House of the Dragon Episode 3

Prince Daemon even lands his mount on the guy who was just about to be crabbed. The prince and his dragon incinerate a few more swaths of pirates, but the ...

And he emerges covered in the blood and entrails of his enemy. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift. It doesn’t matter that everyone in the realm bent the knee to Rhaenyra, he tells Alicent; that was before the king had a son. Instead, a wild boar bursts from cover and tramples them both before Criston runs it through with his steel and Rhaenyra’s dagger finishes the job. Called to the wood to deliver the ceremonial kill of a proud full-sized buck, the king uses a miniature staircase to dismount from his horse. Will his choice stand, or will the meddling of Otto impede? Later, her grace and the knight are chilling by a fire. [House of The Dragon](https://decider.com/show/house-of-the-dragon/) begins, it’s been three years since the events of “The Rogue Prince,” and King Viserys is planning a celebration. If only we had more time to watch Rhaenyra and Criston traipsing through the wood. The prince and his dragon incinerate a few more swaths of pirates, but the Crabfeeder escapes into his cave bound stronghold, and his archers’ flaming arrows eventually repel the dragonrider. Otto Hightower, now sporting a beard, glowers that a betrothal of Rhaenyra to her half-brother Aegon would solve the whole thing. And outside the tent she learns why Viserys was clamoring for her to attend.

The second episode focused on King Viserys Targaryen's duty to remarry. Episode 3 takes place years later, and the theme of the show is once again marriage, but ...

Daemon and Lord Corlys are losing to the Triarchy's forces, but Viserys doesn't want to send help to the "malcontents." He says he named Rhaenyra heir to protect the realm from Daemon, but that perhaps that was a mistake. "He's made a mess and the king must put an end to it," says Lady Redwyne of Highgarden. Queen Alicent objects, and says Rhaenyra will make a good queen, but Otto says the laws of gods and man would be broken if Aegon wasn't made heir. A food hall is built up within a huge tent, and Rhaenyra finds herself invited to chitchat with the ladies of the court. "I would be honored to take the Princess Rhaenyra to wife, your grace. A royal hunt is an extravagant thing, with a town's-worth of comforts transported to the hunt headquarters. Viserys is informed of this development and is told that the Crabfeeder's forces have retreated to Stepstone caves, neutralizing the dragon advantage. Episode 2 ended with Daemon and Corlys striking up a partnership to deal with the Triarchy and its apparent leader, the Crabfeeder. In the premiere episode we saw the traumatic death of [Queen Aemma](/culture/entertainment/every-targaryen-in-hbos-house-of-the-dragon-explained/) and the naming of Rhaenyra [Targaryen](/culture/entertainment/every-targaryen-in-hbos-house-of-the-dragon-explained/) as heir to the throne. You'll recall in that episode King Viserys Targaryen announced to the Small Council his intention to marry Alicent Hightower. [first episode](/culture/entertainment/house-of-the-dragon-recap-the-heirs-of-the-dragon/) was spent introducing us to the cast of new characters, and [episode 2](/culture/entertainment/house-of-the-dragon-episode-2-recap-succession-but-with-dragons/) saw tempers and tensions escalate.

Not long into the action, though, the King is alerted to the possibility of a white stag (or white hart) appearing within hunting distance. What follows is a ...

The white hart appears to her, after all, while Prince Aegon's name day ends in nothing but a regular ol' brown stag. "The stag is the king of the King's Wood, your grace," says Otto Hightower when he first breaks the news to Viserys. Not long into the action, though, the King is alerted to the possibility of a white stag (or white hart) appearing within hunting distance. But perhaps another meaning can be found in the way her and her father interact with their stags. The white hart is first mentioned by Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) as the King is arguing with Princess Rhaenyra about her need to marry. If the stag is a message from the gods, though, it's pretty clear they have other ideas. But in letting the white hart go, is she proving that her poise will allow her to be a stronger ruler than her father? Meanwhile, we know that Princess Rhaenyra is not opposed to getting her hands dirty. Cole goes to draw his sword but Rhaenyra stops him, and the stag gallops off. Eventually, the King's hunters do locate a stag — but it's a brown one, not white. After Rhaenyra storms off and is followed into the woods by her bodyguard, Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), the King stays with his main party as they attempt to track down this near-mythical beast. [Game of Thrones](https://mashable.com/category/game-of-thrones) universe, you can't beat a bit of symbolism.

House of the Dragon's third episode on Sunday gave us a good look at Lord Jason and Ser Tyland Lannister, twins who are the ancestors of Thrones' Tywin, Cersei, ...

