House of the Dragon Episode 7 review: The fair exchange of an eye for a dragon

4/5

Story: The King and his family travel to Driftmark to attend Laena Velaryon’s funeral and pay their respects to House Velaryon. But a violent quarrel among the Targaryen children leads to direct confrontation between their respective mothers, Queen Alicent and Princess Rhaenyra.

Review: Ever since the first episode of House of Dragon premiered in late August, social media has been flooded with the question as to whether someone is ‘team green’ or ‘team black’. Team green is in reference to the green colours of House Hightower and Queen Alicent, and team black is Princess Rhaenyra and her loyalists after she chooses black as her preferred choice of colour to represent themselves. While the answer to this question is pretty straightforward in G. R. R. Martin’s book Fire and Blood, the series has opted for a more nuanced approach.

The younger Queen Alicent, played by Emily Carey, comes across as a lonely figure thrust into the unforgiving world of Targaryen politics. But the older version of the character, played by Olivia Cooke, is closer to the character depicted in the book. She has turned paranoid over the decade and has become increasingly resentful of her former friend Rhaenyra. Whereas the older Princess Rhaenyra on the other hand, played by Emma D’Arcy, is no longer entitled like her younger self, essayed by Milly Alcock. Princess Rhaenyra has become visibly weary of the conflict as it has taken a toll on her family’s well-being.

Episode seven takes this even further with their rivalry taking a dark turn, and everyone in court, including the King, comes to realise the true depths of the resentment between the pair. But the episode’s most significant character, oddly enough, is neither of these women. Instead, it is Prince Aemond Targaryen, and it is likely that he could become one of the most important characters in the story as the series enters its final stages. And quite interestingly, the series has made one significant change from the novel, which many people may not complain about. The next episode will feature another time jump with the young princes and princesses all grown up.

Despite the gripping screenplay and excellent performances, D’Arcy in particular, the episode is bogged down by an issue, where the blame does not entirely lie on the showrunners. The episode director and series co-creator Miguel Sapochnik has reintroduced his infamous low-light scenes, which created significant outrage when his ‘Battle of Winterfell’ episode of Game of Thrones was released. From an artistic perspective, it does sound logical as to why some of the scenes featured minimal lighting. But considering Disney+ Hotstar does not offer 4K or any video quality higher than 1080 pixels, these scenes were unwatchable due to the terrible picture quality. In hindsight, Sapochnik should have accounted for the fact that not every global streaming service would offer 4K UHD with Dolby Vision as HBO Max does in the US.

Verdict: House of the Dragon continues to excel with yet another gripping episode. If it weren’t for the unfortunate fiasco surrounding the picture quality, episode seven ‘Driftmark’ would be on par with any of the top-rated Game of Thrones episodes.