Movies

House of the Dragon Proves It Knows Even Less About Black Characters Than Game of Thrones

October 5, 2022

John Macmillan as Ser Laenor Velaryon in HBO’s House of the Dragon.

Spoiler warning: if you don’t know Dragon House up to episode 7, “Driftmark”, stop reading now!

Good. You have been warned.

Again, the game of thrones the universe has a problem with black characters. I’d like to be surprised, but after what they did to Jacob Anderson’s Gray Worm and Nathalie Emmanuel’s Missandei, I’m not.

I confess that I was hopeful when Steve Toussaint’s Corlys Velaryon made his presence known in Dragon House. In the first episode, he was introduced as the richest and most powerful man in Westeros, and then he was immediately thrust into a story with the series’ main antagonist, Prince Daemon. It appeared that they put his character and his family at the center of the plot. Of course, it quickly faded into the background as we had to spend endless hours hearing that Princess Rhaenyra was unfit to rule because she is a woman. And just like that, I knew this show wasn’t going to let House Velaryon be great.

For a very short while, when Corlys’ children married into the Targaryen family, it looked like they were going to have real storylines. But Episode 7, “Driftmark,” quickly snuffed out all my hopes and dreams.

When Corlys’ son Laenor, who is gay, and Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, who just wants to be free to live her life, got engaged, they made a deal to “do their duty” and then have fun on the side. They would produce heirs and play the happy couple, while being supportive friends and equals. I was ready to see them as this amazing, united couple fighting off attacks from Queen Alicent and the rest of the royal court. Sadly, other than a few short scenes together, Laenor wasn’t an issue in Rhaenyra’s story. We also never really delved into how living as a gay man in a world where it’s not accepted has affected him. As a result, Laenor is the perfect example of how Dragon House repeatedly drops the ball on character development.

Drama often expects viewers to know these people and their motivations ahead of time, so it can just skip to the plot and skip the hard work of world-building. Laenor and her sister Laena are the biggest victims of this scheme. The bold choices their characters make ring hollow because the audience has spent very little time with them. I cannot be shocked or devastated by the actions of strangers to whom I have no emotional attachment. There are several minor players who have very little to do with the overall story arc who have had more time than the wives of the series’ two main characters.

Honestly, from their wedding in Episode 5 to the conclusion of her story in Episode 7, Laenor was missed so much you could have put her face on the back of a milk carton.

Meanwhile, her sister Laena was doing even worse. After killing his first wife, Daemon took Laena as his next wife. This all happens during the 10 year time jump that happened between episodes 5 and 6, so one minute we see them traveling with their daughters and the next minute Laena orders her dragon to burn her – aka “Dracarys” – rather than die in childbirth. We’ve met Laena three times in her life, and she’s never been allowed to be anything more than a pawn for the men to use in their endless game of Iron Throne musical chairs. In fact, the first time we saw her was when she was a child when her parents were trying to marry her off to a middle-aged man.

Yeah, it was disgusting even by game of thrones standards.

And just to be clear, Laena and Daemon’s children won’t be treated any better. Literally, minutes after Laena was buried at sea, Alicent’s horrible son, Aemond, claims his dragon as his own, stealing that right from his daughter, Baela. And he does it in that smug, titled white dude way we all know so well.

Now back to Laenor for a second: After his sister’s funeral and a royal brawl involving his wife and children, he tells Rhaenyra that he will be a better husband and father. It’s one of his best moments on the show and it really made me think things were about to change. But yeah, that didn’t happen. Rhaenyra decides she wants to keep the Targaryen line “pure”, which means marrying her uncle Daemon. For this to happen, Laenor must die. Daemon arranges for Laenor to fake his death, devastating his parents, but paving the way for him and Rhaenyra to marry in a private ceremony.

Seriously, Dragon HouseI could have done without incest this time.

Look, I don’t know if these characters got so little treatment because they belong to the only black family on the show, but the story of the universe, with game of thrones ending with the senseless murder of Missandei and Gray Worm gone alone, it certainly points to a glaring problem where POC is concerned.

Dragon House sidelined its only black family for several episodes, then killed and wrote them off in an hour, leaving black fans wondering if this universe is worth their time and support.