Second: It made me compare Rhaenyra’s give-no-effs attitude, especially in expressing exactly what she thinks in the moment, to the guarded, diplomatic way Alicent moves through the episode, particularly in relation to Viserys. the way he so clearly is NOT!) or to see him have his smug butt handed to him by an irritated King Viserys during the gifting of the spear. Hall made several acting choices as Jason that had me chuckling — no small feat in an episode that featured the bloody death of a wild pig and an even bloodier bifurcation of a notorious warlord.

In the Game of Thrones spinoff show, House of the Dragon, eagle-eyed fans have spotted a visual effects error in episode 3, "Second of His Name."

Now, House of the Dragon fans have also spotted a visual effects error within episode 3 of the new Game of Thrones show. However, the cup was not the only error of the season. Before House of the Dragon, Game of Thrones has had a history of glaring mistakes in the series. [Starbucks coffee cup was left](http://screenrant.com/game-thrones-starbucks-coffee-cup/) on the table of a large feast. [House of the Dragon](https://screenrant.com/tag/house-of-the-dragon/) episode 3 was recently spotted by fans. Set approximately 200 years before the [events of Game of Thrones](https://screenrant.com/house-dragon-timeline-years-explained/), the new spinoff chronicles the history of House Targaryen and is based on George R.R.

She even shares these visions with Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane), who believes in her so much that he is willing to sacrifice his own daughter in order to ...

Otto Hightower may not have been wrong in assuming the appearance of a white hart is a potent sign, but considering the two outcomes involving the great stags, one might assume that the gods favor Rhaenyra over Aegon since Viserys' interaction with the animal is bloody and messy, while Rhaenyra's is peaceful and serene. Eventually, the king's huntsmen corner a great white stag, and Viserys is brought to the location in order to strike the killing blow. However, Episode 3 of "House of the Dragon" features yet another assumed portent and supposed sign from the gods in the form of white harts, but what could the stags mean for the future of the series? [A Wiki of Ice and Fire](https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Deer), a white hart is considered magical and rare, which must lead to the belief that they are signs from the gods. This is highlighted when King Viserys (Paddy Considine) tells his daughter and heir Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) of the prophecy and how the world will only survive if a Targaryen sits upon the Iron Throne. "House of the Dragon" reveals that the Targaryen dynasty actually knows of the coming of "the Long Night" and the Night King.

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.

This week's episode was an action-packed one, with time jumps, new characters, fighting, hunting, and DRAGONS. Let's take a look at some of the most interesting ...

[House of the Dragon](http://www.buzzfeed.com/tag/house_of_the_dragon). This week's episode was an action-packed one, with time jumps, new characters, fighting, hunting, and DRAGONS.

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.

Rebecca Onion: I have a few second-place candidates, but I propose that King Viserys is the Worst Person in Westeros this week. Everything he does is more ...

I should not be blaming Alicent for this, I should be blaming Otto, and also Viserys, who admitted to his daughter this week that there was a reason he chose Alicent over the Velaryon pre-teen. (He doesn’t say it, but we know that he means that he found her—his daughter’s best friend—attractive, which, ugh.) And that means we are full circle, to Viserys as the Worst Person in Westeros! She was forced to do something that she knew would ensure she would lose her only and best friend and now she just wants her friend back? yeah it’s not good, to see a young boy in the throes of a tantrum and be like “mmm, marriage material.” Onion: To briefly advocate for Alicent as WPiW: I think her desire to just have things go back to the way they were before she married the king is misplaced. Viserys in this episode: In the forest, stabbing the wrong (not white, not a symbol of royalty) stag, which is fully restrained by others, and having to do it twice to actually kill the beast. Goffe: The thing about incest that close, though, is that, as far as we’ve seen it in the show (not the books), it was voluntary between Cersei and Jaime. In House of the Dragon, I think with the way Viserys laughs off Otto’s earnest suggestion, we’re supposed to believe the idea was just a little TOO bold. Nothing happened, not even a little, and though this didn’t make Criston Cole the Worst Person in Westeros, it did make him the most annoying.) But do you think Rhaenyra makes any kind of a candidate for the crown this week? There is constantly a Jaehaerys who is marrying both of his sisters but preferring one to the other, causing court gossip, and there are Targaryen sibling groups where male and female siblings pair off with one another when they’re elementary-school age, and so on. Rebecca Onion: I have a few second-place candidates, but I propose that King Viserys is the Worst Person in Westeros this week. He famously wanted a male heir so badly that, in the first episode of this series, he subjected his wife to

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.