It's been roughly eleven months since I last reviewed an episode of House Of The Dragon and well with the trailer for season quite literally dropping before sitting down to write this review. I thought that now was the absolutely right time to delve back into the show by watching an episode that I never got to watch upon it's first airing and so then join me as I review the episode that features the franchises biggest time skip to date with the episode in question being called simply just "The Princess And The Queen" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is with the birth of her third son Princess Rhaenyra continues to field allegations about her children from Queen Alicent while Daemon receives an offer that he might not be able to refuse. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad with this episodes plot being alot better then what it really had any right to be as on paper a plot like this one shouldn't have worked and yet because we've had alot of time to really to get to know these characters this plot does somehow work and is also really entertaining ad really engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is Paddy Considine as King Viserys I Targaryen and Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen. Also starring in this episode is Olivia Cooke as Queen Alicent Hightower , Emma D'Arcy as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen , Fabien Frankel as Ser Criston Cole , Graham McTavish as Ser Harrold Westerling, Matthew Needham as Larys Strong , Jefferson Hall as Ser Tyland Lannister , Gavin Spokes as Lord Lyonel Strong , Bill Paterson as Lord Lyman Beesbury , Ryan Corr as Ser Harwin Strong , Leo Hart as Prince Jacaerys Velaryon , Harvey Sadler as Prince Lucerys Velaryon , Ty Tennant as Prince Aegon Targaryen , Leo Ashton as Prince Aemond Targaryen , Evie Allen as Princess Helaena Targaryen , Shani Smethurst as Lady Baela Targaryen , Eva Ossei-Gerning as Lady Rhaena Targaryen , John Macmillan as Ser Laenor Velaryon , Nanna Blondell as Lady Laena Velaryon , Kurt Egyiawan as Grand Maester Orwyle , Paul Kennedy as Lord Jasper Wylde , Luke Tittensor as Ser Arryk Cargyll , Alexis Raben as Talya and Arty Froushan as Ser Qarl Correy.
Now then interms of what personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well the in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. Which is really nothing as the acting from this franchise has always been really good and so to expect anything but good acting from this episode would be foolish and part of what makes the acting in this episode really good is not only the fact that the episodes cast are a bunch of really good actors but it's also due to the fact that the episodes director and the shows co=producer Miguel Sapochnik really does know how to direct his cast and how to get a bunch of really good performances out of all of his cast and it's also due to the fact that the script for this episode is really good and as such all the cast have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them really naturally.
Doing the CGI for this episode is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Incessant Rain Studios. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty ,personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good with this episodes CGI being movie quality as it was really that good which just like the acting isn't really all that surprising as this franchise has always had some really good CGI in all of their with this episode just going to show you that if you give something enough money you will always get some really good looking CGI that will stand the test of time.
The key theme running all throughout this episode is family with Daemon ignoring his family and his family trying to get him to notice them and Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen trying to project her family from that of Queen Alicent. Thus was key to making the episode work as the Targaryens are all about family and as such showing one of therm doing anything that they can do to protect her family does oddly make sense what doesn't make is Daemon ignoring his family as all they are trying to do is help him and to find some place permanent to stay something which Daemon should be willing to help them out with as he's all about family and yet he's ignoring his own family and their own wants and needs for seemingly no reason which doesn't make sense interms of his character and all it does is make him look like a really terrible father and family man.
Seeing both Rhaenyra and Alicent continue going from the absolute best of friends to bitter enemies is really interesting. As it does show that anyone can be drawn into playing the Game Of Thrones weather they know it or not and seeing just how far one of them will go to embarrass the other just hits home that right now there is no going to being just friends and this show does the smart by resenting neither of them of being in the right ad neither of them as being in the wrong as as we see in this very episode both characters are both show that can be in the right and yet both in the wrong at the exact same time which only makes there falling out all the more tragic as they were both pretty much doomed to be friends turned deadly enemies and while Rhaenyra does try to extend an olive branch to Alicent it doesn't come from a place of love it comes from out of desperation of trying to keep the secret of who is really her kids father just that a secret and while Alicent does try to get Rhaenyra to tell the truth about who her kids father really is it doesn't really come out of a place of love as it really comes out of a place of trying to get one up on Rhaenyra.
There are some things that I didn't like about this episode like for example the fact Alicent has so far been this rather smart person who knows how to get what she wants. She allows herself to get played by Larys Strong. As while he gets a higher position in his own family she is left with guilt for his actions and her actions which is something that the Alicent of previous episodes would never have done no matter how desperate she is as she would have always have done the smart thing and not acted on impulse but on the flip side of this is the fact that it now adds a time bomb to the friendly relationship between Alicent and Larys as it's now only a matter of time before she tells the king what's happened and what her involvement in it was.
Now then while I cannot for the absolutely life of me remember whatever this episodes running time even was I do know that for a father that this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of roughly one hour and four minuets. Which to this episodes really is the perfect running time for this episode to have as it really does have alot of story to really cover that large amount of running time and given just how much it has to set up for the rest of the first season and how much it had to explain where these characters are in their lives ten years after the events of episode five it really did need a larger running time in order to do all of that and still tell a really good story which thankfully it managed to do really well and I will very much that this episode really does gave some really good pacing to it as well.
So now then as this is an action show that means that I have to actually talk about the actual action that's actually feature /presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual action that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. As the only kind of action that we get to see in this episode was just two people hitting each other but it was something that was so well done as it was built up not really well not only in this episode but in the previous episodes and as such it makes sense that these two would bare knuckle fight each other and to this episodes credit the action in this episode looked really goo in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this was a really solid episode of a really great show and while it's not as good as other episodes in this show it's still a really good episodes that alot of people will enjoy watching in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as well of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and as such that means that this very episode earns itself a grand old score of exactly an 8.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that personally used in this very review the official Game Of Thrones fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website that I personally preferred to use to get the images that I personally used in this very post being the official Game Of Thrones fandom wiki page since all of the images that are currently up and and featured / presented to us on the really great freaking the official Game Of Thrones fandom wiki page are all of course really fairly freaking high in freaking quality and as well as them all really being very fairly freaking high in definition.