Writer: Ryan Condal & Gabe Fonseca
Director: Greg Yaitanes
Runtime: 58 min.
Content Warnings: TV-MA: Adult Content, Adult Language, Brief Nudity, Graphic Violence
Video Preview: Episode 3 Preview
As we learned from this week’s preview, there’s a new Targaryen in the volatile heir mix and Westeros goes to war on the Crabfeeder.
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Can’t wait for this episode!
From that picture… I’m sensing some serious Klingon energy.
https://youtu.be/9LgYCGmCtUY
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Scatter, bitches! Atreyu in CHAT.
Action sequences at the beginning and end were good, but I did not care for the rest of this episode at all.
They’re trying waaaaaaaaaaay too hard to make Rhaenyra and Daemon super edgy.
That stag death scene went on waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long.
I’m already bored with the “who-will-or-won’t be heir” storyline.
Yeah so wow, everything leading up to the huge battle was phenomenal, loved all the conversations and am really starting to grow into all of the characters. It reminded me of the original series actually. Great dialogue and scenes. Everything during the hunt was awesome. They did a real good job shining a light on Viserys’ inner turmoil, starting to really like him as a character especially after his final conversation with his daughter.
The action to bookend the episode was solid but probably the weakest part of the episode in my opinion. I particularly liked the fighting at night in the opening. The battle at the end was cool, if not a little cartoonish in having Daemon take on a whole army while having some random ride his dragon? Was that explained? Plus I hated Ramin’s chanting score leading up to the climax.
Overall though, after three episodes, I’m into it more than I thought I would be. If this keeps up, Mr. Condal will have definitely proven me wrong. This show keeps getting better and better.
Oh yeah and the dude playing Jason Lannister is absolutely perfect.
That was a great episode! Some aspects of the battle were iffy, but it doesn’t really bother me, because the battle itself wasn’t really the point. This was really about Daemon proving himself. If this were meant to be some super-important-to-the-plot battle, I would probably be more critical of it, but it’s not, so I can let that stuff slide.
My only real disappointment is that we didn’t get to see Daemon kill Crabfeeder.
Same actor who played Ser Hugh of the Vale in GOT season 1.
My buddy Ser Hugh turned into a new character… HOTD is too dramatic… It doesn’t breathe… GOT characters are so much better! The GOT story is so much better. D&D are much better writers… I loved the 1st episode, the 2nd episode is good and the 3rd episode was disappointing 3/10…. the soundtrack is lacking too. House of the Dragon is not terrible, the bar was set so high with Game of Thrones, good luck being as good as the best show, best story ever
Rhaenyra is lame and the girl power trope is annoying. The Valyreons are the most interesting part of the show.
Thought the CGI looked much weaker compared to the first 2.
The end of the episode featured many of the hallmarks I hated about the end of GOT in all honesty. One our main protagonists has plot armor all around him, does something completely reckless and gets away with it while suffering minimal if any consequences.
They did give us the motivation for his actions though, at least that’s a step up.
I’m struggling to really care about any of these characters in all honesty. Some of them are cool of course, but I don’t feel any connection or desire to see them win or lose anything.
Also we’re getting into redundancy mode now. A lot of the same things are being said and talked about that were in the first 2. They are dragging it until they get to episode 5. They probably should have did the full time jump this episode.
That wasn’t a random and it wasn’t his dragon, that was corys’s son Laenor Velaryon on his own dragon seasmoke.
Malcolm Ferguson,
I thought he looked familiar, but not because I remembered Ser Hugh. I actually was convinced that he was Brandon Gleeson’s son since they look alike and have similar mannerisms.
Dan,
OK I thought House Velaryon didn’t have dragons, wasn’t this mentioned? Now realizing that they do, this makes the whole battle at the end worse in my opinion. Agree with mopfer’s comment above about plot armor. How could the crab feeder’s army be so easily fooled into being drawn out like that when they knew other dragon riders were lurking? This after being saavy enough to be winning the war after three years? It was crappy plotting and definitely the weaker part of the episode, probably forced in there just for the sake of action.
He’s also the son of a Targaryen – Rhaenys, aka “The Queen Who Never Was”.
Malcolm Ferguson,
I think this will be a surprise to many non book readers because they will forget Laenor and Laena Velaryon have a Targaryen mother, hence they are Targaryen on mom’s side and therefore they can totally be dragonriders (and they are!). Or maybe some simply think the ability disappears once your last name is not Targaryen.
LatrineDiggerBrian,
It’s a prequel, lots of characters have “plot armor.”
I loved how Matt Smith played him when he read Viserys’ letter! Frustration and rage at being helped, at seeing Viserys act out of love and sending help when all Daemon did was meant to show he can do it by himself. There’s a unique complexity so far to their relationship that doesn’t resemble any sibling relationship in GoT. Of course the root cause of it is so different than let’s say whatever powered the dynamics between the Lannister kids or Stark ones.
I also liked the contrast scenes between Viserys and Rhaenyra’s kills at the Royal hunt. On one side we see the king making absolutely no effort to actually hunt and being offered a brown deer for the slaughter and on the other we have his daughter killing a wild boar in a brutal attack/ defense scene. Never mind the white hart reveals himself to her and not to the king!
