C.T. Phipps

No, it's an invention of the show. Maybe he really needs white hair. Either that or he discovers some Essos oysters that help with it.

Alicent is jealous and envious of it and the show illustrates this well. * The scene where she's upset Rhaenyra has so many men fighting over her. * The reaction of personal betrayal and use of the word fuck with Daemon. * Her juxtaposition of her miserable sex life with Rhaenyras.

Given she says they never consummated their relationship, it seems he had ED on their wedding night as well. This may explain why Daemon went all in on insulting her, especially if they had a bedding ceremony. It must have been publicly humiliating and Daemon may have blamed her for his lack of function.

Like I said, I think Daemon didn't kill his wife out of calculated planning. Because Daemon doesn't plan. He's objectively terrible at it.

It actually gives me hope that we'll now get Blood and Cheese and no takebacks. Nope, Daemon will hear his wife is upset and straight up have a child murdered for her. The things we do for love.

They're sprinkle some milk of the poppy on him. BAD KNIGHTS, BAD KNIGHTS Whatcha gonna do Whatcha Gonna do when they come for you

This is pretty much something that has inspired a huge chunk of black comedy police brutality memes on R/Freefolk, R/HouseOfTheDragon and Twitter. I admit to participating in them. But in seriousness, Alicent will undoubtedly protect him and any number of claims would get him off the hook.

I mean the answer there is probably, "Yes."

Yes. Though it should be noted that was D&D's invention. BUT... Given he's based on Salvanarola according to George R.R. Martin and Salvanarola was considered an enormous homophobe even by the standards of his time, it's not much of a leap.

I actually like that it implies that Rhea's quippy, aggressive, and free spirited style is why Daemon HATES her. He can't dominate or intimidate or impress her. So she became his "Bronze Bitch."

Like I said, I believe Daemon only decided to kill his wife in that moment. People think Daemon is a planner and he's absolutely not.

All of the police brutality memes about Ser Cole's actions shows that authority figures rarely face consequences for their actions, even in fiction.

Yeah, he's silent and beaten down as well as arriving disguised. Lots of ways to read it 1:00 Inside HBO says it's confirmed as deliberately ambiguous and not that he went there to kill her.

I was reading it as Daemon was returning home in disgrace. He was in the ultimate black mood. His wife's taunts pushing him over the edge. It was her drawing her sword that caused the horse to rear, though.

Daemon didn't go to kill his wife. The horse was spooked, it knocked her over and she was paralyzed. He finished her off with a rock after one too many insults about his ED.

I think they've also set up the Lannister support of Rhaenyra purely out of spite for the fact they were passed over for House Velaryon. I like the making of the Greens less motivated by Aegon's sex than disgust at personal slights.

In a very real sense, "We Light the Way" is the end of Season One of House of the Dragon and in a more just world where HBO had more faith in the series then it would have been Episode 10 rather than Episode 5. The series has been rushing through the majority of the story about the Dance of the Dragons in Season 1 with numerous time skips as well as signs that another lengthy one is ahead. They seem to want to desperately get to the actual Targaryen Civil War and unwilling to give any time to rest to the plots going on. I think the show would have strongly benefited from letting them have an additional five episodes to soften the characters up. I have somewhat mixed feelings on this episode as a result as it resulted in the jumping past of several more points in the story as well as signals the end of our current crop of actresses. Milly Alcock and Emily Carey did fantastic jobs as both Princess Rhaenyra and Queen Alicent. While neither of them can pass for mothers of twenty-year-olds, I think their absence from future episodes is part of the reason that I am so down on this episode. They did an amazing number of changes to the status quo but no room for following the consequences up. The episode opens up with what I suspect will be one of the two major controversial scenes of the episode with the introduction of Lady Rhea Royce, Daemon Targaryen's wife, who makes a great first impression. Unfortunately, Lady Rhea Royce taunts Daemon one too many times and he either causes her horse to rear or takes advantage of it doing so to kill her. This is the darkest action Daemon has taken yet and I wonder if any of the fanboys or girls will change their minds about supporting him. Rhaenyra accepts the marriage proposal of Laenor Velaryon and the two of them discuss their impending nuptials. The problem being that Laenor is gay as the day is long and Rhaenyra is aware of it. However, they're cousins and good friends so they decide to make the most of their marriage by agreeing to have an open relationship. This IMMEDIATELY backfires with the fact that Ser Criston Cole has fallen deeply in love with Rhaenyra. He's crippled with guilt over breaking his oath of celibacy and the idea of being Rhaenyra's lover while she's married to another man disgusts him. Viserys Targaryen is on his seeming last legs both heath-wise and monarchy-wise, so he's doing his best to marry Rhaenyra off to a house that will support her claim. Lord Corys is kind of iffy about the whole thing, far more so than you would have imagined for a man being offered the chance to make his grandson or daughter ruling monarch. It's clear that not even Corys has much faith in Rhaenyra's ability to keep the throne. Ser Otto, by contrast, is someone who holds the blame for his dismissal on everyone but himself. Particularly, he blames his daughter for siding with Rhaenyra and says that her children would be murdered by the Princess if she were to ever ascend the throne. It implies that Otto would have the same sort of view to any children of Rhaernya and shows the man to be truly contemptible. Alicent also lets the poison sink into her soul due to both her father's influence and Ser Criston Cole confessing, unprompted, that Rhaenyra slept with him. This leads to the mother of all awkward feasts as everyone has started plotting against one another openly for what amounts to no reason whatsoever. The friendship of Alicent and Rhaenyra is severed because the former is jealous of the latter's freedom as well as a willing pawn in her father's games. The latter is not really aware how the hurricane of her actions has affected the people around her and enjoys stirring the pot more, including teasing her uncle who wants to wed her. I have some issues with the wedding itself as it seemed like murdering a man in the middle of one would have more consequences than it does. Then again, Ser Criston Cole is a Kingsguard so I'm sure the Kingsguard union will come to his defense. He might end up on Administrative Leave for a month with pay thanks to Alicent's involvement. I'm sure Laenor's lover will be found with a sword in hand and some milk of the poppy sprinkled over him. AKAB. Oh well, we'll see how the next massive time skip of about fifteen years or so goes. 7/10

