House of the Dragon Episode 5 Recap: The Worst People in Westeros, Ranked
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The post House of the Dragon Episode 5 Recap: The Worst People in Westeros, Ranked appeared first on Consequence.
[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers for House of the Dragon, Season 1 Episode 5, “We Light the Way.” To read last week’s ranking, click here.]
Game of Thrones was a show that became famous for the shades of grey to be found in its heroes and villains alike, and so far the prequel series House of the Dragon has shown every indication of following in that proud tradition.
Thus, Consequence is happy to bring you Who’s the Worst Person in Westeros, a weekly ranking of House of the Dragon‘s most important characters, and just how unsavory they ended up being each week. Everyone on screen, including dragons, is eligible for this list (though expect for the show’s series regulars to be heavily featured from week to week).
In “We Light the Way,” there’s a minimal amount of time-jumping (beyond the months at sea as royals go back and forth from King’s Landing) and only one notable scene of combat. Instead, it’s a pretty discussion-heavy episode, though the discussions are pretty intriguing, as some very intelligent people take stock of the current political situation and prepare for some kind of war.
Whether that war is fought on a battlefield with swords or in a castle with words or intrigue appears to be the unanswered question at this point, as a number of new players emerge in this game of… Hmmm, there’s probably a good way to finish that sentence, but it’s escaping me. In the meantime, let’s get to the rankings, because somebody’s getting married!
Least Worst: Lady Rhea Royce (Rachel Redford)
We tragically only meet the Lady Rhea briefly at the beginning of the episode, but in her brief time on screen actress Rachel Redford does a lot to make it clear that this is a sharp, strong, and bold young woman who would have been very content spending her days hunting on her land and never having sex with her husband. Unfortunately, Daemon’s commitment to uxoricide means we’ll never get to appreciate just how much of a badass she was in her own time. She at least got in one last dig at her problematic husband: ” I knew you couldn’t finish — craven!”
12. Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans)
House of the Dragon (HBO)
Who knows if we’ll ever see Otto again, as he takes his leave of King’s Landing after being dismissed from his position as Hand of the King. But he does offer some pretty wise words of wisdom to his daughter, as someone with a solid perspective on what, exactly, is brewing within Westeros.
It’s disloyal to the King for him to say it out loud, but the facts are inescapable: The King’s health is very bad, there are parts of the kingdom that won’t accept Rhaenyra as heir, and conflict is coming as a result. So while it might be a little petty for Otto to essentially abandon his daughter in the middle of this mess, perhaps he does so because he knows she’s ready to take care of herself (and by the end of the episode, it’s clear he’s not wrong about that).
11. Lady Laena Velaryon (Savannah Steyn)
Oh boy, Laena knows exactly what she’s doing, flirting with Prince Daemon like that at the wedding. Good luck to her with that one.
10. King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine)
This is perhaps the most passive we’ve seen Viserys yet, with his biggest evidence of spark being his negotiations with Lord Corlys over what family name Rhaenyra and Laenor’s children would bear. But, given that even standing upright has become a challenge for him lately, that’s to be expected. It’s hard to be too big a jerk when you’re dying (at least in comparison to the jerks that surround him).
09. Ser Laenor Velaryon (Theo Nate)
The new king consort seems okay with getting married, especially given the relatively frank conversation he and Rhaenyra have about what kind of marriage they’re talking about. And up to a certain point in the episode, he also seems more than willing to hold up his end of the bargain. But we’ll see how his lover’s death ends up affecting him in the future — his low placement on this list could be in flux.
08. Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock)
Rhaenyra isn’t to be upheld as a paragon of virtue here — she has her secrets just like everyone else — but in many respects she seems determined to make the best of a difficult situation for everyone. Armed with enough intel to know that her marriage to Laenor will never be one of love and passion, she seems to come to a pleasant understanding with her future spouse about both their responsibilities as heirs and the fact that once their duties to their families are met, they should be free to do as they wish.
Look at her through Ser Criston’s eyes, of course, and she doesn’t look very good, and to his credit he did make her a nice offer: a marriage based on love and an adventure at the furthest edges of the maps. But this is overall the most responsible and mature behavior we’ve seen so far from Rhaenyra (beyond taunting her wife-murdering uncle, of course), and good for her.
House of the Dragon (HBO)
07. Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint)
We can’t rank every character on this show, but it’s worth noting that Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best) tells him directly that agreeing to marry Laenor to Rhaenyra puts him in serious danger, and Lord Corlys goes ahead and does it anyway, and by the end of the episode his son’s lover is dead and the future is looking like a dangerous place for all involved. What good is power if it gets your family killed?
06. Jason Lannister (Jefferson Hall)
“This is why men fight wars — women would never be ready for the battle in time”? Ew, screw this guy. At least Rhaenyra dodged that bullet.
05. Larys Strong (Matthew Needham)
As the smartest characters on this show know, when you don’t have a big-ass sword to swing around, information is the best weapon. Larys knows exactly what he’s doing when he tips off Alicent to evidence that Rhaenyra did in fact lie about her virtue, making him a schemer to watch in the future.
04. Lady Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey)
Now a mother twice over, Alicent is focusing up for a fight to come, one where the loser and their loved ones more than likely get put to the sword. So, heeding her father’s warnings and to protect her children, Alicent is gathering up allies, including court members loyal to the Hightower family, Littlefinger-in-waiting Larys, and, as we see at the very end of the episode, a desperate and broken Ser Criston.
For this week, Alicent’s actions aren’t too deplorable, beyond interrupting the king’s speech with her banger of an entrance in an arguably seditious dress. However, she is still figuring out how much power she has in this world — and once she’s sure of it, this world had better watch out.
03. Joffrey Lonmouth (Solly McLeod)
RIP, “the Knight of Kisses.” Maybe, in the next life, you’ll think better of picking a fight with Ser Criston — even if picking a fight wasn’t exactly his intention, when goading him about their mutual status as paramours of the newlyweds. It’s really a shame, too, because if Joffrey had just left Criston alone, who knows? While Laenor’s sexuality is clearly an open secret in the kingdom, Joffrey and Laenor seemed like they genuinely loved each other, and had what it took to keep their relationship relatively discreet. He didn’t deserve an ugly death like that, though “deserve” isn’t the sort of word used that often on this show.
02. Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel)
As long as we’ve been doing these rankings, Ser Criston has been an object of sympathy (okay, maybe sometimes pity). And maybe he still deserves some of that, as a man who wants to be truly honorable in a society where honor only receives lip service. But when Rhaenyra rejects his very lovely offer to run away together, his subsequent decisions only confirm how tarnished his honor has become, and by the end of the episode he’s a broken and vulnerable man who just full on pulped a guy’s face into rotten pumpkin — and may be capable of far worse, on behalf of Alicent.
01. Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith)
After the opening sequence, it was just a matter of waiting to see if anyone would do anything substantially worse than bludgeon their estranged wife to death with a big rock. Guess what — no one did! Congrats to Daemon, who celebrated his newly single status by going to the wedding and putting the moves on multiple blood relations. Not really much more to say about it than this: Dude, you’re really doing the Targaryen name proud.
Could Daemon hold onto his position as the Absolute Worst for a fourth week in a row? We’ll see how this ranking shifts come Episode 6. New episodes of House of the Dragon debut Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
House of the Dragon Episode 5 Recap: The Worst People in Westeros, Ranked
Liz Shannon Miller
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