Is ‘House of the Dragon’s Feminist Message a Bit Too Black and White?

Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 3

The big picture

• Instead of breaking them, often
  House of the Dragon
  they can end up reinforcing gender stereotypes when it comes to their female characters.
• By presenting his female characters as inherently peaceful beings while his male characters are dirty,
  House of the Dragon
  leaves no room for nuance.
• The show ultimately reduces its women to mere diplomats in a war as much their own as the men's.

More than anything else that came before, the third episode of House of the Dragon Season 2, “The Burning Mill,” gave us a good look at two factions fighting each other for power and dominance. However, this time, we are not talking about the greens and blacks. However, “The Burning Mill” centers on a strange rivalry between its male and female characters when it comes to whether or not it's time to get the armies moving in this, so far, pretty cold war. On the one hand, we have Alicient (Olivia Cooke), Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy), and Rhaenys (Eve Best) doing everything possible to prevent the dispute between the two sides of House Targaryen from devolving into bloodshed. On the other, we have Ser Criston (Fabien Frankel), Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), demon (Matt Smith), and virtually every man in the Seven Kingdoms willing to kill and die in battle. This tension leads to many council scenes where the male advisors worry about sharpening their swords while the women just want to talk about it. From Alicent's message to Rhaenyra to Rhaenys' speech about the cycle of violence, it's clear that, at least as far as Westeros is concerned, if our girls had their way, the war wouldn't be raging. the horizon

This is not a strange turn of events House of the Dragon. Throughout its previous season and the first episodes of the current one, the show has made it abundantly clear that its real villain is neither a Targaryen nor a Hightower, but the patriarchy itself. If it weren't for the way Westerosi society is structured, maybe a war for the Iron Throne wouldn't even be a possibility. After all, Rhaenyra's claim to the throne can only be challenged because the lords of Westeros cannot accept a woman as ruler. With that in mind, showrunners Ryan Condal i Miguel Sapochnik make a real effort to depict the sexism that rules the Seven Kingdoms as harmful not only to the series' female characters, but to everyone in its universe. From major plot points, such as the death of Queen Aemma (Siân Brooke) at the beginning of Season 1, at seemingly innocuous moments such as Aemond's (Ewan Mitchell) humiliation at the hands of his brother in this past episode, it proves that toxic masculinity hurts us all. Like this, it's only logical that the show favors an approach where this masculinity is also responsible for a war which is becoming more and more inevitable with each passing episode.

'La casa del drac' ends up reinforcing gender stereotypes

But there's something about this approach that just doesn't sit right. In her attempt to create a feminist narrative, House of the Dragon it ends up reinforcing some pretty old gender stereotypes. And in doing so, it leaves no room for nuance in its female characters. The main idea of ​​the show seems to be that women are inherently peaceful beings, while men are the ones with violent minds. Now, there is actually something to be said for how boys are raised to ignore their own feelings and engage in violent behavior, while girls are typically taught to favor conversation and non-violent solutions . Despite this, There's also something extremely essentialist about showing women as more diplomatic and men as brutes without discussing why their personalities tend to evolve in such opposite ways. I House of the Dragon it doesn't allow for deeper discussion, or nuance in how it portrays its male and female characters.

Let's take a closer look at how this appears in “The Burning Mill,” shall we? The episode begins with two groups of boys from House Bracken and House Blackwood arguing over a plot of land. The plot soon evolves into a full-blown battle that also serves as the first real combat of the Dance of Dragons, as Houses Bracken and Blackwood support different Targaryen factions. With the first blood spilled, it becomes impossible to avoid the fact that the dispute between Rhaenyra and her half-brother Aegon will eventually evolve into a cruel war. On the green side of the battlefield, characters like Ser Criston and Aegon consistently show their willingness to take up arms even when they're not yet ready to do so. Representing the Blacks, Daemon has decided to follow the assassination of Prince Jaehaerys with a solo take on Harrenhal. As she rides her dragon and marches to the rainy castle, Rhaenyra's almost all-male council tries to convince her to massacre her half-brother's troops before they have a chance to reach her.