In a very real sense, "We Light the Way" is the end of Season One of House of the Dragon and in a more just world where HBO had more faith in the series then it would have been Episode 10 rather than Episode 5. The series has been rushing through the majority of the story about the Dance of the Dragons in Season 1 with numerous time skips as well as signs that another lengthy one is ahead. They seem to want to desperately get to the actual Targaryen Civil War and unwilling to give any time to rest to the plots going on. I think the show would have strongly benefited from letting them have an additional five episodes to soften the characters up. I have somewhat mixed feelings on this episode as a result as it resulted in the jumping past of several more points in the story as well as signals the end of our current crop of actresses. Milly Alcock and Emily Carey did fantastic jobs as both Princess Rhaenyra and Queen Alicent. While neither of them can pass for mothers of twenty-year-olds, I think their absence from future episodes is part of the reason that I am so down on this episode. They did an amazing number of changes to the status quo but no room for following the consequences up. The episode opens up with what I suspect will be one of the two major controversial scenes of the episode with the introduction of Lady Rhea Royce, Daemon Targaryen's wife, who makes a great first impression. Unfortunately, Lady Rhea Royce taunts Daemon one too many times and he either causes her horse to rear or takes advantage of it doing so to kill her. This is the darkest action Daemon has taken yet and I wonder if any of the fanboys or girls will change their minds about supporting him. Rhaenyra accepts the marriage proposal of Laenor Velaryon and the two of them discuss their impending nuptials. The problem being that Laenor is gay as the day is long and Rhaenyra is aware of it. However, they're cousins and good friends so they decide to make the most of their marriage by agreeing to have an open relationship. This IMMEDIATELY backfires with the fact that Ser Criston Cole has fallen deeply in love with Rhaenyra. He's crippled with guilt over breaking his oath of celibacy and the idea of being Rhaenyra's lover while she's married to another man disgusts him. Viserys Targaryen is on his seeming last legs both heath-wise and monarchy-wise, so he's doing his best to marry Rhaenyra off to a house that will support her claim. Lord Corys is kind of iffy about the whole thing, far more so than you would have imagined for a man being offered the chance to make his grandson or daughter ruling monarch. It's clear that not even Corys has much faith in Rhaenyra's ability to keep the throne. Ser Otto, by contrast, is someone who holds the blame for his dismissal on everyone but himself. Particularly, he blames his daughter for siding with Rhaenyra and says that her children would be murdered by the Princess if she were to ever ascend the throne. It implies that Otto would have the same sort of view to any children of Rhaernya and shows the man to be truly contemptible. Alicent also lets the poison sink into her soul due to both her father's influence and Ser Criston Cole confessing, unprompted, that Rhaenyra slept with him. This leads to the mother of all awkward feasts as everyone has started plotting against one another openly for what amounts to no reason whatsoever. The friendship of Alicent and Rhaenyra is severed because the former is jealous of the latter's freedom as well as a willing pawn in her father's games. The latter is not really aware how the hurricane of her actions has affected the people around her and enjoys stirring the pot more, including teasing her uncle who wants to wed her. I have some issues with the wedding itself as it seemed like murdering a man in the middle of one would have more consequences than it does. Then again, Ser Criston Cole is a Kingsguard so I'm sure the Kingsguard union will come to his defense. He might end up on Administrative Leave for a month with pay thanks to Alicent's involvement. I'm sure Laenor's lover will be found with a sword in hand and some milk of the poppy sprinkled over him. AKAB. Oh well, we'll see how the next massive time skip of about fifteen years or so goes.

Weirdly, I wonder if Daemon didn't kill his wife until he tested to see if she was paralyzed. I don't think he intentionally threw her horse.

This isn't a spoiler because it's basic math but Laenor and Laena are going to be out in a couple of episodes. Laena isn't going to be on her dragon enough to matter. What? One two episodes more until she's dead?

Yes. It was during the wedding of Alicent and Viserys. And remember, even the Maesters have NO CLUE what Larys was doing constantly stirring up shit and betraying everyone left and right. They're like, "Dude was just evil. We can't explain it."

The Kingsguard, after a careful deliberation, have determined that Criston did nothing wrong. *abolish Kingsguard unions*

Black is also the Targaryen colors. So it's kind of a backhanded insult by the Maesters to Alicent since clearly they weren't associating her with the house she married into.

I don't believe she thought Daemon was a murderer. He just insulted her in a way that got back to her. Most fans here and the boards I frequent were shocked he became guilty of femicide.

I wonder if this means he'll off Laenor now.