House of the Dragon S01E03 Review: Second Of His Name – Yadda yadda, and then 2 years later…By Ethan J| September 5, 2022 TV Blogs Many in my line have been dragonriders. Very few have been dreamers -King Viserys After setting up all sorts of plot pieces last week, the show decides to fast forward two years. So, where are we now? The king has a firstborn heir by the now-Queen Alicent Hightower. Princess Rhaenyra is a frustrated, angry 17-year-old who fears being supplanted by the new babe. The Crab Feeder is still feeding people to crabs, and Prince Daemon and the Sea Snake are battling him on their own, but they’re losing. It’s sort of hard to care about the plot presented in a show if each episode is just going to yadda yadda the immediate consequences of the previous episode’s plot in favor of a major time jump. If that’s going to be this show’s whole pattern, then it’s going to make for a disjointed, almost anthological show. Still, let’s get into the meat of this one. We start with a graphic scene of the Crab Feeder nailing someone to a post and throwing crabs onto him. The battlefield is all fire and destruction, and then a dragon appears and burns everything to hell. Daemon is riding the dragon, and he does his valiant best to incinerate the Crab Feeder’s army. The problem is that the Crab Feeder’s army can easily retreat into caves and escape, which the ones who aren’t incinerated promptly do. Daemon screams the Crab Feeder’s name, which is apparently Drahar, although this isn’t really explained, and probably won’t be considering the episode’s end. Cut to a celebration of the second name day of the King’s new male heir, named Aegon. This celebration is apparently a Huge Deal and involves a major hunt. Rhaenyra is nowhere to be found, and that fact is taking up the king’s attention while his advisors discuss the challenges that Daemon and the Sea Snake are facing against the Crab Feeder. The problem is that the two of them started the war without the King’s leave, and to help them now would somehow make the King seem weak. Meanwhile, Rhaenyra is angrily forcing a minstrel to repeatedly sing her a song. The Queen comes out, and the rift between the two former friends is made plain. Rhaenyra’s icy response to the Queen’s request that Rhaenyra join them on the hunt is unambiguous. Still, she comes along, reluctantly. For her part, the Queen is extremely pregnant again. Rhaenyra’s bitter “no one’s here for me” retort to her father reminding her of her duties is also unambiguous. She’s convinced the king is about to throw her aside in favor of Aegon. Rhaenyra is ambitious and restless and wants to spread her wings, but she feels stifled and ignored on all sides. Her bitterness infects a conversation with Lady Redwyne about the war on the Stepstones, in which Lady Redwyne chastises the king for not intervening in the war. “And how have you served the realm of late, Lady Redwyne, by eating cake?” Rhaenyra retorts. Rhaenyra’s day is not improved when she is accosted by Lord Jason Lannister, an arrogant, ambitious, well, Lannister, who the King thinks would be a good match for her. Lord Jason regales the Princess with tales of the glories of Casterly Rock and the rest of the Lannister holdings. She realizes what’s up when he suggests he’d build a dragon pit and would “do anything for my Queen..or lady wife…” Rhaenyra’s anger boils over in a confrontation with the King. He explains to her that since she’s of age, she needs to marry, and that he’s dealing with dozens of suitors, but she doesn’t want to get married. Their heated argument is heard by the rest of the guests, who turn their heads and mutter. Not a great look. Rhaenyra storms off angrily, mounts a horse, and rides off. Ser Criston Cole to the rescue. He chases her down and basically prevents her from throwing her horse into a deep river. He serves as a sympathetic ear hearing Rhaenyra’s frustration about her father’s plan to marry her off to Jason Lannister, and he breaks the tension by asking if she wishes him to kill the young Lannister suitor. That gets a smile from her. There’s clearly something between Rhaenyra and Ser Cole, although his station is not high enough for him to be considered a suitable match. Any budding romance between the two of them might cause further conflict with the crown. I’m not sure if that’s the direction this show is going, though, because to be honest, the two of them behave more like good buddies than like two people who have romantic interests in each other. Still, he’s a good foil for her, and the two of them spend an amiable afternoon and evening away from the festivities where Rhaenyra can decompress and be away from everything that’s currently pissing her off. He also reminds Rhaenyra that she’s not as powerless as she thinks, because she named Cole to the Kingsguard, and therefore he owes her everything. For his part, the King is bitter, angry, and conflicted about his own choices. Did he make a mistake naming Rhaenyra as heir, knowing he might remarry and produce a male heir? Should he, in fact, supplant Rhaenyra in favor of Aegon? The conflict drives the King to angry drunkenness while his aides de camp track a White Hart, which is some kind of fictional elk analog and an apparent good omen if they can successfully hunt it. The Hand, in particular, while he isn’t one for “signs and portents,” does suggest that the White Hart might be a sign of the Gods wishing to show their favor. The King also has a tense moment with Jason Lannister, who presents him with a very nice spear. Jason makes the mistake of bringing up a possible betrothal to Rhaenyra as “compensation” for Rhaenyra’s “loss of station,” insinuating that the King intends to supplant her as heir. The King angrily responds to this by reminding Jason Lannister that all of the nobility had pledged their loyalty to Rhaenyra, and questioning whether there might