House of the Dragon season 1 episode 7: Is Laenor dead?
It’s certainly easy to feel for Laenor, all things considered. This is a man who recognized that he wanted to be more committed to Rhaenyra near the end of the episode, only to seemingly end up dead a short period of time later … because of his own wife. This was a plot constructed by Rhaenyra and Daemon to ensure that they could marry, and also make a suitable power-play that would allow the two of them to become the future leaders of Westeros.
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One thing that has become abundantly clear to the Princess is the power struggle that is already there between her and Alicent, who is trying to fulfill the wishes of Otto and also ensure that her children have power. The incident with Aemond’s eye is really the event that got the ball rolling, but this may have happened regardless at some point.
Now, here’s the twist: Laenor is not actually dead: We saw him escaping at the very end! She actually did help him in the end, but his presumed death is a part of the story now. It’s actually kind of nice that Rhaenyra and Daemon presumably worked to give him this future, rather than her and Daemon just offing him altogether. (That’s at least how we interpret it.)
Everything from Laenor’s “body” being delivered to Rhaenyra and Daemon’s marriage came together almost in the blink of an eye, and we would understand the criticism from those who feel like it was almost a little bit too fast. Yet, the rapid pace of this in our mind really helped to make the whole ordeal more compelling. It ultimately made it clear that some of those is still small compared to what is coming, which could be a full-scale war that tears this family apart and leads the entire world of Westeros into unparalleled crisis.
How do you think House of the Dragon season 1 episode 7 handled the fake-out death of Laenor?
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This article was written by Jessica BunBun. Be sure to follow her on Twitter.