House of the Dragon' episode 3

In the third episode of HBO's Game of Thrones prequel, Rhaenyra is bored, has to fend off a Lord, then nearly gets gored; meanwhile, a minor threat gets put ...

- The show did a fair bit of work to set up the Crabfeeder as a formidable foe, but all of that work was purely visual. But we didn't get to actually see Daemon slicing the Crabfeeder on the bias, giving him a fashionable, kicky, off-the-shoulder kind of death. High on a ridge overlooking this sad scene, the true White Hart of Yeah No For Real You Are the True Heir to the Iron Throne, GurlTM appears to Rhaenyra and Ser Criston. He's the firstborn son of the king! This scene is a big emotional breakthrough for Viserys — yes, he's drunk, but he's clearly been putting in the work on himself, processing, self-actualizing, filling out the workbooks — but Alicent just sort of ... But instead of one that looks out at the wider world, this one looks inward — and to the past. He's troubled, also, by Jason Lannister's offer of a spear with which to kill the beast, as well as his offering himself up as Rhaenyra Suitor Number 1. This sets her fuming, and she confronts the king, accusing him of pawning her off for political gain. Rhaenyra feels overlooked and disregarded by the king and ... (It's in this same wood that King Robert I will later be mortally wounded by a boar, kicking off the events of Game of Thrones.) But Viserys dismisses him, too preoccupied with his son Aegon's upcoming second birthday, and the royal hunt that has been arranged in his honor. This recap of House of the Dragon's third episode contains spoilers for ...

Want to get a better handle on what's happening on the 'Game of Thrones' prequel? This guide to how the show's adapting its source material should help.

With that said, it’s good we’re getting to meet the dragon now; it’ll make a key event in the future involving Seasmoke all the more heartbreaking. Given the book’s sparse details about the war in the Stepstones, it shouldn’t be surprising to hear that Seasmoke’s role in this week’s episode was a show-only invention. Just as likely, it’s the show nodding toward a rare moment of Martin canonically exhibiting self-restraint. Perhaps it’s worth paying attention to Nymeria’s tale and how it might correlate with the princess and the queen’s future. For House of the Dragon, however, resolving that conflict required only a single episode, and even more succinctly, a seven-minute action sequence. Still, his fate is consistent with what happens in Fire & Blood, the fictional history book on which HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel is based.

King Viserys has had enough with politics in 'House of the Dragon.' Here's our recap on Sunday night's episode on HBO.

The stag is screaming bloody murder the whole time, which is a little bit of a buzzkill. Laenor also arrives on the back of a white dragon, burning a whole host of the enemy’s army alive. Faking a surrender, the prince marches out to the middle of the battlefield and slays nearly 20 of the Crabfeeder's men on his own, before he's clipped by flying arrows. Ser Vaemond doesn't believe in Daemon and his dragon to get the job done, but Laenor plots to use Daemon as bait to draw the Crabfeeder's men out. "Was I named heir to the Iron Throne so that I might only further raise the standing of a lord of Casterly Rock?" Trying to console the king, Lord Strong reminds him that the previous King Jaehaerys was driven to the edge of madness by his daughters as well. The king is in a drunken-no-more-fake-friends tantrum. Outside of Craghas the Crabfeeder—the man who has crabs eat people alive on the beaches of the Stepstones!?—the realm is now a relatively safe place. Tyland is a political strategist in the king's court, while Jason is the lord of a castle in the west, called Casterly Rock. If a raven hasn't delivered the message to you yet, [House of the](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a36342276/house-of-the-dragon-hbo-game-of-thrones-prequel/) [ Dragon](https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/tv/a36342276/house-of-the-dragon-hbo-game-of-thrones-prequel/) doubled its massive viewership numbers last Sunday from roughly 10 million viewers—to over 25 million. House of the Dragon may not have all the dragons it promised us just yet, but it certainly has drama. Like it or not, House of the Dragon Episode Three begins with a time jump.

This slow-burn episode of House Of The Dragon is Game Of Thrones as we know it – for better or worse – but the Targaryens' internal squabbles are still ...

