House of the Dragon' episode 3

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.

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.

House of the Dragon is based on George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood, which was mostly a straight recounting of Targaryen history. But Game of Thrones' ...

Only the gods ( [and book readers](https://www.polygon.com/23057740/read-fire-blood-house-of-the-dragon)) may know. [Aegon the Conqueror’s dream from episode 1](https://www.polygon.com/game-of-thrones/23289499/house-of-the-dragon-aegon-conqueror-prophecy-ice-and-fire-game-of-thrones), is a step back toward the more supernatural world of Thrones. The book itself is a fairly dry recounting of the events as told How to read the moment (or even how she reads the moment) is opaque, by design. It is, as one of the helpers holding it in place so the king may kill it notes, still a “big lad,” but the animal is not white. At a hunting party thrown in honor of Prince Aegon’s second birthday, many push for Aegon to be next in line (him being the firstborn son of King Viserys), while others insist [the throne is still Rhaenyra’s](https://www.polygon.com/23321956/house-of-the-dragon-episode-2-review) (being [the actual firstborn and named heir](https://www.polygon.com/game-of-thrones/23058669/house-of-the-dragon-cast-characters-story-fire-and-blood-targaryens)).

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.

As evidenced by King Viserys's (Paddy Considine) nearly three-year long refusal to get the crown involved with it, the Stepstones war is far from an existential ...

The fact that it still feels like classic Game of Thrones anyway is as auspicious a sign as a white hart in the kingswood on your Name Day. “Second of His Name” does well to spend plenty of time with Rhaenyra as well as she nurses her wounds over her father’s marriage and the creation of an heir that might leapfrog her over the throne. More and more the Iron Throne looks like a prison of contradicting responsibilities on House of the Dragon. Neither Rhaenyra nor her father are one to indulge in superstition but how can Rhaenyra deny the mighty symbolism of being the one to see the white hart when it was intended for somebody else? Befitting of the great hunt’s scale, “Second of His Name” provides House of the Dragon with another influx of new characters. Here, however, the scale of the occasion is truly immense and impressive. House of the Dragon answers this question and more in “Second of His Name.” While our time in the Stepstones is certainly worthwhile and glorious, “Second of His Name” could not be considered a successful episode of television if it contained only that. It would be one thing for Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) and the rest of the realm to hear about Laenor Velaryon’s (Theo Nate) ascension as a dragonrider, it’s another thing entirely for us to actually see it. In Game of Thrones, King Robert’s hunting party consisted of the drunken king himself, his brother Renly, and a handful of other dudes roaming around the woods until a boar goared the Usurper King to death (offscreen of course, in keeping with Thrones’ early monetary modesty). Though House of the Dragon does imbue the Crabfeeder saga with a little more importance than its worth, the show does get one crucial character (re)introduction out of it. In fact, for much of its early run Game of Thrones went out of its way to avoid major battles even when the situation called for it.

House of the Dragons sends Matt Smith's Daemon Targaryen into battle in its third episode, but the battle and its dragon are a slightly different size than ...

And, as you might imagine if you’re familiar with House of the Dragon’s premise, the ability to pull off some surprisingly big battles is certainly something that will come up later on. [House of the Dragon](https://www.polygon.com/23321956/house-of-the-dragon-episode-2-review)’s third episode concludes with [Daemon Targaryen](https://www.polygon.com/23310439/house-of-the-dragon-sex-scenes-matt-smith-interview) getting to show off why he’s one of the most feared warriors in the Seven Kingdoms. Aside from Seasmoke’s appearance, the battle itself is also an indication of just how big House of the Dragon might be. While some fights late in the show’s run, during seasons 7 and 8, featured shorter battles, none of them lived up to the standard of previous conflicts and were easily surpassed by House of the Dragon’s first attempt at open warfare. Thankfully, in just three episodes, [House of the Dragon](https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516586&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hbomax.com%2Fseries%2Fhouse-of-the-dragon%3Foffer_id%3D5%26transaction_id%3D102c87c7%255B%25E2%2580%25A6%255D4ed39326beedc6012ca%26utm_source%3DVox%2BMedia%26utm_medium%3Daffiliate&referrer=polygon.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.polygon.com%2F23331475%2Fhouse-dragon-episode-3-daemon-crabfeeder-dragon-battle) has already given us the Game of Thrones franchise’s first great medium-sized battle. There are hundreds of extras joining the fray, montages of close-up kills full of blood and mud, and the slow focus on the main characters that most of Thrones’ best battles include. In House of the Dragon, it’s just another part of the fight. There’s no need for the show to clear the runway for its best fights, giving each episode a bit more spontaneity and unpredictability. The war for the Stepstones may be led by Corlys and Daemon, but its final battle is ultimately won by Laenor Velaryon riding in on his dragon, Seasmoke. [HBO’s Game of Thrones](https://www.polygon.com/game-of-thrones) always had an eye for combat. So they devise an all-or-nothing plan with its intentions hidden from both the enemy and the [House of the Dragon](https://go.redirectingat.com?id=66960X1516586&xs=1&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.hbomax.com%2Fseries%2Fhouse-of-the-dragon%3Foffer_id%3D5%26transaction_id%3D102c87c7%255B%25E2%2580%25A6%255D4ed39326beedc6012ca%26utm_source%3DVox%2BMedia%26utm_medium%3Daffiliate&referrer=polygon.com&sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.polygon.com%2F23331475%2Fhouse-dragon-episode-3-daemon-crabfeeder-dragon-battle) audience. After a sneaky beginning, it turns into something instantly recognizable as a Game of Thrones battle.

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.

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.

“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, "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.