Acting wise this shows is pretty much killing it IMO.
Oh, and can we talk about Otto?! I mean jeez, talk about creepy dude. He wanted a Aegon & Rhaenyra marriage and he ain’t even Targaryen! Anything to put his grubby hands on the throne by grandson proxy! Ugh.
Yep, I agree. The action scenes at the beginning and end were ok, but the rest of the episode was pretty crappy. Just full of marriage proposals either to Rhaenyra directly or to Viserys for the hand of his daughter. I had to laugh when Viserys put Jason Lannister in his place who presumed the king´s son Aegon would be the natural choice to become his heir. As for the royal hunt… I would hardly call it that as others had already snared the stag for the king to slaughter. I didn´t like that scene at all!
The ending reminded me a bit of that episode in Got when John Snow ended up with a few of his men on that island in the ice lake and surrounded by white walkers, but this time it was just Daemon flying a flag of truce to entice the Crabfeeder and his army out of the caves. It certainly worked and like in that GoT episode, it was a dragon that came to his rescue. I was a bit disapointed when he dragged the Crabfeeder (well half of him with his guts hanging out) from the cave, but we didn´t see Daemon finish him off 🙂
I’m really enjoying Otto’s character. I love a good sneaky schemer. And Rhys Ifans is playing him masterfully. What’s especially brilliant about him is that, to all outward appearances, he’s been nothing but a good and loyal Hand of the King, and yet, everything he does is to gain power for his own house. He’s like Tywin, but with Littlefinger’s talent for subtle emotional manipulation (I like to call him Middlefinger, lol).
I got the impression from this episode that he’s also under pressure from his older brother. I’d be interested to see more of their relationship.
LatrineDiggerBrian,
I think it’s a bit too much to say they were easily fooled. Daemon presented himself as a high value target that was right there for the taking. They’d come so close to killing him already and at the time he was wounded and alone.
It was a reckless gamble on Daemon’s part that just barely worked in the end. I think, at the time, he simply didn’t give a damn. Either he’d emerge a hero or he’d get killed but either scenario was preferable to getting bailed out by his brother. The Crabfeeder and his army had to have known who it was that was presenting himself for surrender and they just couldn’t resist the opportunity to remove a big piece from the chessboard.
Another 7/10 like last week. The battle didn’t really do anything for me. The use of dragons was cool, but the fight choreography was unimpressive and I’m still not totally invested in the characters enough to care. I think GOT did it right. The first real battle happened at the end of season 2, after the characters and plot were better developed.
I have to say, after the premiere, I thought Daemon would be my favorite character, but right now, I’m really enjoying Viserys. Paddy Considine is terrific in the role! Otto Hightower’s schemes are also a joy to watch. I’m excited for next week, though I hope there’s not another significant time jump. They’re becoming jarring.
Mr Derp,
The Who-will-or-won’t be heir storyline is precisely what causes the civil war. It goes back to the riddle that Varys presented to Tyrion. Power resides where people believe it does. Does it reside with the tradition of male primogeniture or with the edict of a dead king? That Viserys can’t seem to recognize that his bucking of tradition will tear the realm apart after his death will be his big failure.
Brandon,
Sorry if I’m saying something you already know but GRRM has said the source material is based on the English civil war known as The Anarchy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Anarchy After Henry I’s only legitimate son was drowned, Henry’s daughter Matilda but was opposed by her cousin Stephen of Blois (though Stephen’s claim came through his mother, Adela, who was William the Conqueror’s daughter).
If and when the main ASOIAF next volume drops I guess we’ll find out whether or not book Cersei becomes queen. I haven’t actually seen the show but I’ve listened to some of an audio version of ‘The Princess and The Queen’ novella. Depending on how book Daenerys eventually wends her way to Kingslanding I wonder if the misogynists of Westeros would be reluctant to accept her as a ruler because she is female, though having a Drogon on one’s side could be pretty persuasive I guess.
In Maurice Druon’s ‘The Accursed Kings’ (which series GRRM has said helped give inspiration for ASOIAF) – which is based on events which actually happened in France, after the death of Louis X of France, his brother, Philippe of Poitiers claimed the throne, Louis X’s posthumous son having only lived a few days. Louis had had a daughter by his first wife but she was passed over. The issue was complicated by the fact that the first wife of Louis had been found guilty of adultery and of course back then DNA tests weren’t a thing so there was an element of doubt as to whether the little girl was the daughter of Louis or of his first wife, Margaruite’s, lover (who was horribly executed poor man – they didn’t trifle back then if you messed with a king’s wife).
Various comments about people not realising who the dragon and dragon rider were in the end battle underline that the show did a bad job at making that clear and has been poor in developing its secondary characters. It’s kind of funny that he kept his helmet on and became “unrecognisable random dude” when Daemon needed one more but didn’t have one!!! This was a massive wasted opportunity to develop Laenor and his dragon Seasmoke – particularly as the main story is moving towards his storyline – and we got the first aged up actor change! Maybe if we had both dragons in the first scene it would have been clearer? I like how we have the weird long necked gangly red Caraxes – and while it’s easy on the first watch to think “it’s a dragon -> it’s Caraxes again” – Seasmoke looked really different.
