No One Is More Exhausted on 'House of the Dragon' Than Otto Hightower (2024)

Editor's note: The below contains spoilers for Season 2 of House of the Dragon.

For much of the first season of House of the Dragon, there was no greater politician in Westeros than Hand of the King Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), who secured his line to the Iron Throne for reasons that are best described as mostly self-interest. No matter how much he tries to play at having empathy, though, he only rarely does and this makes him politically vulnerable in an era where grief and rage are ever present.

Now, in Season 2, the Hand finds himself in the middle of a war that he cannot control with magical beasts he does not understand. When he finally gets dismissed, it marks one more domino falling on the path to war, as one of the few advocates for restraint is now out of power for the first time in years and at the worst possible time. One constant theme throughout the series is how even the best-laid plans can quickly turn to ash when unexpected factors or mere bad luck get in the way and Otto now learns that firsthand. Now that the conflict has mutated into something that both sides no longer recognize, the position of the Hightowers overall, as well as Otto personally, feels much more endangered than ever before.

House of the Dragon

TV-MA

Fantasy

Drama

Action

Adventure

810

The reign of House Targaryen begins with this prequel to the popular HBO seriesGame of Thrones. Based on George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood, House of the Dragonis set nearly 200 years before Game of Thrones, telling the story of the Targaryen civil war with King Viserys.

Release Date

August 21, 2022

Creator

Ryan J. Condal, George R.R. Martin

Cast

Paddy Considine , Olivia Cooke , Rhys Ifans , Matt Smith , Eve Best , Steve Toussaint , Emma D'Arcy , Milly Alco*ck , Emily Carey

Seasons

4

Distributor

HBO

Main Genre

Drama

See Also

A Man Called Otto (2023)A Man Called Otto Filming Locations: The Stunning Visuals - OtakuKartOtto Hightower's Cause of Death In House of the Dragon Books, RevealedHouse Of The Dragon Confirms The Harsh Reality About Its Tywin Lannister Replacement

For Years, Otto Hightower Was the Chessmaster of Westeros on 'House of the Dragon'

While no character is morally pure in Westeros, it can be difficult to argue Otto Hightower is not one of the main antagonists of the show. He is not afraid to exploit tragedy for personal gain, convincing his daughter to quietly seduce a grieving king. However, his ambitions do not completely blind him to his humanity, as Otto displays a very deep and genuine sense of nostalgia towards Viserys (Paddy Considine). He's not exactly a complete monster like some villains, or a political mastermind like Game of Thrones' Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance), but he clearly views people as pawns in a greater game. He does not lack empathy, as his rage towards the death of his grandson makes clear, but he has essentially been immersed in the world of politics for too long, so much so that he views everything as a calculation. This makes him difficult to have as an advisor in a time of grief, of which this war will have plenty.

The motivations Otto possesses are worth exploring, as well. Although his misogynistic nature towards women is beyond doubt, he also appears to genuinely believe Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) would lead the country to war, regardless of what he thinks of her personal qualifications, because of the inherently sexist culture in which they live. Granted, he also does not attempt to support her, but instead uses this fact to advance his own family as a viable alternative. Whatever concerns he may have ultimately pale in comparison to the power he desires and his refusal to even try to accept Rhaenyra makes the resulting war inevitable. King Viserys himself eventually realizes his own marriage was staged, and it genuinely costs Otto his position for a decade, but by then, the damage has already been done. When Lyonel Strong (Gavin Spokes) eventually resigns as Hand due to the rumors surrounding his son, the king has no choice but to turn back to Otto, who has proven himself indispensable and leaves him in a prime position to claim the throne when Viserys declines and finally dies after years of decay.

With the Outbreak of War on 'House of the Dragon,' Otto Is Left in Uncharted Territory

At the end of the first season, Otto finally places his grandson Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) on the throne, creating a grand narrative and public spectacle to grant him legitimacy in the eyes of the smallfolk. All this gets laid to waste in an instant, however, when Rhaenys (Eve Best) escapes the coronation with her own dragon, disrupting such a narrative and killing hundreds of people in the crowd. From what he says later in Season 2, it actually appears to be working, since the event is seen as an omen. For all that he says about wanting a clean war, Otto still seems to think the use of dragons is avoidable, despite it having happened before, and has no answer for their inevitable use in battle.

Even as a grand strategist, Otto also remains unable, along with everyone else, to navigate the chaos in the first days of the conflict. None of his grand plans could have predicted the killing of Lucerys Velaryon (Elliot Girhault) when Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) meets him again by chance at Storm’s End, which remains accidental but does more than any of his scheming to raise the stakes of the war. When the equally brutal and bungled response inevitably follows, he knows how to exploit an opportunity, but has no power to prevent greater harm in a civil war within the family. Both are now using living weapons that even they often struggle to command, much less ones he could ever hope to understand himself.

In addition to the unprecedented nature of the war, Otto has also met his match on a strategic level with the elevation of Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) behind the scenes, who has already secured leverage over Alicent (Olivia Cooke) for his help. As a Hightower, perhaps the most powerful noble family outside the great houses of Westeros, Otto has dealt with politics on a public level and is no spymaster. For reasons known only to himself and no one else, the agent of chaos seems to discreetly undermine Otto from his position and spread disorder throughout the realm. Just as the world of dragons remains foreign to him, the Hand of the King not only fails at countering the machinations of the rats in the castle but never even seems to realize who or what has been undermining him in the first place.

For the First Time, Otto Finds Himself Out of His Depth on 'House of the Dragon'

No matter the growing number of crisis events around him, Otto still has good reason to believe he has the narrative under control, using the funeral of the murdered prince as a masterful stroke of propaganda. What he cannot truly account for, however, is the impulsive and immature nature of the very king he worked so hard to install on the Iron Throne. Just as Tywin Lannister would find himself unable to control the openly sad*stic nature of Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) many years later, there is simply no way to keep a king in check who desires to escalate violence through vengeance. Now that Alicent has become the primary figure in the life of the king, Otto seeks to use her to restrain his grandson, but the influence of the king has already outgrown them in a way neither could have predicted.

In the books, Otto is relieved of his role only after the Greens begin to pile up military losses, but the show makes the ramifications of his decision more clear. More than anything else, the hanging of the rat catchers is seen as the last straw because it is a decision purely made by Aegon alone, without any corrupting influence he can blame it on. Only then does Otto seem to realize the nature of his grandson as totally uncontrollable and the conflict as impossible to contain for the Blacks and the Greens alike. Now that war has become a foregone conclusion for all involved, Otto finally realizes too late that everything he has worked for might be for nothing, and his family, much like the Baratheons centuries later, has most likely doomed itself in the war to come.

House of the Dragon Season 2 airs every Sunday at 9 PM EST on Max in the US.

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