House of the Dragon Episode 6: Summary & Ending Explained! Is Ser Harwin Strong Dead? What Was Larys’s Plan?
House of The Dragon Episode 6 entitled The Princess and the Queen (The Princess and the Queen), begins with another time jump forward, of about ten years, and with the consequent “replacement” (among other characters) of the two protagonists mentioned. in the title, with Emma D’Arcy in place of Milly Alcock in the role of Rhaeenyra and Olivia Cooke in place of Emily Carey in the role of Alicent. This new episode, a bit like what happened in the last episode of The Rings of Power, actually marks the prologue before the start of the battles that we all expect to see in the coming weeks. And of course, if you haven’t seen the episode yet, we advise you to stop here to avoid spoilers on spoilers.
House of the Dragon Episode 6: Summary and Ending Explained
So, the episode begins with the grown-up Rhaenyra struggling with a birth (“the battlefield of women” according to the definition of her mother Aemma), which is decidedly bloody from a visual but also a sound point of view, but nothing compared to the one seen in the first episode. Not even time to hold the baby in her arms a woman arrives to say that Queen Alicent wants to see the baby. Rhaenyra expels the placenta as she stands up and walks to the queen’s room, leaving a streak of blood behind her. Along the way she meets her husband Laenor, who does not seem particularly tense, indeed he is more interested in asking what the pains of childbirth are. But he is also a kind person, so he supports his wife as he can as he climbs the stairs and receives the compliments of Lord (Allun) Caswell, loyal to the princess (if you want to know how it ends click here, there are no big spoilers).
Once in the presence of the queen, and the king who arrives, the squabbles between the two former friends begin or rather resume. Viserys says that the newborn has the same nose as his father, everyone disguises their embarrassment as Alicent whispers to Laenor “keep trying, sooner or later someone who looks like you will”. Yes, because, like the elder brothers Jacaerys and Lucerys, the third child of the princess also does not have the dark skin of the father nor the silver-white hair of the Velaryons and/or the Targaryens. This is because the real father of the three is Ser Harwin Strong: Varys’s brother, pardon Larys, and Lyonel’s son, we have already seen him catch Rhaenyra disguised as a page along with Uncle Daemon and carry her away in the hustle and bustle at his wedding party. And, as the parastorical sources on which Martin’s Fire and Blood book is built, he is Rhaenyra’s new lover.
By the way, as the princess brings the newborn to the queen we review Ser Criston Cole, who after his failed suicide has become the queen’s guard, as well as a susceptible enemy of her old flame (“Dracarys!”). And by the way, the newborn is called (without consulting his mother) Joffrey, as Laenor’s first lover who was killed by Ser Cole. Alicent tries to open the eyes of her husband Viserys (yes, he is still alive, albeit without an arm and increasingly battered), who babbles about a black mare who mated with a white horse giving birth to a brown horse. But she still tells his wife not to bring up the issue, which could cost the exile of Rhaenyra, Harwin and her three children.
And she still talks about it. Ser Cole, whose disappointed heart makes him speak vulgarity about the princess only to apologize for her language. And with Larys Strong, to whom he confides the regret of no longer having his father as the King’s Hand (at this point also arm). The current Hand of the Knight, Lyonel Strong, scolds his son Harwin for the recklessness of his relationship, but the son doesn’t seem very worried. In the meantime, let’s get to know the new generation. Aegon, the first son of Alicent and Viserys, looks like a cross between Draco Malfoy and Joffrey Baratheon / Lannister. And he makes fun of his little brother Aemond, who suffers from being the only one without a dragon of his own yet. Then the brother and the nephews/stepbrothers make fun of him by giving him a pig with wings stuck on his back…
Alicent goes to scold him, while Aegon is standing at the window Tommen Baratheon / Lannister will throw himself through, only the young Targaryen is intent on masturbating. So, his mother finds out and gives him a “wake-up call”: “Do you understand that your sister Rhaenyra will want to rise to power?” “So?” “And then that day he will come looking for you to get you out, stay inside!”. The speech seems to be taking hold, judging by Aegon’s attitude during the swordsman training held by Criston and Harwin. Here the second reproach the first for neglecting the princess’s children, then Criston makes the much bigger Aegon collide with Jacaerys, who also holds a blow until his uncle/stepbrother uses the dirty game. At this point, Harwin intervenes to criticize Cole’s cruelty, who with his toll face responds by saying “behavior like yours would make sense if this kid was your brother, your cousin … or your son”. Harwin can no longer see and punches his rival, exposing himself right in front of his father and especially the king.