This is Game Of Thrones as we know it, almost to a fault, with all the same backstabbing and family dramas. Back-up arrives in the form of the Velaryon forces and dragonfire to warm both the heart and all the other bodily organs. Whether he can hold the Stepstones is another matter – he’s not a details guy – but he appears to be on the up once more. Since they do, we’re back to resting on questions of marriage and babies for all the principal women, and old women discussing the fate of those who fall to enemies: namely, being exiled to a brothel to be raped. When Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) suggests that Rhaenyra marry her toddler half-brother to set things to rights, and he actually has a point dynastically speaking, it’s clear that something is rotten in the state of Westeros. Jason’s sensible twin Tyland Lannister (also Hall) is around, and appears to be the brains of the two. These men (so many men) all feel like the upcoming victims and villains of whatever schemes the show is cooking up, so they’re probably worth keeping an eye on. There’s lots of public bickering in this episode, the kind that would start unsettling rumors in a more stable court than any in Westeros. Viserys (Paddy Considine) and his court are off into the woods to celebrate the second birthday of his son, Aegon. The noblemen of Westeros have assembled to pay tribute to the baby, who they assume will eventually become the king’s heir – however much he protests that he’s still backing Rhaenyra (still Milly Alcock), his anointed heir. Rhaenyra looks and feels isolated – though she also doesn’t seem to have much grasp of the politicking that might make her position more secure. But after that familiar theme plays and those clockwork credits spin, this week’s episode comes with a little homework: time to start making notes on the Lords of Westeros, because the movers and shakers have arrived in great numbers now, and they’re beginning to look like sharks in the water.

Viserys sought a stag and clarity while his brother, Daemon, tried to bag a Crabfeeder. Who had the most success?

Speaking of levity, this week brought multiple reminders of another humorous “Thrones” character, the dissipated old Robert Baratheon, with a king getting hammered on a kingswood hunt and a wild boar out for royal blood. Viserys was plagued by existential struggles and we learned that Daemon has spent the past couple of years unable to defeat the Crabforces with a dragon. The tension between love and duty was a prominent theme in “Game of Thrones,” culminating in Jon Snow killing the freshly tyrannical Daenerys in the series finale for the good of the realm. But the bulk of the action unfolded around the hunting party to fete Aegon and his father. He also again displayed his penchant for mercurial cruelty, braining the messenger who brought shaming news of the king’s aid in the failing Stepstones war effort. Discuss.) The white hart, that symbolic stag everyone was excited about until they settled for a humbler one for Viserys, cast his vote in her column. The dragon queen’s ancestors wrestled with the same issue in “Dragon” this week, with Viserys weighing his old dream about a baby boy “wearing the conqueror’s crown” against his decision to name Rhaenyra his heir. Off on a hunt of her own, Rhaenyra bonded further with Ser Criston and, with his help, laid waste to the wild boar that attacked her, foreshadowing future battles by wearing the animal’s blood for the rest of the trip. (Conquests are always easier to propose than pull off, a fact generally ignored by every hawkish leader who decides to blunder off into one.) How Daemon and the Velaryons are losing to an army with such lousy archers is anyone’s guess. Which is what Viserys spent a chunk of this week’s episode doing, finally just pouring his own wine as he wrestled with his choices and responsibilities. Stories like this are possible because of our deep commitment to original reporting, produced by a global staff of over 1,700 journalists who have all dedicated themselves to helping you understand the world. And that was before his top adviser turned father-in-law tried to hook up the king’s teenage daughter and 2-year-old son.

King Viserys dotes on his 2-year-old son, Aegon II: Successor Boogaloo. We've time-jumped ahead three years, as Otto Hightower exposits, lamenting to a man he ...

He wants her to marry to shore up her claim to the throne. Daemon runs into a cave to chase the Crab Feeder. A huntsman tells the king to stab the neck. It’s a plea to aid the war effort at The Stepstones. A bloodied-up Rhaenyra and Cole are on horseback at the edge of a cliff. He’s angling for her to pressure the king to make Aegon the heir instead of Rhaenyra. Outside the tent, a tearful Rhaenyra steals a white horse and rides to the woods. The white hart is near, the king is told. The king raises his voice when he tells her that he’s drowning in a sea of marriage proposals for her hand. Alicent tries her best to get her stepdaughter to join the party. The king ignores the bad news and urges everyone to eat. The messenger tries again to alert the king to the dire situation; Daemon’s command is being questioned.

Viserys may swear to Rhaenyra, “On your mother's memory, you will not be supplanted,” but Daemon is still out there, waiting in the wings.

