you ever imagined yourself on the Iron Throne,” Rhaenys asks Alicent in her own attempt at mind games.
Rhaenys eventually escapes, but gets swept up in a crowd and arrivies incognito to Aegon II’s coronation. Maybe it was seeing Lord Caswell's corpse (he was hanged for attempting to flee the castle after the coup) or the massive skull of Balerion the Black Dread on her way out of the Red Keep, but something inside Rhaenys clicks as Aegon is being anointed. She leaves the ceremony, sneaking downstairs to where the dragons are kept.
Riding atop Meleys, Rhaenys and her steed smash their way into the Dragonpit, sending debris and people flying everywhere as if a bomb exploded. Pandemonium envelops the crowd as Meleys swings her tail and lays waste. Notably, in Fire and Blood, the Dragonpit is chosen as the site for the coronation because it is deemed defensible. House of the Dragon very quickly shows that's not the case.
Alicent quickly stands in front of her son Aegon, a mother protecting her firstborn with her life. She closes her eyes and accepts what appears to be her fiery fate. But Rhaenys never utters “Dracarys!” so Meleys simply unleashes an ungodly shriek at Alicent and Aegon. Alicent and Rhaenys lock eyes, and then Rhaenys flies off to presumably inform Rhaenyra that her half-brother has stolen the Iron Throne.
None of this happened in the book.
Fire and Blood is very clear on this matter: "All three chronicles agree on one particular: the first blood shed in the Dance of the Dragons belonged to Lord Lyman Beesbury, master of coin and lord treasurer of the Seven Kingdoms." House of the Dragon, unlike GRRM's book, isn't told from the perspectives of three different unreliable narrators. It is meant to be the definitive truth of what happened, but even then pin-pointing the exact start of the civil war may be open to interpretation by fans.
Who fired the first shot in the TV version of the Dance of the Dragons? Was it Alicent marrying Viserys? Larys Strong killing his father and brother to aid Alicent? Alicent wearing that green dress to Rhaenyra’s wedding? Was it Otto even broaching the idea of a coup with his allies on the Small Council? Or was it Aegon II being crowned king? All of these are pivotal steps but nothing is more dramatic or consequential than a dragon attack on civilians and royalty at King’s Landing.
Rhaenys would rather watch the realm burn than see Aegon sit on the Iron Throne.
“
During her sales pitch to Rhaenys, Alicent explains, “We do not rule but we may guide the men that do, gently, away from violence and sure destruction and instead toward peace.” In her decision to mount Meleys and literally crash the coronation, Rhaenys not only rejects Alicent’s patriarchal definition of a woman’s role in the royal family but also sends the clearest message that she doesn’t intend to gently guide anyone on her side toward peace.
The Queen Who Never Was is not about to see another woman – even one she wrongly believes killed her son – get screwed out of her chance to rule the Seven Kingdoms. Rhaenys would rather watch the realm burn than see Aegon sit on the Iron Throne.
Viserys naming Rhaenyra his heir
Alicent marrying King Viserys
Rhaenyra lying about her romances & children
Larys Strong killing his father & brother
Otto Hightower plotting with the Small Council
Alicent's green dress at Rhaenyra's wedding
Oct 23, 2022 · House of the Dragon has really hit its stride. Last week Viserys got to be the star, giving an impassioned speech that stole the show. In episode 9, it was finally Alicent Hightower's time to ...
Aug 4, 2024 · Much like Blood and Cheese sneaking into the Red Keep, a villain slipped into HBO’s stronghold. On Tuesday night, roughly thirty minutes of House of the Dragon’s season 2 finale leaked online ...
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