Rhaenyra is understandably worried about the increasingly persistent rumors as her husband walks around with his new “friend” Qarl and would like to return to fight in the Stepstones if only to meet “a giant general who dyes his beard purple. and dresses like a woman “. In case you’re interested, his name is Racallio Ryndoon. Rhaenyra removes the crickets from his head and forces him to stay close to her, while instead, he has to say goodbye to Ser Harwin: the (sacrosanct) punches to Criston have cost him his job as commander of the city guard, and now he must return to his castle of Harrenhall (where Viserys was chosen as the new king, where Tiwyn Lannister will camp with Arya who will be her cupcake in disguise).
At the restricted council, Rhaenyra tries to fix it by proposing a marriage between her son Jacaerys and Alicent’s daughter, Helaena, whom we have seen passionate about insects: the king is enthusiastic about the incestuous proposal, and Alicent pretends to think about it but then tells her husband that “just when I’m in the grave you can do something like this.” Meanwhile, Lyonel resigns to the king, who, however, wants to know why. Ser Strong is not convinced to confess in front of the queen and does not explain why the son is casting a shadow over the whole Strong house, so Viserys refuses the resignation but allows him to accompany Harwin to Harrenhall. And Alicent chews bitter.
Thus, the queen, who in ten years has made her metamorphosis from “naive and pious girl” to “worthy daughter of her father Otto”, still confides in Larys complaining that his father Lyonel can no longer be impartial. What does he do? She goes down into the dungeons and hires three delinquents to whom she grants freedom in exchange for two things: their cut tongues and the killing of Lyonel and Harwin. And in fact, at Harrenhal we see them again hooded and with a bee on their chest (like the one on Larys’ stick or as the symbol of Lord Beesbury, whom we saw losing blows in the restricted council?) As they set fire to the castle, counting on the fact that all they will think of is the Harrenhall curse (which will also cost Littlefinger’s life, among others) as the cause of the tragedy. And hello home Strong…
In all of this Rhaenyra has realized that she is not air anymore (and not Arya yet) and tells her husband that they must move to Dragonstone. Almost a sign of surrender to her rival and her children, but still better than dying in King’s Landing. And then Laenor can take Qarl if he wants (of course he wants). Indeed, the climate in the capital has become very tense, and the fact that Rhaenyra’s children are starting to suspect they are “bastards” doesn’t help. How does the presence of that serpent of Larys, who after killing her father and her brother boast about it to the queen, that she pretends to be horrified but is now in great debt to him not help?
End of the episode? Not at all, we kept the Daemon subplot for the end. What happened to the rebel prince after his niece’s wedding (and after he killed his first wife)? That he got married to Laena Velaryon, who probably grows twice as fast as the others because each episode looks like more years than it has gone by. However, the rumors about Daemon’s impotence would seem dispelled by the fact that with Laena he had two daughters (in the twin books, here of different ages), Rhaena and Bela, of which he prefers the first and ignores the second perhaps because this, unfortunately, she does not have a dragon yet (and her mother comsola).