Now, without a single scene dedicated to explaining their thoughts, all the female characters seem to be on the same page about the need to keep the war at bay. Although he said he wanted Aemond's head for what he did to Lucerys (Elliot Grihault) not two episodes ago, Rhaenyra now prefers to talk to Alicent instead of sending her dragons into battle. Rhaenys, in turn, despite having stormed Aegon's coronation with her dragon at the end of Season 1, advises him to seek a more peaceful solution through a speech about the endless cycle of violence. At the Green table, Alicent is ignored as she tries to point out the flaws in Ser Criston's (lack of) strategic thinking, and Helaena (Phia Saban) proclaims that mourning for his son will do him no good. The only woman who seems ready to head into battle is Baela (Bethany Antonia), who ignores his aunt's orders and attacks Ser Criston's men as soon as he sees them. With this one notable exception, all female characters House of the Dragon they seem to have drowned out his sadness, his anger, and even his political machinations in favor of a more peace-loving persona.

'House of the Dragon' has a history of feminism in black and white

This creates a rather black and white template for the characters of House of the Dragon: you are either a bloodthirsty man or a diplomatic woman. Again, it could be read as a progressive text, a text that highlights the wisdom present in often ignored female viewpoints, but House of the Dragon fails to present it that way. Apart from that scene with Baela, there is no nuance to how the characters think and behave within what is expected of their genre, which gives rise to a sort of black-and-white perception of how the world works. And the worst thing is that this is not the first time that this has happened House of the Dragon he has presented the way men and women, especially women, exist in his universe not as a spectrum, but as a dichotomy.

Going back to 2022, when the first season dropped, Miguel Sapochnik spoke with empire on the characterization of Alicient and Rhaenyra. Commenting on how they are affected equally, but also quite differently by the patriarchal structure that surrounds them, the showrunner recalled. a conversation with Condal where they said “What if Alicent is like 'Women for Trump' and Rhaenyra is like punk rock?” In fact, this perception of both characters informed a lot of what we see House of the Dragon Season 1, in which Rhaenyra is portrayed as a rebellious princess often oblivious to the dangers and demands of her position, while Alicent plays the silent victim in her father's plan to bring the Hightower family closer to the power instead of being recruited. as his partner in crime. With the show's first season having so few female characters given proper screen time, Alicent and Rhaenyra, with their completely opposite and nuanced personalitiesthey become two fixed boxes into which women must fit.

'House of the Dragon' takes agency away from its female characters

It's pretty clear, by now, that House of the Dragon it's a show with a message. And, you know, with a story about the first queen of a gender-challenged kingdom, that's far from a bad thing. In fact, it is a necessity. However, by putting their female characters in such small boxes, the showrunners, more often than not, fail to get their point across. The message goes awry, reinforcing old dichotomies that really should be challenged: the peaceful woman versus the violent man, the rebellious girl versus the submissive wife. By not allowing their women to exist in the nuanced spaces between these extremes, House of the Dragon his characterization fails. And, to add insult to injury, it also removes her agency.

This is not an empty accusation. Without the freedom to make choices that are truly consistent with their personalities instead of what they're supposed to represent, Rhaenyra, Alicent, Rhaenys, and every other female character on the show become victims of a male war. This should not be the case. After all, even if the final scene of “The Burning Mill” attributes the Dance of Dragons to a misunderstanding, with Rhaenyra revealing to Alicent that King Aegon Viserys (Paddy Considine) he was talking about was not his son, but Aegon the Conqueror, is actually an inevitable battle for control involving not just one, but two power-hungry families. Rhaenyra, Alicent and Rhaenys should be able to be generals in this war that is as much theirs as it is Daemon's or Aegon's.. Why, then, are they reduced to silenced diplomats?

House of the Dragon is currently Streaming on Max in the US with new episodes airing every Sunday.

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