House of the Dragon 2x06 Inside Smallfolk (2024) HBO Game of Thrones Prequel
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00:00Episode 206 is entitled Small Folk.
00:03The camera is constantly circling characters
00:06to give the sense that this world is turning very slowly
00:10amidst this battle between the blacks and the greens.
00:13In a way, it's a boiling over of all of these things
00:17that have been simmering for so long.
00:21He dares to summon me!
00:25With haste!
00:27I find Eamon to be one of the most interesting characters.
00:31He's driven by a very cold rationality.
00:34Aegon makes choices out of fear or anger,
00:36whereas Eamon's revenge will always be served cold.
00:41Aegon has so many people constantly trying to puppeteer him.
00:46It's Larys or it's Alison or it was Otto,
00:50whereas now we've got Eamon.
00:52He's very difficult to manipulate.
00:54In a state of war, he's going to fight, just like Daemon.
00:56My uncle is a challenge. I welcome if he dares face me.
00:59I think Eamon is obsessed with Daemon in a way.
01:02I think he grew up in Daemon's shadow
01:04and hearing about the mystique of him.
01:06Eamon has spun Daemon up into being this rival to his
01:09and also somebody that he wants to emulate
01:12and then probably kill one day.
01:14Mother, a word.
01:18I think Eamon genuinely sees Alison
01:21as no more than his mother and a woman,
01:24so why would she be on the small council?
01:27Eamon sees the world in a very black-and-white way.
01:29We've always talked about Eamon as being the ultimate pragmatist,
01:32so he is not banishing his mother from the council out of cruelty.
01:35It's very simply like, I'm sorry, what is it that you do here
01:38and what's your role?
01:40You served the realm well,
01:42but at a time of need,
01:45that need is ended.
01:47So long as he's seen as this indestructible,
01:51horror-iconesque, Terminator-like figure,
01:53he'll be forever all-powerful.
01:55The indignities of your childhood
01:57have not yet sufficiently been avenged.
01:59She tries to penetrate whatever heart he has left,
02:03but it's to no avail.
02:11So Stefan Darklyn, Your Grace.
02:13I need more dragon riders.
02:15Who could do it?
02:16You.
02:18I think it's an act out of desperation of Rhaenyra's
02:20because she realizes she's never going to have the ground army.
02:23She doesn't know how Daemon is going to break,
02:25and even if the Riverlanders do go her way,
02:27they're still weeks away by March.
02:29She takes another one of these pretty outlandish
02:31but understandable risks
02:33in trying to put Stefan Darklyn on a dragon.
02:35Perhaps the gods will favor us.
02:38The first part of this journey
02:40is kind of an act of magical thinking,
02:43and I don't think it's that pragmatic.
02:46I think it's based on faith.
02:48It's part of the sort of fanaticism
02:50that we start to see her exhibit.
02:52It's a very dangerous thing to do
02:54because you suddenly take the idea of Targaryen superiority
02:57as dragon riders,
02:59and you give it to anyone that has Targaryen blood.
03:01So you sort of democratize riding a dragon.
03:07It is a risk to life and limb,
03:09but on the other side of it,
03:11it means being written into the history books.
03:13Darklyn gets intoxicated by that idea
03:15and doesn't think about the possible consequences,
03:17which, sadly, are quickly visited upon him.
03:25Rhaenyra's last-ditch idea
03:27literally goes up in flames.
03:31There is not food enough in the city.
03:34The people are hungry, and their anger is rising.
03:36I think Larys is smart enough
03:38to try and warn Aemond
03:40that people are hungry,
03:42and when people are hungry, they become desperate.
03:44When people become desperate, things happen.
03:47I think Larys is suggesting this
03:49in an effort to become the Hand,
03:51and he wants to show Aemond
03:53that he has an understanding of what's happening.
03:55Send word to Otto Eidell.
03:57Your grace.
03:59His grace, the king,
04:01has regained consciousness this morning.
04:03What happy news?
04:07Aemond has had to accept the fact that his brother survived,
04:10and he now has to deal with that,
04:12but I don't think Aemond is looking to give up his regency
04:14anytime soon, either.
04:16And, of course, you'd want to hold on to that.
04:18Aegon is in grave danger.
04:20Now Aemond's, you know, prowling around the castle.
04:23He's always had the suspicions of Aemond,
04:25but never really taken them too seriously.
04:28He wants to be in that position
04:30more than Aegon ever did.
04:33It seems my brother has a long recovery ahead of him, Grand Maester.
04:37If Aegon was to fully recover
04:39and he was to tell people what Aemond did,
04:41that puts Aemond's newfound position in jeopardy,
04:44and so he's a major threat at this point.
04:53It's getting pretty restless in the streets of King's Landing,
04:55and I think all the sympathy that they gained after Jaehaerys' death,
04:58a lot of that has been spent.
05:00And you have people who are scared and sick and hungry,
05:03and when the masses get restless,
05:05they point at the person in the highest levels of power,
05:07and they blame them.
05:10You, where'd you get that food?
05:13She thinks of us even now!
05:15I think the people of King's Landing have learned by now
05:18the people in charge are only going to give them what they have to.
05:23I don't think they're stupid, and I think that's what happens.
05:25I think the aristocracy undermine people as a collective.
05:28Whoever's going to supply them and save them from the famine
05:31is the person they're going to choose to be in charge.
05:36Aemond's downfall is that he doesn't understand the power of the small folk.
05:40Rhaenyra, through Mysaria, comes to understand this.
05:42She knows what makes them tick.
05:44She's one of them, and not just how to win their hearts,
05:47but actually what they really need.
05:49Mysaria is giving Rhaenyra that layer
05:52that she's not getting from anybody else in their council,
05:54which is, how do I, from so far away on this little island on Dragonstone,
05:58touch and affect King's Landing?
06:00And in this war, that psychological battle is very important.
06:06Your graces, we must leave.
06:09Alicent goes through this whole experience in this episode
06:11of having all these layers of her family slowly stripped away from her.
06:15Her father is gone and missing, and her son might not survive his wounds.
06:18Cole is off on the march.
06:20Aemond is a monster, and she goes to the Sept to find comfort.
06:23And even that is not a sanctuary for her.
06:26There's the Queen of Fishes!
06:30There's a blockade. There's no food.
06:33The small folk are starving,
06:36and so there's no wonder that they see the royals come in their cart
06:39and all their finery, and it's such a slap in the face to them.
06:42It's very Marie Antoinette, let them eat cake. It's cause for revolt.
06:46The effects of Aegon and now Aemond's reign
06:49have bubbled over and nearly taken her and Helene's life.
06:58It is, as we hoped, a warning to the usurpers
07:00that you have strength beyond what they accredited.
07:03It's been such an interesting part of this series for me,
07:06understanding that relationship.
07:08You watch two people who are deeply suspicious of one another
07:12develop a form of trust.
07:15Their relationship has found a dynamic
07:18which is not dissimilar to how they first met,
07:21which was this kind of open frankness and honesty
07:24and really taking each other at face value.
07:28In many ways, she is the off-council hand of Rhaenyra.
07:32I think Mysaria's power increases in Rhaenys' absence
07:35because I think Rhaenyra is desperate in looking for that sympathetic female voice in her life.
07:39Within a patriarchal structure, they underestimate both of us, really.
07:43I believe you are meant to be queen.
07:47And to what extent is there a degree of threat
07:50in watching two women begin to guide the path to war?
07:58You're great.
07:59The dragon Seasmoke has been sighted.
08:01He has a rider.
08:04Seasmoke has been claimed and she needs to go find out who.
08:09Leaving the audience wondering what's going to happen next.