The family (complete with dragons) is on their way to Pentos, on the other side of the sea, with the “prime minister” Reggio (not Calabria or Emilia, but Haratis) who proposes that they settle there, to fight the return of the Triarchy. which Daemon had defeated by killing the Nutrigranchi. “We give them the dragons and they give us the gold,” Daemon explains to Laena, who unlike her husband is not thrilled with the idea of becoming a “fat country noble” and would rather die with her dragon as a warrior. Be careful what you wish for, Laena! Either way, she is super pregnant, and even though she would like to have her child delivered at Driftmark, she goes into labor there in Pentos. And as happened to Queen Aemma, her birth is also dramatic: once again the “gynecologist/obstetrician” explains to the father that the only hope for the newborn is to cut the belly of her mother, killing her. But even before Daemon decides, his wife gets up and with good luck, Laena (ok, sorry) comes out of the labor room, joins her dragon outside the castle, and orders him to burn her to put an end to his suffering. Again “Dracarys” and away, hello dear Laena, you are dead as you wanted. Now we can say: end of the episode, let’s move on to the explanations and two criticisms.
The Death Of Lyonel And Harwin Strong In The Book
In Fire and Blood, we repeat it, Martin imagines historical sources, sometimes at odds with each other. The death of the two Strong in this sense is exemplary because between the jester Mushroom, Septon Eustace and other more or fewer eyewitnesses there is no unanimity: someone thinks that behind there is the hand of Larys, someone else from Daemon who wanted to punish him for his relationship with Rhaenyra, or Viserys to silence rumors, or Corlys Velaryon to punish those who shamed his son. Larys was chosen in the series, there is no doubt. However, in the novel, Harwin dies much later. After moving to Dragonstone with Rhaenyra’s family, after being beaten by Ser Criston at a tournament (which changed his nickname from “Bone Breaker” to “Broken Bones”) and after that, following Aegon’s mockery of calling his stepbrothers/nephews “Strong”, the king had demanded that the knight leave Dragonstone.
Laena’s Death In The Book
Like that of his first wife Rhea, the death of Daemon’s second wife is also very different between the book and the series. In the book, Laena’s third birth leads to the birth of a deformed child, more or less like that of Daenerys and Khal Drogo, who live for a few minutes. The birth causes the death of Laena, whose agony, however, lasts for days and days, with her husband at her side. This brings us to the two criticisms we have referred to.
Two Criticisms of Criston/Harwin and Laena
Let’s start with Daemon’s second wife. At the beginning of the episode, we saw her doing acrobatic evolutions aboard her dragon, in a “fire catcher” game with her husband. Something that even the poorest gynecologists of Westeros would advise against for a woman about to give birth. But maybe she was a superwoman, given the circumstances of her on-screen death. We want to say: a moment before she is on a bed in pain, the doctor says that there is nothing for her to do and she, truly truly, leaves the room and goes to be roasted without her husband being able to reach her. Lars, too, should theoretically walk faster than a woman in Laena’s condition.
And Criston and Harwin? Here too things do not add up. Or rather, they didn’t come back to us in the last episode, when we underlined the difference between books and series in the death of poor Joffrey. Yes, because Ser Cole can be as strong as he wants, but if at a wedding banquet of the king’s daughter you punch a guest and friend of the future prince consort, how is it possible that no one will throw you into a cell and let you go into the woods to commit suicide? We could also have ignored it, counting on Alicent’s intervention, if it weren’t for what happened to Harwin in this episode. Ser Strong punches Ser Cole in the face and in no time he is removed from his position as city guard and banished from King’s Landing. We understand that the series has needs for “speed” that the novel did not have, but this obvious disparity in treatment between the two knights, in our opinion, cannot hold up.
In the first season of House of the Dragon, the story is moving forward fast with several time jumps and constant changes, which hardly give the viewer time to metabolize what is happening during the plot. In every episode, there is always something new, whether it is the birth of a new baby, a wedding ready and made up or the departure of some character: but in the sixth episode of the series there was a real mix of all these events combined with many others; including the passing of the baton for some actors, as had already been anticipated in the trailer for the sixth episode of House of the Dragon.
