# House of the Dragon 2.01 "Son for a son" 6/16/24 OPEN SPOILERS **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** hbomax-wb-dc\ **Created:** [June 17, 2024, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965 "2024-06-17T04:25:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2024, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965/21 "2024-06-20T22:15:16Z")
Apologies if this has been covered in detail in the Season One thread, but: In _Game of Thrones_, it was a fairly big deal that there was no magic in the world until Dany’s dragons hatched. And after that, magic started increasing. But in this show, there are lots of dragons. Plenty of dragons. Yet, apparently: no magic. Has this been explained in the show itself, and I just missed it? ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2024, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965/22 "2024-06-21T03:46:29Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > In _Game of Thrones_, it was a fairly big deal that there was no magic in the world until Dany’s dragons hatched. And after that, magic started increasing. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think it was that there was no magic, it was just that the dragons encouraged more magic stuff or made magic stronger or whatever. I mean, Melisandre had to be around before the eggs hatched, right? So were the warlocks of Qarth. It wasn’t like they all just discovered their powers on the day the eggs hatched. And the Wall was still keeping the White Walkers at bay (I think? Were the WWs ever south of the Wall before the zombie dragon?). But that’s all just my recollection from the show which I have not watched in years, maybe it’s explained in the books. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2024, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965/23 "2024-06-21T21:09:06Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > I mean, Melisandre had to be around before the eggs hatched, right? You’re right about all that. The Faceless Men, too (and there had to be magic involved with them). Maybe it’s all a ‘handwave’ situation. The creators–both the TV showrunners and Martin–don’t really want to specify. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Burden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Jack\_Burden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Burden)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2024, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965/24 "2024-06-21T21:43:03Z")
There was also the woman who did the blood magic ritual on Drogo. Magic was in the world, but became significantly more powerful when the dragons were reborn. Similar to Melisandre talking about how much more charged her magical energies became in close proximity to the Wall. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2024, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965/25 "2024-06-21T22:00:05Z")
Yeah, that does all make sense. But what **doesn’t** seem to make sense is that there apparently is no magic in the world of _House of the Dragon_. If the presence of dragons makes a difference, shouldn’t there be magic? Shouldn’t it be a factor in the politicking we see? ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2024, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965/26 "2024-06-22T00:00:47Z")
We don’t know if there is. The minor magic we see in the world during GoT is inconsequential compared to dragons. ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2024, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965/27 "2024-06-22T00:16:58Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > Yeah, that does all make sense. > > But what **doesn’t** seem to make sense is that there apparently is no magic in the world of _House of the Dragon_. If the presence of dragons makes a difference, shouldn’t there be magic? Shouldn’t it be a factor in the politicking we see? Most of the magic in GOT was happening on the other continent (Easteros?). Maybe there was not as much contact between the two continents during HOTD. In GOT Melisandre and Thoros of Myr were apparently missionaries for the Lord of Light and we weren’t told why Jaque H’Ghar was there. Actually, just typing that out I realized they were all ultimately in Westeros to protect and guide Arya. Maybe magic only came to Westeros to facilitate the defeat of the Night King. Dragons themselves weren’t responsible for magic, just a part of that force re-emerging. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2024, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965/28 "2024-06-23T19:40:15Z")
Good surmises, aurora\_maire. I do think that if any of these reasons (or others) are at work in the storytelling, they would have antecedents in the time of HotD. It’s only 200 years earlier. The fact that the topic isn’t even alluded to seems to me to be a lapse on the part of the creators. They have to know that viewers would wonder about it. Even a couple of throwaway lines would be helpful in letting us understand why such a difference exists between the two series. (As in: a character saying ‘there are tales of magic happening on that other continent…it would be helpful if we had access to such tools here’ or such.) (Maybe they don’t know that there IS another continent [“Essos” in GoT, I think], but with so many dragons around in the HotD time, it seems odd that they haven’t done more exploring…) ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Burden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/958977/32.png) [@Jack\_Burden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Burden)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2024, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965/29 "2024-06-23T21:20:51Z")
Essos figures into Season 1 quite a bit. The fighting in the Stepstones is due to the Triarchy (Essos free cities) interfering in Westerosi shipping routes. We even see Daemon and Laena and their daughters visiting Pentos. Then when Laenor fakes his death, he flees to Essos to start a new life with his lover (apparently Essos is more LBGTQ friendly than those western Seven fanatics). Not to mention the fact that the Andals, the Rhoynish people in Dorne and the Targaryens all came over from Essos. It is intriguing that we haven’t seen more magics in this series. I agree with the idea that dragon power is the ultimate force, and when you’ve more than a dozen dragons flying around, magic isn’t going to be that significant. Plus the dying out of the dragons maybe forced a reliance on other powers such as magic. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2024, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965/30 "2024-06-24T03:59:34Z")
Episode 2 thread: [https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-02-6-23-24-open-spoilers](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-02-6-23-24-open-spoilers) ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2024, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965/31 "2024-06-24T13:09:13Z")
link not working ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2024, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965/32 "2024-06-24T14:49:04Z")
Ah woops, [this](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-02-rhaenyra-the-cruel-6-23-24-open-spoilers) should work. I had edited the title because weirdly IMDB and [hbo.com](http://hbo.com) didn’t have an episode name (just called it episode 2) but after I posted the thread I saw the MAX app had it so I edited it in. And discourse links contain the title. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2024, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965/33 "2024-06-24T19:20:36Z")
> [@Jack\_Burden](#): > > Plus the dying out of the dragons maybe forced a reliance on other powers such as magic. That’s perfectly logical. But it does directly contradict what we were told in the original series (which was that there was less magic because there were no dragons, and that the return of dragons meant more magic.) ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2024, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965/34 "2024-06-25T18:18:20Z")
What we were told was just what a character believes. It’s not a law of the world, the character can be wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2024, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965/35 "2024-07-03T09:57:15Z")
I got the impression that the lack of dragons in the few hundred years before GOT was a symptom of the lack of magic in the world, and then something changed, so magic got stronger, the dragons awoke from eggs and the white walkers came back. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2024, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965/36 "2024-07-04T19:57:33Z")
All that makes sense. But in the world of this show (HoD) there are plenty of dragons–so shouldn’t there be magic? (If there IS magic, how could none of the characters be aware of it?) ---
**Author:** ![Smid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/838e76/32.png) [@Smid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smid)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2024, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965/37 "2024-07-04T21:56:22Z")
Well, what typical magic would there be? Seemed as if a lot came from Essos in GOT, but not sure what there would be. I think new Littlefinger has something, but I always thought Littlefinger was a warg, which was why he knew so much… ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [July 4, 2024, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965/38 "2024-07-04T22:33:42Z")
> [@Smid](#): > > I think new Littlefinger has something, but I always thought Littlefinger was a warg, which was why he knew so much… I remember speculation from the first season that Larys is a warg and was watching the goings-on through the rats we saw in several scenes. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2024, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965/39 "2024-07-05T08:15:03Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > (If there IS magic, how could none of the characters be aware of it?) Probably because magicians never reveal their secrets. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2024, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965/40 "2024-07-06T18:01:44Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > Probably because magicians never reveal their secrets. Ar, ar. If actual magic existed in the dragons-present world of this show, it’s hard to believe it would play no role in the politicking that is this show’s main focus. My theory is that the creators hoped we’d forget about the ‘rule’ established in the first series, mainly because incorporating magic into HotD’s stories would have added a degree of difficulty unwelcome to them. They wanted to tell a plain story of faux-medieval politics and war and family drama. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/house-of-the-dragon-2-01-son-for-a-son-6-16-24-open-spoilers/1002965.md?page=3)