House of the Dragon has rightfully casted more people of color than Game of Thrones ever did, but their treatment of these characters has left much to be desired.
By Alexis Puthussery
Steve Toussaint as Lord Corlys Velaryon in a council meeting / photo: HBO
Game of Thrones, in all its fantastical, medieval, Emmy-sweeping glory still managed to treat its characters of color, notably their black characters, extremely poorly. Not only was its cast almost exclusively white, but its only two prominent black characters were former slaves, portrayed as loyal servants to their white liberator. The only other recurring characters of color were the violent Dothraki, often shown killing and raping others, and the hyper-sexualized Dornish. In the past, when die-hard fans or even author of the series, George R. R. Martin himself, were faced with the criticism of the overwhelming whiteness of Westeros, their rebuttal was that this story is based on medieval Europe, the population of which was overwhelmingly white. However, some extremely astute fans have noted that dragons and ice zombies and prophetic three-eyed ravens were also not present in medieval Europe, yet still made it onto the show. But I digress.
Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, the showrunners for the Game of Thrones spin-off, House of the Dragon, have clearly taken note of their predecessor’s criticism. Condol emphasized that they wanted “to create a show that was not another bunch of white people on the screen” (Entertainment Weekly). And on paper it seems like that is what they’ve done. They casted Steve Toussaint, a black actor, as Corlys Velaryon, one of the main players in this story. Having read the source material and really enjoying Corlys’ character, I was incredibly happy to hear about this casting and was hopeful for the representation in this story and fantasy stories moving forward.
And then I watched the show.
House of the Dragons’ treatment of its characters of color is certainly a step up from that of Game of Thrones, but it is far from satisfactory. This stems from the dilution of the Velaryons’ roles in the story and the rushed pacing of the show.
Corlys Velaryon has been a background figure in this first season. He is often absent from full episodes and his scenes are of little consequence when compared to the other characters. He comes across as a diluted down Tywin Lannister, a far cry from how he is portrayed in the source material. Someone who has read Fire and Blood would know him as a key player in the story, but this is lost on the average show viewer. The audience is only told of his importance by the showrunners and the occasional remark from another character. We are rarely shown this through screen time and active character decisions by Corlys.
Though Corlys has remained in the background, I can still hold out for his part in the story moving forward. After all, Jaime Lannister was only fleshed out as a character by season three of Game of Thrones and went on to be a fan favorite. I can only hope that Corlys receives a similar trajectory in the coming seasons.
It is really Corlys’ children, Laena and Laenor, and his relationship with them that I am truly disappointed with. Laenor Velaryon, played by Matthew Carver, Theo Nate, and John Macmillian and Laena Velaryon, played by Nova Foueillis-Mosé, Savannah Steyn, and Nanna Blondell were rushed off the show to make way for other characters’ stories. Firstly, each actor portraying Laena or Laenor only got a handful of scenes before they were replaced by the next actor. We’d barely see the Velaryons to begin with and when we did, Laena and Laenor would have a different face. This doesn’t give audiences the time to connect to them at all and does both a disservice to the characters and actors. The many time jumps in the first season certainly didn’t help this. The jumps brushed over many characters, but the Velaryons have been the biggest victim of them.
Going into this show having read the source material, I expected Laena and Laenor to get written off relatively early. I just thought it would be done with more care. Laena dies in the first episode of the time jump and the next episode is her funeral. At that same funeral, Laenor, with the help of Rhaenyra and Daemon, fakes his own death and runs away, leaving the rest of Westeros thinking both the Velaryon children are dead. In the scene directly after Laenor’s “body” is found, Rhaenyra and Daemon get married. To the viewer, it seems that Laena and Laenor were simply obstacles for Rhaenyra and Daemon whom they had to dispose of so that uncle and niece could marry in a romantic wedding.
There was never even a single scene where the Velaryon parents interacted with their children or where the siblings interacted with each other before their deaths. When Ned Stark died at the end of the first season of Game of Thrones we knew how this would affect the Stark children in different ways because we had seen countless interactions between them before. When Laena and Laenor die, what do their parents think? As viewers, we know that they are sad because we know Rhaenys (Eve Best) and Corlys are their parents, but what were their relationships like? We don’t have a clue because we’ve never seen it. And if the showrunners never showed us a single interaction within the Velaryon family, then why should we be expected to invest in them?
With Laenor and Laena now both written off, their absence isn’t even felt because their presence was not significant or autonomous enough in the first place. On Game of Thrones, the biggest issue with the characters of color was that they were usually only there to further the development of other white characters. The same thing has happened with Laenor and Laena. And I sincerely hope it doesn’t happen to Corlys. In the past three weeks, they have written off a black character every episode. I understand that all these moments are beats from the original story, but the swiftness with which the show moves on from these characters’ removal is off putting. I also get that this is Game of Thrones at the end of the day and people will die. I’m not put off by that. I’m put off by how they’ve severely diminished these characters’ roles and rushed through their deaths.
Condal and Sapochnik certainly took a step in the right direction. But that is all they've done-- taken one step. Simply casting people of color in shows is not enough. Once cast, their characters need to be treated with the same dignity and respect as all the other characters, something that Laenor, Laena, and Corlys have not been given. Moving forward, I hope any remaining characters of color (because there really are not many left) get actual characterization that audiences can latch onto and root for or against. Because as it stands, House of the Dragon has not done enough.
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