At least Ser Cristan Cole is getting a bit more lines.
But hey it’s good to see a king make it back from a hunting trip to the Kingswood alive! I guess Boars and Westerosi royals are now a 1-1 tie.
CT Wahoo,
So Daemon goes from fighting them with all of his heart to all of a sudden giving himself up and that doesn’t ring any alarm bells? And they all have to come out of their caves because he’s single handedly cutting down their entire army? C’mon it was bad.
Just watched the episode, it was OK probably my least favourite of all so far but still solid enough. I didn’t particularly enjoy the time jump – it just feels rushed and unnecessary to be moving this fast. I also have a hard time liking many of the characters apart from Alicent. I have sympathy for Viserys who is a good person trying to do the right thing but ultimately not a great ruler or even father. I could like Daemon and Cristan Cole but the characters just aren’t being fleshed out enough to allow them to shine. Rhaenyra is becoming increasingly more of a spoilt brat each episode (a mix of Dany and Sansa for me). Otto feels like a villain but lacks the cunning or gravitas that say LittleFinger had so is more coming off as dull.
Overall I wish the story would slow down and we would have more depth to the characters to really get to know them. Some more humour would also be good because the dialogue and characters feel too dry. I had really high hopes for this episode and did enjoy it but feel it can still improve.
Fully agree with all you’ve written, Honestly I enjoyed the battle scenes but in my view it should have been built up better over a couple of episodes so we have emotional investment, I didn’t even know who most of the characters were.
I definitely felt that the king was going to die in a parallel to Robert Baratheon, kind of glad Viserys survived as he’s one of the few redeemable characters so far but I do fear it’s just a matter of time until his death and all hell breaking loose.
LatrineDiggerBrian,
Yes I felt the same. I’ll just have to get used to silly battle scenes. They were silly in GOT post Season 5
Agree 100%
I get her “plight” and all, but how bad should I feel that she might not get to be ruler of everyone? Oh, poor Rhaenrya! You might not be ruler of the universe! You should totally act petulant all the time! It’s great character development!
Agreed, we had no idea who was on the dragon and still didn’t at the end. If I hadn’t had the subtitles on which revealed the name Seasmoke, I might have thought it was Rhaenyra getting in on the act again. Very poor storytelling.
Grandmaester Flash,
The wig braids coming out from underneath the helmet didn’t give it away that’s a Velaryon? 😛
I’m kidding!
It was clear there was more than Caraxes involved in the Stepstones war. Tyland specifically said to Viserys that the power of dragons (plural) was blunted by Crabfeeder’s army hiding in the caves. Then at the Velaryons’ war council, all three Velaryions talk about dragons (plural): Corlys wants the dragons to attack again, Leanor responds that they did attacked on dragons again and again but the Tryarchy’s army retreated to those caves every time. Even Vaemond of the bad wig says that dragons can circle the Bloodstone till they fall out of the sky but they won’t win this war.
It was a question of who rides them and I just watched the scene again and now I believe that Rhaenys was also present there though it wasn’t crystal clear. It’s just that I thought in one scene the dragon is red and scarlet. Seasmoke has pale silver gray colors, so perhaps Meleys is the third dragon in the battle. I think someone else mentioned this possibility and I tend to agree.
I haven’t watched the series so far – I was thinking of perhaps borrowing or buying (if I had enough money in my piggy-bank) the DVDs later in the year or whenever they are released. But I’ve been partially spoiled – it was my own fault – but did they kill a real stag in this episode? If so I’m done with the show, I won’t watch it. I might carry on listening to ‘The Princess and the Queen’.
Dame of Mercia,
Sorry if this is a silly question, but are you asking if they had a real stag on set? I assumed that it was CGI for the whole thing. I won’t lie to you, it was not very nice. I hate seeing animals suffer like that, it went on for a minute too long
No, they didn’t kill any real animals! No fictional programme would get away with scenes like that nowadays. It was a horrible scene though and unjustified, IMO.
Jenny,
Yes, that was my meaning. Hoping that they hadn’t made a real animal suffer. I hope it WAS CGI. I could always fast forward when and if I get the show I suppose (which was what I did with the Theon torture scene – I know they didn’t actually show the deed itself re: Theon).
Dame of Mercia,
It was very good CGI, far better than the white stag. That looked a bit ropey for some reason. Definitely fast forward, I didn’t like it at all. Even seeing it tied down with ropes upset me. I know we see human suffering and that bothers me as well, but something about animals gets to me. They are just minding their business
You actually thought they were killing a live animal?
Grandmaester Flash,
I completely agree that it was horrifying and unnecessary. I always watch with close captions as the characters are often hard to understand and during the kill scenes of the hunt I had to mute the sound because I knew I wouldn’t want to hear it. The captions used the words “screaming”, “agony”, “screeching”. I just can’t imagine what benefit that added to the plot and wish it had been better handled. CGI or no, it was still disturbing, as was the birth scene in the first episode.