House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 5 Review: Alliances Shift and Tensions Rise

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#moviesupdate Welcome to Reaction of A! In this video, we review House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 5, diving into the shifting alliances, rising tensions, and key moments that made this episode a turning point in the series. Join us as we discuss the standout performances, the most impactful scenes, and what these developments mean for the Targaryen legacy. Don’t miss our in-depth review and passionate reactions. Like, comment, and subscribe for more House of the Dragon reviews and insights

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00:00Welcome back everyone.

00:07It is Amelia.

00:08I hope you are fine.

00:09House of the Dragons Season 2 Episode 5 is a quieter installment but also

00:14an important one.

00:15The Dance of the Dragons has fully started now after the events of Episode 4.

00:20But this is a chance for both sides of the civil war to assist their wounds and regroup.

00:24While they're doing that, Damon sinks further into his adrenal nightmare with some very

00:29surprising narrative choices along the way.

00:32Damon's visions at Harrenhal get weirder than ever as Episode 5's installment includes

00:37having sex with his long dead mother, Alyssa Targaryen.

00:41Damon's mother died when he was around 3 years old.

00:44So there is perhaps a sense of Damon wanting to feel the motherly love he missed out on

00:49while also searching for a woman who will take care of him and feed his own ego and

00:54desires.

00:55This is certainly an, yeah rem, interesting scene, although even a bit much incest-wise,

01:00even for the Targaryens.

01:01That vision drives the rest of Damon's arc really as he goes on to declare that he wants

01:06to be king and not king consort.

01:08Matt Smith is superb here and clearly having a great time.

01:12He gets to be utterly despicable and arrogant and rude and all of Damon's other charming

01:17qualities and yet also manages to find the character's vulnerability, not to mention

01:22confusion which is important to making this story work.

01:25I don't think everything here works perfectly, in part because there is so much happening

01:30to Damon within a single episode.

01:32He goes from threatening the Brackens to coming up with a plan with the Blackwoods, which

01:36is then executed and then the Riverlords angrily come upon him without a real sense of the

01:42passage of time.

01:43It also makes some key changes to the book in him wanting to be king rather than seeing

01:47Rhaenyra rule and while that's not inherently a bad thing, the jury is out on how

01:52that will work for the story going forward.

01:55In terms of the fallout from the battle at Rook's Rest, I think the scenes in King's

01:59Landing are where the show really nails it.

02:01There's plenty of drama given King Aegon could still die and Damon gets to go even

02:06more full throttle into villain mode as he gets to take control like he's always wanted.

02:12Even Mitchell and Olivia Cooke once again do great work in their scenes and it begins

02:16to show the cracks in Alicent.

02:18Despite the bad she's done, Cooke does make you feel for her.

02:21The scenes with the small folk were particularly good because it would be so easy to overlook

02:26them.

02:27It's always great to get a sense of the real people who are living and dying underneath

02:31the rule of the nobles, those who cannot find food while their rulers squabble over a big

02:36chair.

02:37It does a nice job showing the escalating struggles and tensions among the residents

02:41of King's Landing and I look forward to seeing when that eventually boils over.

02:46Plus, as visuals go, a dragon's head being carted through the streets is a very striking

02:51and powerful one.

02:52Illumin, or not?

02:53Give me some ideas related to my video in comments on below if you like this video and

02:58subs for more upcoming videos.

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