This plan is kind of silly on its face, since it depends on a lot of factors the characters can’t control. The plan, such as we understand it, is for Qarl and Laenor to fake a fight in Corlys Velaryon’s great hall, to count on only one witness being present, and then to run away when the witness goes to get some guards, during which time someone (possibly Daemon) will toss the corpse of a guy who looks like Laenor - I assume he’s been dressed in the same clothes - into the fireplace, where the flames will burn his face beyond recognition. There are some nuts and bolts plot problems here too. Because it raises questions the show can’t answer The plot twist only works for Laenor’s character if we don’t think too much about what that character is. A good plot twist feels inevitable in retrospect, but we were given - at best - incomplete evidence that Laenor wanted out of his life with Rhaenyra, along with some evidence that he didn’t. Like most bad plot twists, Laenor’s fake death isn’t set up well. Would a good and loyal man then agree to abandon his children to go live a life of comfortable obscurity, messing them up even more than they already are? Would he agree to trick his parents into believing that their only son was dead, exposing them to more pain right after they’d lost their only daughter? Laenor, a gay man, was forced to live a lie as Rhaenyra’s husband, so I can understand why he’d want to make a change, but it’s the show’s job to convince us that he wants it bad enough to abandon everything else he wants, like the opportunity to raise his children, to do right by his parents, to ride his dragon Seasmoke, and to become king consort. We’re told that Laenor is a good man, a loyal man, and we believe it. Right before the twist ending, he has an honest conversation with Rhaenyra where he tells her that his lover Qarl Correy is leaving and that he is going to recommit himself to their marriage and their children, something Rhaenyra needs as the people who would block her claim to the Iron Throne gather their strength. That all boiled over in the moment that Alicent pulled a knife on her former friend, and it was electrifying television.Ĭompare that to what happened with Laenor. For instance, House of the Dragon spends a lot of time setting up the knifepoint confrontation between Rhaenyra and Alicent in “Driftmark.” We’d watched how their friendship degraded over the years and how Alicent grew resentful of what she saw as Rhaenyra’s disregard for the establishment Alicent has spent her life upholding. When they act different or “off,” we notice it. House of the Dragon, like Game of Thrones before it, is a show that cares about its characters they are the show, more or less, so it’s important to get them right. Let’s start with the man at the center of this business: Laenor Velaryon. Why should House of the Dragon have killed Laenor Velaryon? Because it undermines and confuses Laenor’s character Still, my reaction was extreme enough - I really hated it - that I thought it was worth working through my thoughts on paper…or the internet equivalent. Although we don’t know the details, we’re given to understand that Rhaenyra, Daemon, Laenor and Qarl all conspired to fake Laenor’s death.įor whatever reason, this change really ticked me off when I first watched it, although I’ve more or less come around by now. House of the Dragonadapts these events in the episode “Driftmark.” It takes some cues form the book - Daemon does visit Ser Qarl clandestinely - and ignores others, but it changes the heart of the matter: on TV, Laenor survives. But one thing isn’t in doubt: Laenor dies. And it is true that Rhaenyra and Daemon married not long afterwards. One tale has it that Daemon Targaryen paid Ser Qarl to kill Laenor in order to eliminate Rhaenyra’s husband, the better for Daemon to replace him. There is disagreement over the reason for the murder some think it was a lover’s quarrel. We learn he was “stabbed to death” by a knight in his father’s service, his paramour Ser Qarl Quarry. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, we are told of the incident where Rhaenyra Targaryen’s husband Laenor Velaryon dies while attending a fair in Spicetown, on the island of Driftmark.
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