Review: HBO’s “House Of The Dragon” Epsiode 3
HBO’s House of the Dragon took a little while to get going, with the first episode suffering from pacing issues and an overreliance on exposition, and the second getting better, but not really showcasing all the characters equally. But the third episode, however, is about as good as it gets. It’s showed real glimpses of the glory of the early seasons of Game of Thrones, moving the characters forward like chess pieces, while simultaneously ramping up the action with an epic war scene reminiscent of “The Battle of the Bastards” from Game of Thrones, season 6.
And while there is much to gush about regarding episode 3, the most successful portion, as well as the most intriguing, is seeing how each of the leads: Rhaenyra, Viserys, and Daemon, all progressed and transformed throughout the course of the plot, which fast forwarded the story several years on from the first two.
Starting with the princess and would be queen, Rhaenyra comes into the episode as petulant as ever, angry with her father and the world. It’s clear that she hasn’t forgiven her father for marrying her best friend, and while that “betrayal” is the spark that lights the fires of her all-consuming frustration, she has given way to paranoia, forcing herself to believe that she’ll be supplanted by her new baby brother, Aegon, the first child of Alicent (who is already pregnant again) and Viserys. And it’s not like she doesn’t have cause for worry, as the Seven Kingdoms are male-dominated lands and even though the lords of the land swore allegiance years prior, there is no doubt that they’d happily cast her aside for an heir of the traditional gender, as is constantly pointed out.
Compounding this, she seems to have isolated herself since becoming heir to the throne, wallowing in self-pity of all her real (and imagined) slights, rather than doing the work of learning how to rule and showing Westeros that she’s capable. The worst of Rhaenya is on display in the first half of the episode, with her righteous indignation, naiveté, and general hubris putting her at odds with her father, who is equally at his wits end with the situation and not sure what to do. For his part, Viserys wants desperately to be the “good guy”. He wants his daughter to be happy and content and to understand that she has to look part her own selfish desires for the greater good of the realm. But at the same time, he wants to do right by his now two-year old son and give the Seven Kingdoms the ruler it deserves. He is caught between the proverbial rock and hard place and, once again, Paddy Considine expertly portrays the king as he’s being pulled in different directions and showing how it is absolutely wrecking him.
The stories of Rhaenyra and Viserys are wisely intertwined, with things coming to a head in a brutal heart to heart with Viserys promising he wouldn’t remove his daughter as his heir. But Rhaenyra doesn’t believe him and runs away like the petulant child she is. And then each goes on an individual journey over the course of the hunting event to celebrate Aegon’s name day, and by the end they’ve both morphed into something new. Viserys, a character who’s always be a little overly taken with visions and prophecy, learned to find peace with the decisions that had brought him to that moment in his life. Oddly, it’s due to a lack of Godly intervention and the White Hart he’d been hunting eluding him. It was the absence of the Kingly sign that helped him come to terms with things.
As good as these plots were though, the standout of this episode is Matt Smith’s Daemon Targaryen and his war against the Crabfeeder. While Daemon has been an essential character, his overall development has taken a bit of a backseat to the others in the series. However, this episode showcased him in all his glory and transformed him into a character worthy of a claim to the Iron Throne. Much like Rhaenyra, Daemon was defined by his arrogance, the thought that he should be king, not necessarily because he’d be good at it, but because it was his birthright. And because of that, he didn’t need to answer to anyone and was essentially above the law.
But, when word comes that Viserys was sending aid to help him complete his war in the Stepstones, Daemon appeared to snap, but it was more like things finally clicked into place. He knew that if he allowed his brother to swoop in and save his hide in a battle he’d been losing, that no one would ever take him seriously as a king and he’d never truly get the support he’d need for a claim. So, rather than sit idle and wait, Daemon showed grit and fortitude, moving forward with a surprise ambush that was essentially a suicide plan. He proved that he was both a skilled warrior and tactician, but also that he believed in himself.
In Daemon’s mind, he IS a king, regardless of who accepts it. By the end, he’d vanquished his foe, ended the war, and, ostensibly, took control of the Narrow Sea. But more importantly, he solidified his claim and showed both the men who’d chosen to follow him and the wider Seven Kingdoms that he wouldn’t be denied. Again, much like Rhaenyra, when the moment came to go all in or fold, Daemon bet on himself and hit it big.
This episode is the first truly great episode of the prequel series, with the performances being fantastic all around and each of the leads progressing the versions of themselves that will feasibly push them through the rest of the first season. The episode was bolstered by an amazing battle sequence toward the end, great pathos throughout each of the stories, and excellent directing and cinematography. If the rest of season one of House of the Dragon can hit these high notes, audiences are in for quite a treat.
Rating: 5/5