Viserys may swear to Rhaenyra, “On your mother’s memory, you will not be supplanted,” but Daemon is still out there, making mincemeat of other tough guys, waiting in the wings for his moment to toss aside the proverbial white flag and make a move for the Iron Throne. His father served at Blackhaven, in the Stormlands, but he wasn’t highborn, and he isn’t as Dornish as Rhaenyra first assumed. I hate to hope for a show that is just a bunch of men riding around on horses and slitting each other’s throats, but when blood is in the air and Matt Smith is onscreen, my pulse picks up its pace. (In a moment of perfect character development, he mercilessly beats about the head a messenger from Viserys who promises aid in the form of ships and soldiers.) But Smith really sells it that Daemon may be surrendering, that his men cannot defeat a band of marauders who retreat to caves every time a dragon wing flaps overhead. If Rhaenyra proved her moxie with that dagger to a hog’s belly, Daemon did the same by singlehandedly dicing up dozens of men, taking three arrows to the body, and still hauling half of the Crabfeeder’s torso through a tide pool, barely breaking a sweat. In her place, this chit of a girl who flounces around the Red Keep ordering musicians to strum the same old tunes over and over again: “She fled with her ships and her people!” House of the Dragon struggles to make disagreement interesting, mostly because it goes light on the scheming and heavy on the exposition. It’s bizarre to see any king so loved in Westeros, especially with the foreknowledge that so many of the rulers in the continent’s future are winos, tyrants, and blond terrors hell-bent on cruelties of the We Need to Talk About Kevin variety. As an emissary to the ladies’ chat circle in the banquet tent, she wittily dispatches with Lady Redwyne, an avatar of Pocahontas’ Governor Ratcliffe and his smug little pug. The existence of a male heir has reignited the same ol’ succession woes we went through in the [first episode](https://www.vulture.com/article/house-of-the-dragon-series-premiere-recap-episode-1.html). [two](https://www.vulture.com/article/house-of-the-dragon-season-1-episode-2-recap-the-rogue-prince.html) and three of House of the Dragon. Martin that its character list was sliced in half, with some appearing in those chapters and the rest in the fifth book, A Dance With Dragons.

With a new son in the picture, King Viserys questions his chosen line of succession. Princess Rhaenyra tries to hold on as heir. Just don't make her marry ...

Just about everyone nudges him to declare his young son Aegon the new heir, but he already made his decision. [King Viserys](https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2022/08/house-of-the-dragon-recap-will-you-take-this-12-year-old-to-be-your-wife.html?outputType=amp). Woe is

Two intertwined stories unpack the value (and pitfalls) of Targaryens trying to go it alone.

Even Lord Lyonel Strong (Gavin Spokes) once again steps forward as a voice of reason, reintroducing the idea of a marriage pact with House Velaryon, except this time, proposing a marriage between Rhaenyra and the Sea Snake’s son, Laenor (Theo Nate). Many in the realm view young Aegon as the heir apparent to the Iron Throne, despite public pledges of fealty to the current reigning heir, Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock). Despite her father’s position, Rhaenyra doesn’t expect her claim to the throne to last much longer. The Game of Thrones franchise’s megahit spinoff finally delivers its first explosive war scene in “Second of His Name,” an episode that follows two separate stories: Daemon and Lord Corlys Velaryon’s (Steve Toussaint) war against the Crabfeeder Craghas Drahar (Daniel Scott-Smith) in the Stepstones, while the Targaryen royal family throw a birthday party in mainland Westeros. [“The Rogue Prince”](https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2022/08/house-of-the-dragon-season-1-episode-2-recap)—but it’s here in week three that Prince Daemon truly lives up to his rogue reputation. But Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) certainly shares the sentiment.

“Even I do not exist above tradition and duty, Rhaenyra!” - King Viserys I Targaryen, to his daughter. Sunday night's episode of House Of The Dragon gave us ...

He lands on his dragon, walks over to the warlords discussing their next move, reads the letter, hands it to Corlys, picks up his helmet and smashes the messenger’s face in before being dragged off, and then rows over to the other side and the forces of the Triarchy and never once during all of this does he utter even a single word. Then Daemon sees the Crabfeeder retreating into his tunnels and follows him, emerging at last with just one half of his enemy’s body, covered in blood. The B-plot takes place at the beginning and ending of the episode. The Crabfeeder and his men retreat to the caves. That takes place at the end of the episode. Alicent urges Viserys to send help to Daemon—for the realm if not for his brother, who Viserys calls a malcontent. The symbol of the white hart was once a sign of nobility prior to the Targaryen conquest of the land. Indeed, as his daughter is fending off the boar, Viserys is downing cup after cup of wine, sinking further and further into a wretched mood. Viserys botches the slaughter and is forced to stab the poor beast several times with a spear gifted to him by Jason Lannister, before he strikes the killing blow. He seems almost as much in denial over his daughter as he is the war in the Stepstones. Hightower tells Viserys that he is king and his daughter would obey him if he ordered her to wed the Lion. Boars and wine were, of course, the downfall of the Baratheon king, whose sigil was a stag.