be traitors among the Lannisters who question the King’s decision to name Rhaenyra as heir. “I did not decide to name Rhaenyra my heir on a whim,” the King says. The Hand has a rather outlandish idea – wed Rhaenyra to her own half-brother. The King laughs this off as a ridiculous notion. “I came here to hunt, not to be suffocated by all this f**king politicking!” But that’s not the end of the f**king politicking. Lord Lyonel Strong comes forth and suggests that Rhaenyra wed the son of Lord Corlys, as a way to assuage the rift that was caused when the King married Lady Hightower. The King, drunk and frustrated, leaves the tent and stands by the fire to think. And so the episode goes – Rhaenyra finding some comfort and catharsis with Criston Cole. She asks Cole if the realm will ever accept her as queen. Cole explains “they will have no choice but to.” Not the best answer, but the only one she’ll get right now, as their conversation is interrupted by a savage attack by a squealing boar. The boar attacks the Princess, until Ser Cole stabs it, and it seems to be dead, but then it comes back squealing and the Princess does a Norman Bates on it, putting all her anger and frustration into stabbing the everloving shit out of the thing. Out by the fire, the King tells the Queen of his conflict – his dream of having a male heir, his obsession, blaming himself for her mother’s death. Naming Rhaenya as heir to end the obsession. Then getting remarried and having that heir. Now the prophecy of the white hart has him rethinking everything. But when the horn is sounded, it’s not a white hart that is found, but a regular brown one, fully restrained by the king’s men. The King is handed his lance and kills the beast, and of course, the episode shows the cruelty and meaninglessness of the moment in all its screaming, painful detail, making sure we hear all of the animal’s cries of anguish as it dies. It’s a scene that triggers, at least for me, a kind of “don’t kill the dog” traumatic cringe. You feel for the creature because the show doesn’t spare you its pain. It hurts to watch. And the fact that the moment is so staged, so pointless, the king just walking up to a restrained beast and murdering it – even the king knows it’s pointless, but he is a slave to tradition just like everyone else. A final moment before Rhaenyra and Ser Cole return to the campsite – the two of them spot the legendary White Hart, a CGI creature that stands there looking regal. Ser Criston makes to kill it, but Rhaenyra stops him, allowing the creature to escape. So the white hart appeared for Rhaenyra, but not for the king. What does that portend? The CGI here is…not great. Back at the castle, the Hand and his daughter (the Queen) have a conversation in which the Hand states in no uncertain terms that the Queen’s duty is to push the King to name Aegon as heir. Aegon is the firstborn son, and to deny him the right to the throne is to deny “the laws of gods and men.” The King is nursing a hangover. Interestingly, it’s now obvious that he’s missing two fingers, no doubt the ones that had gotten infected from the Iron Throne in the last episode. He shows the Queen a letter from the Sea Snake’s brother, fighting in the Stepstones, a plea for aid. Why not send it? The King is conflicted about sending aid, not wanting to appear weak in the face of Daemon and Ser Corlys’s initial treachery. The Queen asks a simple question – does the king want the Crab Feeder to win? That does it, and the King sends a note back pledging aid. A tense conversation between the King and Rhaenyra. The king apologizes for trying to marry her off to Jason Lannister, and Rhaenyra airs her grievances – convinced he’s going to supplant her. The King reminds her about the need to marry strategically, but then, clear as a bell, tells her in no uncertain terms that he has no intention of replacing her as heir. He gives her a concession: she must marry, but she can choose her own match. As she leaves, he confesses that he did waver, at one time, but he swears now on her mother’s memory that Rhaenyra will not be supplanted. Back at the war table, there’s discontent in the ranks of the Sea Snake and Daemon. They’re losing, they’re low on supplies, and they can’t roust the Crab Feeder and the Triarchy out of the caves. The solution? Send someone over as bait. Who should they send? Daemon? At that moment, Daemon returns on dragonback, arriving just as the discontent in the ranks is reaching a fever pitch. Just then, the king’s messenger arrives, announcing the promised aid. For some reason, Daemon is enraged by this and beats the shit out of the king’s messenger. Then Daemon decides to be the hero. He sails over to the Crab Feeder’s beach, waves a white flag, coaxes the opposing army out of their caves, and then attacks. There’s a Stormtrooper level of missed arrow shots loosed at Daemon as he rampages across the beach, but his superhuman attack allows his army to finally rout the Crab Feeder’s army. Daemon is hit by a couple of arrows, but because he has plot armor, he’s kind of fine a few minutes later. The battle ends with Daemon dragging the dead Crab Feeder’s entrails-trailing top half to shore for his army to see. Gross, but quite an image. Will we ever really know who the Crab Feeder was? I’m not convinced the show is really going to explain it. Chances are the next episode will take place several years later and we’ll just yadda yadda to the next big plot point. Is this a good show? Do I care about any of the characters? Again, it’s kind of hard to get invested in a plot when the show has demonstrated such a willingness to just skip so much time and move on to the next thing. Still, this is Game of Thrones, so it’s thrilling enough to keep me interested. It’s certainly better than Season 8. 8/10. A good meaty episode that sets up some stuff that I’m not convinced will be paid off later.
