‘House of the Dragons’ Episode 7 Review: The Battlefronts Are Ready and the War Is Coming

Another week, which means another episode of House of the Dragon, the best fantasy show on the air right now. Each new episode serves to petition the show as one of the best seasons of television in the year 2022. The VFX are amazing, the sets and direction are superb, and the acting is just crazy good. The showrunners have really managed to bring that magic back from the first four seasons of Game of Thrones. Right now, it seems like the season will end on a strong note for sure because episode 7 is just the best episode of the season so far.

The episode follows the aftermath of the events in Episode 6. Laena’s death in Pentos is now a well-known event, and all the families have reunited at Driftmark to say goodbye to the young dragon rider. Game of Thrones showed that weddings are a very dangerous celebration. Feeling become heated, sketchy people make their moves to position themselves favorably, and the entire universe seems to conspire so that there is always at least one dead body among the attendees.

If weddings are dangerous, how are funerals? Laen’s funeral is another excuse to get all the major characters in one place, and the result is one of the most amazing episodes of the show. The characters make moves that you will never see coming, including one big change from the books, that the showrunners make with such confidence that now it seems so much better than what the source material offered. It is a great change and many people will be happy with it.

Of course, this episode delivers not only in giving us a great ending when it comes to matters that are plot related, but it also gives us great character moments. For both adults and kids. It is impressive how important the kids are in this episode. Especially, Aemond, Alicent’s second son with King Viserys. He is being positioned to be one of the most significant characters from here on out, and you can feel that whatever the story has in store for him is going to be big. Leo Ashton, who plays the character for the last time in this episode, does an excellent job.

Meanwhile, Emma D’Arcy keeps killing it as the older version of Rhaenyra. In this episode, the Princess of Westeros finally meets with her uncle once again after so many years. The reunion is simply one of the most climatic events of the episode. It is very weird that most of the audience is rooting for an uncle and his niece to get together. This only speaks to how well the show is written and how good the actors are at playing their roles. Smith and D’Arcy prove to have amazing chemistry, and if they are going to be an item from here on out, we are all for it.

The episode also provides one of the most intense encounters on the show. It is a small thing, but it will have huge repercussions for the future. It is fascinating to see how the characters’ flaws are all becoming more and more apparent, even for those who seem to be in control most of the time. By the time that encounter ends and the credits start rolling, you will feel like you were trapped inside your own family funeral. These are very uncomfortable situations, but they are inevitable.

That is one of the things that is so good about the A Song of Ice and Fire universe. In other stories, the author would end up placing plot armor on most of the characters, and they would survive even the most impossible of situations. In this story, it is the opposite George R.R. Martin hates plot armor, and if a character has trapped himself in an impossible situation in the story, well, that character needs to face the consequences. Of course, there will always be someone trying to save someone else, but in this universe, not everyone is successful in those moments.

This episode also rocks because there are tons of dragons, more than we have ever seen before on the show or in Game of Thrones. We also get a close look at one of the coolest dragons in the universe, and she is pretty badass. The episode does a great job of foreshadowing what will come in the last three episodes of the show. It seems that there will be no more time jumps after the one between this episode and episode 8. So, let’s say goodbye to some actors and then finally get our core cast for the remainder of the series.

The showrunners have said that they are planning for the show to last between 3 and 4 seasons, and that is it. However, there are still many stories about the Targaryen and their dynasty. We really could be in the face of seeing a decade of Game of Thrones content. That seems like a lot, but if they somehow manage to keep the quality of House of the Dragon in whatever else they are planning to do, I know I’ll watch it all with pleasure.

SCORE: 10/10

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