HBO’s “Home of the Dragon” will not be for the faint of coronary heart. There’s incest, conflict, manipulation, traumatic start, and a lot of violence. However the tragic — and notably brutal — dying of Joffrey Lonmouth in episode 5 nonetheless managed to lift many followers’ eyebrows.
In case you missed the episode, the fundamental thrust of the storyline is that princess and inheritor obvious Rhaenyra Targaryen (a distant ancestor of “Recreation of Thrones” protagonist Daenerys Targaryen) is ready to marry Laenor Velaryon, the inheritor to Driftmark (and Rhaenyra’s second cousin). The match is advantageous to each homes, and the couple come to a snug settlement: they may have youngsters and marry for responsibility however are free to have lovers as they see match.
This settlement is initially useful to each events, as Rhaenyra is sleeping along with her sworn knight Criston Cole (and has a complete factor occurring along with her uncle, Daemon), and Laenor, her future husband, is homosexual.
Following the dialog between Rhaenyra and Laenor, we see the inheritor to Driftmark along with his lover, Joffrey. In a scene that feels notably tender for “Home of the Dragon,” a collection that to this point has largely portrayed its characters having intercourse out of responsibility, obedience, and political manipulation relatively than for pleasure, Laenor and Joffrey kiss on the sand dunes close to Laenor’s residence and rejoice their good luck: not solely can they keep collectively, however Laenor’s meant appears to each know and settle for that he prefers males.
However by the top of the episode, the scene feels extra of a bait-and-switch, as what had appeared to be the introduction of a loving relationship ends with Joffrey brutally overwhelmed to dying by Cole in a rage.
That sort of about face is not atypical for “Home of the Dragon.” Throughout the board, the collection performs with viewers’ (and characters’) expectations. After King Viserys sacrifices his spouse to maintain his toddler son alive in childbirth, the infant’s dying is abruptly and shockingly revealed when viewers see the tiny physique alongside his mom’s funeral pyre, as an illustration. Different characters are sometimes killed inside simply minutes of being launched, together with Daemon’s spouse Woman Rhea in the identical episode.
However what feels totally different about Joffrey’s dying is that these characters have been queer and, momentarily, completely satisfied. In media, a typical plot trajectory is to “bury your gays” — what scholar Haley Hulan describes as a literary trope the place “a same-gender couple and with one of many lovers dying and the opposite realizing they have been by no means really homosexual, typically working into the arms of a heterosexual accomplice.”
Lately, “bury your gays” has been much less about returning to heterosexuality and extra outlined by tragedy, as with the CW’s “The 100” or AMC’s “The Strolling Lifeless.” After the previous present killed off beloved queer character Lexa, a number of tv writers and producers even created a pledge saying that they, amongst different issues, “refuse to kill a queer character solely to additional the plot of a straight one.” And in case you are pondering these deaths are merely a coincidence, Autostraddle did a round-up of 225 lifeless lesbian and bisexual characters on TV.
The trope hurts queer viewers past only a fondness for a present’s characters. The message is evident: you may be homosexual, however do not anticipate a contented ending. And after repeated publicity to this message, tales like Laenor’s and Joffrey’s do not feel remoted — it looks like a warning, or typically even a risk. To not point out that queer illustration on display screen is proscribed sufficient; shedding queer characters prematurely may be irritating once they’re already within the minority.
However is not unhappiness, human messiness, ego, and violence the primary hinge level of “Home of the Dragon”? Actually nobody is really completely satisfied on this present. The King is dying, the patriarchal realm is ready to reject Rhaenyra as queen, and marriage is extra confinement and political obligation than a dedication of affection and belief. Even so, simply as soon as it might be good to see a queer couple last more than one episode.
Picture Supply: Ollie Upton / HBO
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