It’s an understatement to say that weddings not often go nicely in George R.R. Martin’s world, and the Game of Thrones prequel sequence House of the Dragon isn’t any exception. The first season of House of the Dragon strikes rather more shortly than Game of Thrones: Five episodes in, and we’ve already lined a half a decade within the lives of King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) and his backstabbing royal household. And episode 6 will see one other time bounce, this one taking viewers ahead one other 10 years.

Alliances are shifting, factions are forming, and animosities are deepening. Book readers, as normal, know the place that is all heading. But “We Light the Way” provides its viewers an elegantly constructed recap anyway, to assist preserve the whole lot straight as we transfer ahead — whether or not they understand that’s what they’re seeing or not.

One space the place House of the Dragon excels is in laying a visible groundwork that clues observant viewers into what’s coming subsequent. Queen Alicent’s (Emily Carey) inexperienced gown on this week’s episode is a good instance of this visible storytelling, as are the rats slurping up the blood on the dance ground on the finish of the episode. (Look up “Blood and Cheese, Dance of the Dragons” in case you’re curious.) These hints level towards the place the story goes. But episode director Clare Kilner’s most elaborately constructed machine reminds us the place it’s been, organising the throne room at King’s Landing, outfitted for a weeklong marriage ceremony celebration, to have a number of sight traces, every of them wanting down and/or throughout the room towards the middle aisle the place the “Dance of the Dragons” is about to happen.

Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO

Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO

Kilner alternates between these views, reducing between medium photographs of various characters — Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) and Princess Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best), the groom’s mother and father; the bride’s father, King Viserys, and his second spouse, Alicent; Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), the bride’s uncle and jealous suitor; and the bride’s and groom’s paramours and sworn protectors — who all have a stake within the consequence of this marriage. The joyful (or at the least content material, with an understanding that their marriage is a political association) couple stays on the middle of the body because the assembled lords and girls rise up to hitch the dance.

Here, Kilner cuts away to Alicent’s uncle, Lord Hobert Hightower, who will get up from his seat to inform a departing Alicent, “Know that Old Town stands with you.” As the dance continues, the digicam cuts again once more to Rhaenyra’s bodyguard and lover, Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) — a little bit of foreshadowing of his closing moments within the episode — then cuts to Ser Gerold Royce of the Vale, who has developed his personal causes for opposing Targaryen rule. More gamers have joined the dance, each actually and figuratively.

Although, in the intervening time, these realizing glances and unstated slights stay inside the rarified realm of courtly manners, these tensions will inevitably spin out into larger conflicts that can imply life and dying for 1000’s of individuals in Westeros, noble and customary alike. The characters perceive the significance of such small, symbolic gestures. Alicent strolling in late to Rhaenyra’s marriage ceremony banquet is not only the top of their friendship; it’s a declaration of battle between them. And by blocking and enhancing this scene to permit for such an in depth studying of posture, gesture, and sight traces, the present acknowledges their significance as nicely.

Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO

Even Viserys, who usually prefers to disregard the tensions in his court docket, can’t assist however discover the following confrontation between Ser Gerold and his boastful brother Daemon. But then he appears again out over the dance, concentrating on his daughter on the middle of the swirling materials and outstretched limbs. This is Viserys’ deadly flaw: He solely has eyes for Rhaenyra and his dream of retaining Targaryens on the throne for the subsequent hundred years, failing to see the rats scurrying across the edges of his grand plan. Laenor and his bodyguard/lover, Ser Joffrey Lonmouth, are extra observant, nonetheless, noticing Ser Criston’s forlorn expression and accurately surmising that he’s the rationale why Rhaenyra is content material with an “arrangement” along with her betrothed. Daemon, who’s used to (and good at) sneaking below his brother’s nostril, manages to slide right into a spot as his niece’s dance companion as nicely.

From right here, the reducing will get quicker and the broad photographs of a full dance ground extra frequent, and Kilner brings the digicam’s focus again on the Targaryens and Velaryons, by now absolutely distracted by their very own inner dramas. We don’t see how the battle on the dance ground begins; all we hear is a scream, which lastly attracts the royal households’ consideration again towards their company. The view of the motion is obscured from the excessive desk — a potent visible metaphor for the Targaryens’ myopia — and Rhaenyra will get shoved apart amid the jockeying of the group. The battle is glimpsed in fragments, and we lose monitor of Rhaenyra and Laenor amidst the chaos.

As quickly because the physique is dragged away, somebody (presumably Viserys) decides that it might be finest to get this marriage ceremony out of the way in which as quickly as potential, earlier than anybody else dies. The secret ceremony that follows is held amid the scraps of an deserted feast, decaying and nibbled on by rats. For now, it’s a symbolic loss and a brief humiliation. But as private grudges proceed to escalate, the “Dance of the Dragons” will rework from a literal dance right into a symbolic one: The dance of swords and knights on the battlefield. Game of Thrones, and now House of the Dragon, are inclined to get numerous consideration and credit score for his or her meticulously deliberate battle scenes; “We Light the Way” approaches the present’s political side with an identical filmmaking sensibility, brilliantly underlining the connection between the 2. Today, a ruined social gathering; tomorrow, a ruined home.