After a very long two year wait, we’re back with season three of House of the Dragon. And what a perfectly okay season premiere it was. We got the much-anticipated Battle of the Gullet – an event many fans of the book expected in season two, but budget constraints pushed to this season opener. And we also got a look at just what happens when children start to believe they are the ones in charge of their parents – or, in this case, their mothers – and they take matters into their own hands, to disastrous results.
Let’s start with the theme of the episode: What goes wrong when kids think they know better than their parents? Turns out, a whole heck of a lot. First up, we have Jace, the heir to Rhaenyra’s throne and a young man who has been chaffing to get back into the action after being sidelined near the end of season two. He’s seen his mother start accepting bastard riders for their excess supply of dragons, so he’s particularly keen to prove himself not only to her but to the rest of their soldiers. He wants to show that not only does he know better than Rhaenyra when it comes to planning a battle strategy, but that he’s also the big man on campus. Well, fat lot of good that did him, seeing as he’s no longer with us. Now, we can’t solely blame his death and the loss of Vermax on Jace – Lord Corlys didn’t exactly offer a truly sound battle strategy once it was clear Lohan was after him and Rhaena has some blame for her reckless choice to mount Sheepstealer (more on that in a minute) – but oof. I know we’re supposed to feel the loss of Jace deeply – this is meant to be a massive blow to Rhaenyra both personally and in terms of the war effort – but honestly? I was pretty thrilled to see him die. He’s been nothing but a whining child of late, questioning his mother rashly. And locking her in her room so that he can do what he wants? That’s such a weak choice by a weak and disappointing man that I frankly had no sympathy when he was finally taken down. Just disappointment that he wasn’t able to have more faith in himself and his mother.
And Rhaena? Wow. She was given a singular task: Guard Rhaenyra’s remaining sons (and the clutch of dragon eggs) with her life. But, like Jace, she wanted to be someone important. She wanted her dragon. So, when she heard about Sheepstealer, she was more than willing to turn away from her assigned task and start trying to tame herself a dragon. And on the surface, I don’t blame her. Much like Aemond (who isn’t someone you really want to emulate), Rhaena is desperate to get a dragon to match her step-siblings and her sister. She wants the validation it would provide her as a Targaryen heir. So, when the opportunity to perhaps get one arose, I can’t blame her for shirking her duties for a bit to try to see if she could tame him. But jumping on his back and just riding him out into the wild blue yonder with no actual bond? Reckless. Childish. Stupid. And her actions directly led to the death of her step-brother and future brother-in-law. Will Rhaenyra or Baela ever forgive her?*
*I should note that in the book, Rhaena is not the character who eventually rides Sheepstealer, so this part of the show is a massive diversion from the source material, with that character appearing to have been completely excised from the series. While this adds an interesting wrinkle to the relationships between Rhaena and the rest of her family – something I am interested in seeing play out in the show – it also changes that character on a fundamental level that could end up changing her ultimate fate in the story as well.
Rounding out our trio of children screwing up the plans of their parents over a belief they know better, we have Aegon sneaking out of King’s Landing with Larys – and then immediately running into trouble. Now, Aegon didn’t know Alicent needed him to remain in King’s Landing so that an advancing Rhaenyra could be allowed to take his head once she waltzed into the Red Keep. But still, his decision has thrown Alicent’s careful planning into disarray. She was forced to send Aemond away to battle with Daemon at Harranhaal as a means of making sure he’s not in King’s Landing when Rhaenyra comes to try to stop her. And in that choice, for the first time Alicent was clearly able to recognize the monsters she has created in Aegon and Aemond – especially Aemond, who takes his role as the new Targaryen king a step further by kissing her.
It was fascinating to see that both Alicent and Rhaenyra, women who are seen by so many solely as a means for producing heirs and not as chess pieces of their own* within the framework of Westerosi society, are unable to manage their children (or, in the case of Rhaena, step-children), and suffer as a result. Alicent’s gamble to stop the war before either she or Rhaenyra lose more children is nearly scuttled by Aemond – and yet, Rhaenyra loses another son, even if that death is not directly linked to one of Alicent’s. boys. And Rhaenyra is rendered impotent when her side needs her the most – and the result is the loss of Jace and a massive fracture in the strength of her family, seeing as Baela saw Rhaena astride Sheepstealer, torching their own ships before becoming an accessory to Jace’s death.
*As many have pointed out, Rhaenyra directly quotes from Elizabeth I’s Speech at Tilbury, a curious choice as it suggests the show wants us to see Rhaenyra in a similar light to Elizabeth. However, since we’re about to witness Rhaenyra’s transition from wronged, but just, ruler into a truly violent despot, I’m not all that sure that comparison will hold.
The use of children standing against their mothers to their own detriment was a bit of a narrative mixed bag for me, as I noted a bit above. Jace’s actions made me care less about his death – outside of wanting to see how it will further incense Rhaenyra and push her ever closer to her breaking point. As I wrote about in my A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms reviews, each Targaryen ruler comes with a coin flip from the gods – will they be just or tyrannical? Well, had Jace lived and trusted Rhaenyra’s plans, we might have been treated to a calculating but fair leader. But with his death, I suspect things are about to take a turn on that front when Rhaenyra walks into King’s Landing. Rhaena’s choice, while understandable, had me rolling my eyes over and over. I suspect things aren’t going to go well for her moving forward, depending on what choice her sister makes in the telling of what occurred. And Aegon? Well, I’m not quite sure how he plans to get out of the pickle he’s found himself in, but if Daemon can manage to kill Aemond in their coming clash, things might be looking up for him. Because if Aemond finds him? Aegon won’t have much ability to fight back.
I wasn’t a huge fan of this very overstuffed episode – but the one thing it did really well was highlight the senseless violence and immense loss of life this war has brought to the land. From watching the nameless sailors get slaughtered all so that Lohan could attempt to get her revenge on Corlys – something she wasn’t even able to do – to seeing how completely Ser Criston has lost any and all sense of honor now that he understands how insignificant people are in the face of dragons, House of the Dragon is great at showing us the cost of this war between two branches of a family. Yes, dragons are responsible for so much death and destruction, but humans are also pretty great at killing for the sake of killing. Now that the series has made this point clear, it needs to do something with it. We can’t just get the same lesson week in and week out. Rather, we need to see some of these characters recognize the cost of the war – outside of the loss of their own family members – to make this point sink in deeper. Alas, I fear that’s not the path the series will take – and I worry that this particular lesson will just become one long stretch of more and more faceless and nameless bodies piling up. But I guess that’s also what happens when those who hold the power care only about what they want and not about the cost to achieve it. Which seems like it’s going to be the ultimate message of this particular series. And a really dark one at that.
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