If there was one lesson to be learned from this third season finale of House of the Dragon, it was that karma will eventually come around for you in the end. Not that any of the characters who wield power were either able to learn that lesson or understand it when it was clearly presented to them. Second to that, this episode – and really, the season as a whole – drove home a central tenet of every story set in Westeros: the rich and powerful jockey for position and take what they want while the small folk suffer. Not exactly a cheery message to send us out on as we head into the long wait for the fourth (and what is expected to be, final) season of House of the Dragon.
Throughout the episode, many an unforced error was committed by our central power players. Aegon flew into Harrenhal under the impression that he was going to get to extract some amount of vengeance on Aemond (or die trying), only to be met with Alys and an Aemond who is docile and not willing to raise hand against his brother. For all the truly awful things Aemond has done throughout the series, his guilt over possibly killing Aegon has been the one thing that has allowed him to show the potential for some amount of change. Sure, he’s not trying to take the Iron Throne anymore, but he’s still not going to sit back and take it if anyone other than his brother marches into Harrenhal. Put a pin in this plot point – we also learned Alys’ origins and she’s a force to be reckoned with and perhaps more dangerous and deadly than any dragon whilst people are in her realm – as I suspect Aemond’s real climactic moment will arrive next season.
And then there’s Ormund. In a story populated by pretty odious characters*, this man might just be the worst of the lot. It was thrilling to see him killed off as the final act of the great Ser Roderick. Goodbye and good riddance. However, before he shuffled off that mortal coil, he was yet another example of a man in power making others suffer. Lining the walls with children. Beating Ulf to a pulp and then expecting him to remain loyal – the exact same thing Daemon did to Ulf and what was the cause of his switching sides. Trying to mold Daeron into his own image only to lose him to Gwayne – and potentially cause Daeron’s death as well, since we never saw what happened to him after the battle. The treatment of Ulf, in particular, led to the deaths of thousands. Because those dragons are weapons of mass destruction and when wielded with a lack of care, can destroy everyone and everything without a thought.
*One thing I keep seeing on social media is people praising a particular character at the expense of another. Last week, it was ripping apart Mysaria for her manipulation of Rhaenyra while praising Daemon (who, lest we forget, murdered his first wife, groomed a tween Rhaenyra, and really didn’t care all that much about his daughters until it threatened his position this season). It troubles me that people are making cases that any of these characters could be considered good. There’s not a good one in the lot – Daeron was probably the closest to a morally grey major player we had, and he still was willing to mount his dragon and burn things down had Gwanye not stepped in. This is not a story that has leads we should want to root for. Everyone here is horrible. But that’s the story being told. Even if you are Team Green or Team Black, you have to acknowledge that none of these people should be in charge of anything, much less the Seven Kingdoms.
And then there’s Rhaenyra. This season has been an arc watching her go from a woman desperate for the throne to a woman who holds the throne by the thinnest of margins. And the change from a woman who would cry over the body of her son to someone who would look at the body of her half-sister and shut the window has been one that I’m not sure the series has earned. The goal was clear: we want to take Rhaenyra from someone who you think is the best option at hand – better than Aegon (a sadist) or Aemond (a psychopath) – to someone who is just as bad. And sure, she’s lost a whole heck of a lot of her empathy over the course of the season. She’s had to, considering she’s been fighting for her position the entire season – from advisors who won’t listen to her, to the loss of her heir, to taking Queen’s Landing only to find it almost out of money and with crime rampant. Ruling isn’t easy. And it’s even harder when you’re a woman, your husband is keeping secrets and has his own agenda, your girlfriend also has her own agenda, and you’re trying to stop the latest Hightower plot for the throne. She has had her hands full.
But the heel turn we’re supposed to accept in that final moment, as she looks on Helaena’s last message to her in the tapestry – Rhaenyra, on the Iron Throne, bleeding and bathed in fire – why is she now truly Rhaenyra the Cruel? The suicide of Helaena shouldn’t mean all that much to her – she didn’t really care that much about her sister, she was a hostage, and she was a pawn. The loss of her and the unborn child can only help Rhaenyra – now Aegon’s only surviving heir is his daughter, and we all know how much Westeros loves a daughter as an heir. Callous to think that? Sure, but that’s not enough to really make Rhaenyra look so angry and evil. Her speech to the assembled people, telling of the Song of Ice and Fire, naming herself as the Prince who was Promised (in Valeryian, no less, so no one could understand it) was just a reiteration of what she has believed about herself since Viserys told her the story. We never saw enough change in Rhaenyra over the course of the season to take her to the place she ends the season at.
And that’s the problem I’ve had with the season as a whole. The writing never seems concerned with fleshing out characters beyond the most surface levels. Yes, we get the occasional great moment like Rhaenyra’s grief over Jace, but for that one moment, we get dozens more that could be something special but aren’t. Take Corlys. He’s got a host of reasons to be angry at Rhaenyra and Daemon – the bastard boys are a minor one. His wife died fighting in the war – and she should have been on the throne years ago, as Daemon reminded him this week. His trueborn son and daughter are both dead. Driftmark is destroyed. His granddaughters are without husbands and have nothing to their name. And he runs off into the woods because . . . he’s mad Rhaenyra wouldn’t legitimize his bastards? And he yells that her sons with Laenor are bastards before doing so? I still don’t understand why he ran away – and right into the hands of the Hightowers. It just doesn’t make sense. Go to your rooms, go back to the sea. Do something that makes sense for your character. Running into the woods is just a choice to make to get the character in position for plot movement. And this was the case with so many characters over the course of the season.
We heard about Rhaenyra not valuing her dragon riders over and over and over and then, all that we got was Ulf burning everything to the ground – and that wasn’t because of Rhaenyra so much as it was because of Daemon and Ormund being absolute assholes to him. I miss the early years of Game of Thrones, when we’d get to spend time with characters, learn about them, watch them interact, understand what makes them tick. That’s been missing from the series as the character list has expanded and the story has focused more and more on just getting to the next battle or major set piece. The characters aren’t there to drive the story. Rather, the story exists to move the characters around the map to have them where they need to be for a fight or a dragon flight. The story isn’t about them. It’s about the war. If I have one hope for season four, it’s that we get to have more moments like Rhaenyra grieving Jace and less like Ulf sitting on the latrine while he waits to be found.
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