"The Green Council" is the ninth and penultimate episode of the first season of the fantasy drama television series House of the Dragon, a prequel to Game of Thrones.
It was met with mostly positive reviews, with critics praising the character development, pacing, tension, musical score, shock value, set-up for the finale, and performances, particularly those of Eve Best, Olivia Cooke, Tom Glynn-Carney, and Rhys Ifans.
Alicent, Ser Harrold Westerling, and Lord Lyman Beesbury are stunned that Otto and other council members have secretly plotted to crown Aegon as king.
Otto summons the lords and ladies of the realm, coercing them into breaking off their pledges of support to Rhaenyra and swearing allegiance to Aegon; those who refuse to do so are imprisoned or put to death.
The website's critical consensus said, "Beginning with conspiratorial whispers and ending with a roaring declaration of war, 'The Green Council' is a discomfortingly suspenseful kickoff to the long-awaited Dance of Dragons.
"[6] It received a rating of five out of five stars from Molly Edwards of GamesRadar+, who wrote in her verdict: "A season's worth of plotting and planning comes to a head in a stunning episode that's all about the greens, culminating in a dazzling ending that tees up the fire and blood to come,[7] and four out of five stars from Michael Deacon of The Telegraph, Alec Bojalad of Den of Geek, and Jordan Russell Lyon of Ready Steady Cut.
"[10] Helen O'Hara of IGN gave it an "amazing" score of 9 out 10 and wrote in her verdict, "...this is an episode fuelled by fear and uncertainty, and particularly by Alicent's grief, worry and determination to protect her family.
Club graded it with a "B+" and said, "'The Green Council' is a tense chess game of an episode, kicking off the power vacuum that we knew was coming the moment Viserys breathed his last.
Up to this point, House of the Dragon has expertly set the stage of the coming conflict, introducing us not only to the players of the game, but to the myriad fraught relationships, alliances and enmities that have led to the factions we now have arrayed before us.
[9] Bojalad wrote about Otto's development: "He receives his supervillain glow up in this hour in superb, satisfying fashion", and about Rhaenys': "She has proven herself to be a logical thinker when it comes to the game of thrones.
[7][12][16] The opening scene depicting the situation in the Red Keep right after Viserys' death was also praised,[8][9] particularly for Djawadi's musical score,[9][17] which was compared to his previous work in the Game of Thrones episode "The Winds of Winter".