5 details you might have missed in the latest episode of ‘House of the Dragon’

Though of course “House of the Dragon” takes place long before “Game of Thrones” — not to mention the fact that Dany’s braids in HBO’s original series were connected with Dothraki, not Targaryen, custom — the new prequel series seems to be taking a page out of the first show’s book. Each episode, as Rhaenyra gets a little older, her hairstyles are including more detailed and structured braids. Just as it did with Dany in “Game of Thrones,” this evolution of her braids seems to keep pace with the victories (both big and small) that Rhaenyra is maneuvering for herself.

In this episode, Rhaenyra successfully defends her children from the truth of their parentage, succeeds in helping Laenor escape to Essos with his lover Qarl, and marries her uncle Daemon in a power move that will shore up their family’s defenses even more. Vaemond, who appears to be a priest of sorts, says Laena is being sent to “the eternal waters, the dominion of the Merlin King. ” As opposed to the Greyjoys in “Game of Thrones” (who worship the Drowned God at the Iron Islands), the people who come from lands around the Narrow Sea worship a god called the Merlin King.

In George R. R. Martin’s “Fire and Blood” book, it’s mentioned that the Velaryon’s Driftwood Throne (the seat of power we see in the great hall of High Tide castle) was a said to be a “gift from the Merlin King.

” Lord Corlys Velaryon currently sits on the Driftwood Throne, and in the line of succession it will pass to Lucerys — Rhaenyra’s second born child who is usually just called “Luke. ” We saw Corlys mention the inheritance of this seat of power and all that comes with it while speaking one-on-one with Luke in Sunday’s episode. In this photo, you can see five total dragons that could belong to either Daemon (Caraxes), Rhaenyra (Syrax), Laenor (Sea Smoke), Rhaenys (Meleys), and Aegon (Sunfyre), and maybe even Baela (Moondancer) or Helaena (Dreamfyre).

Vhagar, who was once Queen Visenya’s (the sister-wife of Aegon I, who helped conquer Westeros), had been claimed by Laena Velaryon in the intervening time between episodes five and six. But in Sunday night’s episode, we saw young Aemond Targaryen (the son of King Viserys and Queen Alicent) claim Vhagar as his own. In episode six, when we first met 11-year-old Helaena, she was playing with a collection of bugs and talking in cryptic sentences.

As she listened to her brother Aemond talk to Alicent about his desire for a dragon, Helaena prophesied what it would cost him. “He will have to close an eye,” Helaena said in episode six. As we see in this episode, Aemond managed to claim Vhagar before Laena’s daughter Baela did.

But when Aemond was confronted by Baela, Rhaena, Jace, and Luke, the young Targaryen prince escalated the fight until little Luke sliced a cut through his eye. In the end, Aemond told Alicent that the means of this act justified their ends: “I may have lost an eye, but I gained a dragon. ” As the battle lines continue to be drawn between Queen Alicent’s loyalists and Princess Rhaenyra’s royal court, Team Green just gained the power of the world’s oldest and largest dragon.

Here’s how Laenor’s death was explained in “Fire and Blood”: “Ser Laenor Velaryon, husband to the Princess Rhaenyra and the putative father of her children, was slain whilst attending a fair in Spicetown, stabbed to death by his friend and companion Ser Qarl Correy. The two men had been quarreling loudly before blades were drawn, merchants at the fair told Lord Velaryon when he came to collect his son’s body. Correy had fled by then, wounding several men who tried to hinder him.

Some claimed a ship had been waiting for him offshore. He was never seen again. ” Though “Fire and Blood” notes that some people speculated Daemon was behind the attack , the killing effectively gets remembered by history as a cold case of murder.

By showing the TV audience a wider view of the events and letting us root for Laenor’s escape to Essos, we’re more prone to root for Rhaenyra . If Laenor and Qarl find safe haven among Daemon’s connections in Pentos or elsewhere, then Laenor can have a chance at a content life. He won’t need to hide his sexuality as much, and he will be unburdened by the pressure to rule a kingdom on the brink of war.

The episode of course spends some time building you up to believe that Rhaenyra plotted to have Laenor murdered for her own political strategies, a heartless and cruel ploy that would be in line with other awful acts people have done in “House of the Dragon” so far. But then in the final shot, we see Laenor and Qarl rowing away from Westeros under the cover of night. This change, combined with Alicent’s public violence and cruelty in the episode, shows just how much “House of the Dragon” is laying the groundwork for Rhaenyra to be the series’ primary protagonist.

New episodes of “House of the Dragon” air Sundays on HBO at 9 p. m. ET.

For more, read our breakdown of the best details you might have missed in last week’s episode. .