Between the tragic finale of the fifth episode and the beginning of the sixth, ten long years have passed in which many things have changed. For this, it may be useful to take a moment to take stock of the situation, on all these events that kicked off the second part of the season. Warning: Below is spoilers about the sixth episode of House of the Dragon.
Alicent’s Family
In previous episodes of House of the Dragon, Alicent and Viserys had two children: Aegon II the firstborn, and Helaena, the second child. In the long time jump of the sixth episode of the series, the two children are now almost adolescents: in the meantime, it is revealed that during the last ten years the two sovereigns have had a third child, Aemond, who has little age difference compared to the brothers.
Viserys for his part thanks to the care of the court doctors, managed to survive and keep at bay his illness caused by the wounds caused by the Iron Throne. However, the man is very tired and gets tired easily, also because the weight of his age begins to be felt and he is no longer able to fulfill his duties with the same determination as in the past. It, therefore, seems that her hour is almost close and this does nothing but alarm Alicent, who is determined to make her son Aegon ascend to the Throne despite the direct heir proclaimed by Viserys being Princess Rhaenyra.
Rhaenyra’s Family
In the fifth episode of House of the Dragon, the wedding between Rhaenyra Targaryen and Laenor Velaryon is celebrated, a shotgun wedding decided by King Viserys when he realizes that the Princess is no longer “pure”. The sixth episode begins with Rhaenyra giving birth to her third child, another boy like the two previous children, Jacaerys (aka Jace) and Lucerys., had in the period of the last ten years. As it is easy to guess, none of the three children is Laenor’s son as the latter is homosexual and with Rhaenyra they had made a prenuptial agreement, through which both would continue to make their own lives after married, signing only a facade union. for the quiet living. Despite this, Laenor decides to name Rhaenyra’s third son Joffrey, in honor of his deceased former partner, Ser Joffrey Lonmouth, who was killed during his wedding to Rhaenyra by Ser Criston Cole.
During the episode, it is revealed that the three children are all children of Ser Harwin Strong, the Captain of the City Guard of King’s Landing, son of the Hand and Master of Laws Lyonel Strong and brother of Larys Strong., Lord of Whispers. There is bad blood between Harwin and Ser Criston, as the two men are respectively Rhaenyra’s previous and current lovers. During the training of the young princes, Harwin notes that Criston favors the children of Queen Alicent to whom the Knight has turned her loyalty after the woman has pardoned him even knowing that he was the lover of the Princess. A violent quarrel breaks out between the two men: this will be the litmus test that was used by those who still had doubts, as confirmation of his paternity over the children of Rhaenyra.
The Harrenhal Massacre
After the truth about the relationship between Rhaenyra and Harwin is before everyone’s eyes, to their shame Lyonel Strong decides to resign as Hand and also remove his son from the Kingdom to take him to Harrenhal, the place of origin of their lineage and of which Harwin he is the direct heir together with his brother. Viserys does not accept the resignation of the Hand of the Knight and insists that the man remain his trusted advisor, but still leaves him free to take his son to Casa Strong. During the night after the two men arrive on the spot, Harrenhal’s home is hit by a terrible fire in which there will be several victims, including Lyonel and Harwin themselves, who will not have time to escape from the flames.
It is later revealed that the author behind this dramatic tragedy is Larys Strong, who even has his father and brother killed to get even more into Alicent’s good graces. Who with the role of Hand of the King remained uncovered, may have the right opportunity to return to King’s Landing her father Di her Otto, who held that role before Lyonel Strong. Previously we see Larys offering pardons to some criminals, as long as they let their tongues be cut off; then the man charges them with the dirty work and has the guarantee that they will never be able to tell who the principal was.
The Departure Of Rhaenyra And Laenor
When Rhaenyra and Harwin’s secret relationship becomes public, the Princess tries to find a solution to calm the waters. She then proposes to the Queen a marriage between her son Jacaerys and Helaena, daughter of Alicent and Viserys, to unite their families totally; Also if her dragon will lay more eggs, she will offer one as a gift for Aemond, Alicent’s third son, who does not yet have a dragon lei of hers.