House of the Dragon episode 3 sees Daemon and Rhaenyra fighting different kinds of battles, but who comes out on top?

He's the eldest son of Corlys Velaryon and Rhaenys Targaryen, and according to Fire and Blood, he rides Seasmoke. Laenor Velaryon swoops in on a dragon, shouting "Dracarys" and blasting the fighters. That gives Daemon a chance to go after the Crabfeeder himself. He waves a white flag, but only to trick the enemy fighters into coming out of their caves. Wielding Dark Sister, he cuts down a lot of them as the Crabfeeder watches. Then, he beats the living daylights out of the messenger. However, the choice of husband is up to her. They spend the day and night talking about her future and whether the realm will ever accept her as queen. He knows that the nobles want him to chuck Rhaenyra and name Aegon as his heir. And it takes him a galling two tries to kill it properly. Then, he admits to Alicent that he might've made a mistake in elevating Rhaenyra as heir. The master of ships, Tyland Lannister, is pestering him about the Stepstones war.

House of the Dragon Episode 3, "Second of His Name," is now out on HBO! Does anyone die this week? Here's what goes down.

[Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels](“https://www.amazon.com/b/?rh=i:instant-video,n:2858778011&ie=UTF8&filterId=OFFER_FILTER=SUBSCRIPTIONS&node=2858778011&ref_=assoc_tag_ph_1465430649312&_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=pf4&tag=fs-livedrops1-20&linkId=90b2815fb79ba0e403137c68e139db16”) A battle ensues and it’s a real blood bath, but the end result is that Daemon is able to run into the cave and walk out with a dead Crabfeeder. [House of the Dragon](https://winteriscoming.net/game-of-thrones/house-of-the-dragon/) and things are progressing nicely. Because of this embarrassment, Daemon decides to end it right then, acting as bait for the Crabfeeder. It starts when Daemon receives a letter from his brother Viserys telling him he’s sending fleet to help him. In

On the one hand, we got a lengthy hunt sequence that dove deeper into characters like Rhaenrya and especially Viserys, and on the other the show tried its hand ...

[Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels](“https://www.amazon.com/b/?rh=i:instant-video,n:2858778011&ie=UTF8&filterId=OFFER_FILTER=SUBSCRIPTIONS&node=2858778011&ref_=assoc_tag_ph_1465430649312&_encoding=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=pf4&tag=fs-livedrops1-20&linkId=90b2815fb79ba0e403137c68e139db16”) Also interesting to hear that it symbolizes the both of them moving on from childhood. [House of the Dragon](https://winteriscoming.net/game-of-thrones/house-of-the-dragon/) is rolling now.

The only force that can put an end to House Targaryen is House Targaryen itself. We recap House of the Dragon Episode 3, "Second of His Name."

And, as the late King Jaeherys (Michael Carter) foresaw, the only force that can put an end to House Targaryen is House Targaryen itself. It has a great deal more in common with the likes of Dallas and HBO’s own [Succession](https://collider.com/tag/succession/) than with big fantasy classics, such as [The Lord of the Rings](https://collider.com/tag/the-lord-of-the-rings/). The event has made all the much clearer that the lords aren’t willing to accept Rhaenyra as queen now that the king has a male heir, and Rhaenyra is not giving up her position without a fight. He’s so distraught by it, in fact, that he nearly kills the poor messenger that brought him news of Viserys' departure from King’s Landing. In the heat of battle, he goes after the Crabfeeder into one of Bloodstone’s caves and comes out dragging the upper half of his enemy’s body, intestines out for everyone to see. It’s his talk about the wonders of Casterly Rock and just how loaded his family is that prompts Rhaenyra to start a scene and subsequently storm off her brother’s party with Ser Criston (Fabien Frankel) in tow. [House of the Dragon](https://collider.com/tag/house-of-the-dragon/) has a lot less in common with its parent show, [Game of Thrones](https://collider.com/tag/game-of-thrones/), than what meets the eye. And though he reminds the princess that it is her duty to marry, he also allows her to pick the best man for the job of king-consort. Some of the king’s scouts return to camp with news that a white hart has been seen in the woods. The only person not happy with His Majesty entering the war is — take a guess — Prince Daemon. Ever since she came of age, all lords of the realm have been filling up her father’s mailbox with marriage proposals, and now Rhaenyra has to deal with unwanted attention from men like Jason Lannister (Jefferson Hall), who approaches her with that Lannister cockiness that we all know so well. Well, maybe he finds some semblance of joy riding his dragon into the Stepstones and burning the hell out of the Crabfeeder’s (Daniel Scott-Smith) men — and some of his own men as well.