Why ‘House of the Dragon’ should take this revolutionary twist

Spoiler alert! The following contains details from the July 28 episode of “House of the Dragon.”
A few new dragons are flying around the Westerosi block. But I’d argue they have a higher calling than fighting in the inane Targaryen war.
In last Sunday’s penultimate episode of Season 2 of HBO’s “House of the Dragon,” three new dragons officially entered the playing field in the war between Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and her half-brothers Aegon and Aemond (Tom Glynn-Carney and Ewan Mitchell) and stepmother/ex-bestie Alicent (Olivia Cooke).
Seemingly no more Targayren descendants are available to ride dormant dragons Seasmoke, Vermithor and Silverwing, so Rhaenyra and her son Jacaerys get the bright idea to see if any more distant relatives had enough “blood of the dragon” to do it. Their first attempt goes horribly wrong, when a member of the Kingsguard with distant Targaryen ancestors is killed in the attempt to claim Seasmoke.
But Seasmoke had ideas of his own, seeking out a Targaryen bastard, Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty), to be his new best friend, who immediately pledges himself and his lethal pet to Rhaenyra’s cause. This leads the self-proclaimed queen to seek out more of her out-of-wedlock relations for Vermithor and Silverwing. She manages to lure 30 or so silver-haired bastards to Dragonstone, and they all try their hand at dragon-wrangling, but almost all of them die in the attempt. Blacksmith Hugh (Kieran Bew) and town drunk Ulf (Tom Bennet) claim dragons and join Rhaenyra’s camp. They all make a pretty rousing image: Rhaenyra the warrior flanked by her new dragon riders and their intimidating beasts, ready to defeat Aemond and his massive dragon Vhagar.
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And that’s all well and good for Rhaenyra, who now has the equivalent of the U.S. nuclear stockpile at her disposal in her war for the Iron Throne. But as the final image crossed my TV screen, I couldn’t help but ask, “why?” Why would these three men, who have been disposed of and left to live in poverty and ruin, be so eager to take their newfound weapons of mass destruction and help the woman complicit in their subjugation? Why would the “smallfolk,” required to bow down to kings and queens of Targaryen ancestry entirely because of their dragons, be so willing to become one more tool in their masters’ arsenal?
Say you’re Hugh, the honorable but impoverished blacksmith. We’ve visited his hovel a few times this season, and life is pretty bleak. He’s owed wages from work for Aegon, there’s no food in the city because of Rhaenyra’s sea blockade and his daughter has just died. All of his problems stem from the Targaryen royals.
And yet, when handed the same power his so-called betters have, he chooses to put one Targaryen on the Iron Throne over the other. But he could burn down both tyrannical regimes! Dragon power to the people! You know, the people who have been starving, rioting and generally living miserable lives because of the game of thrones played by the people at the top of the serfdom pyramid.
You think I’m joking, but I’m not. Yes, yes, I know “Dragon” is a prequel series, so we already know how it ends. By the time of “Game of Thrones,” Westeros is still an absolutist monarchy in which a whole new war of kings and nobles ensues that destroys the lives of working people. So it’s more a thought experiment than anything else to wish these fictional oppressed people would overthrow their fictional oppressors.
But by the gods old and new would that be a better story. For most of its two seasons, there has been no one to root for in “Dragon” − it’s a conflict between two camps of extremely unlikable characters. But Hugh? That’s a man I can get behind. He’s brave, loyal and just a little bit stupid. Drunk Ulf? My goodness, it was endearing when he flew his dragon over King’s Landing as if it was the latest roller coaster at Six Flags. And Addam, well, he’s got the right kind of community organizing energy ready to set up a brand new democracy.
I would much rather watch that version of “Dragon” than for these three men to become the disposable plot devices they seem destined to become in a story all about incestuous idiots wrestling over an uncomfortable chair.
Dracarys the rich, friends.