Alicent doesn’t seem to take the offer very seriously and is rather interested in pointing out to Rhaenyra that she is losing milk from her breasts, embarrassing the Princess in front of the whole Council. After this setback and following the departure of Ser Harwin – and still unaware of the latter’s death – Rhaenyra understands that there is nothing more for her to do in King’s Landing and so she decides to move with her family to Rock of the Dragon.
Daemon’s Family
In the fifth episode during the wedding of Rhaenyra and Laenor, Laena, the sister of the latter, teases each other with Daemon Targaryen. With the ten-year time jump occurring in episode six, the two are shown over time to become a couple and have also had two daughters, Rhaena and Baela., as well as a third baby on the way. From Laena’s speeches, it is clear that she with Daemon was an escape from love following a hasty marriage, which over time has led them to travel from place to place without ever returning to Driftmark, where Casa Velaryon resides. The woman is tired of that life, and she tells her husband that he wants to return to her home to raise their children there, but Damon does not agree with her.
Meanwhile, the couple is in Pentos, a place where the local Prince Reggio Haratis is willing to give part of his wealth to Laena in exchange for Daemon’s protection, as the Triarchy at the time was led by Craghas Drahar. But before she can make a final decision, Laena goes into labor: things get complicated and the birth becomes impossible to complete; at that point, Laena, after realizing that there is nothing to be done to save her or her child, asks her dragon Di lei Vhagarto put an end to his suffering. The animal initially does not want to hear reasons, but later he understands the situation of his mistress and after having nodded, he agrees to her request.
The Different Epilogues Between The Series And The Books By George RR Martin
Laena
Laena’s death in George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels happens differently. In this context, the young Velaryon carries the pregnancy to term but she gives birth to a deformed child, who dies after a few hours. Laena after giving birth begins to feel bad and has a high fever and her condition worsens quickly: although exhausted, she tries to ride her dragon Vhagar for one last time, but she collapses to the ground before she can even ride it. rise above her. She eventually dies too, three days after giving birth to her only son.
In the House of the Dragon TV series, co-showrunner Ryan Condal in an interview with Variety stated the reason for this change from the paper story:
Laena is a Valkyrie and a dragon rider. We first saw her as a child in the second episode and from that moment she dreamed of riding the largest dragon in the world. Unfortunately, the story of her character in her books is very short and she does not give way to know her better. So we wanted to give her an exit that is memorable and in line with her character. Although it was only for a short time, actress Nanna Blondell was able to best represent who Laena was.
Condal explained that he was a strong and well-characterized character, but since his appearance was short-lived, they wanted to create something with a strong impact that could remain in the minds of the viewers, compared to what happens in the books. In addition, having her dragon kill her, also served to demonstrate what kind of strong bond they had between them.
Ser Joffrey Lonmouth
But there are also other differences in the series compared to the books, regarding the fate of some characters. In the fifth episode of House of the Dragon, Ser Joffrey Lonmouth, Laenor’s mistress, is brutally murdered by Ser Criston Cole during a violent outburst. In Martin’s novels instead, a conflict between the two knights takes place in the middle of the tournament called for the wedding of Rhaenyra and Laenor: during a duel, Criston hits Joffrey in the head with his spiked club, destroying the helmet and the boy ends up in a coma from severe injuries, dying six days later.
Ser Harwin Strong
In the same tournament, Criston also clashes with Ser Harwin Strong who breaks an elbow and breaks a collarbone; while in the sixth episode of the series, as specified at the beginning of the article, a fierce melee is shown between the two during the training of the young princes. Also, when Rhaenyra moves to Dragonstone, Harwin is still alive and follows the Princess at his request. Later Harwin will still die with his father during the fire at Harrenhal, even if the legend circulates in the books of a curse that hangs over the castle of Harrenhal.
