Episode 3 – Second of His Name

We return to the House of the Dragon after another time jump. More than two years have passed since the last episode and establishing these jumps at the beginning of each episode is starting to develop in a comfortable rhythm, giving each episode the feeling of a deep look into a moment in time, rather than a continuous narrative. It feels a bit like a documentary in that regard. I really like it, and it’s very appropriate.

The big news: Viserys has a son, he’s just turned two this morning and Alicent is heavily pregnant with the next child. A rival bloodline is gestating, and this will surely lead to no trouble at all further down the road! But before Viserys can enjoy the birthday party for little Aegon, the political plot comes knocking. After almost three years of war, Daemon and Corlys are on the verge of losing against the Crabfeeder, who is supported by the Triarchy. Viserys of course insists that the involvement of the Triarchy isn’t proven, but this is like assuming the Donezk Republics are not in kahoots with Vladimir Putin. This is willful ignorance on display.

But who can blame him? Aegon’s birthday party is a splendid affair, if not exactly geared up for a two-year-old. But then, as Rhaenyra reminds the obnoxious Jason Lannister, she doesn’t remember her own second birthday either, so that’s just as well. In the event, it’s a joyless affair. Rhaenyra is constantly reminded that everyone considers her to be at best an heir-on-demand, while Viserys can’t enjoy the party.

This becomes most apparent with the White Hart that supposedly roams the woods, an auspicious omen for the new heir. Young Aegon of course is not the heir, but if everyone assumes you are, at what point do you become one? This is a tricky question that will be at the heart of the story before long. Omens, in the meantime, are also tricky, in that they require a lot of intervention to actually happen. One-and-a-half days of hunting do not produce the fabled White Hart, which may or may not be an omen, but at least they fand A Hart and prepare it for being killed by a thoroughly hung-over Viserys.

Here, hunting is depicted like it usually works for these oh-so-very-masculine aristocratic hunters: a host of servants prepares the kill. You then just pretend to do the actual work. Viserys can’t even get that right. Too obvious is the deception, too obvious the failure of the whole party. The attendant showing him the exact spot where to put the gilded boar spear that Jason Lannister gifted him while asking for Rhaenyra’s hand, now that she “lost station”, is just the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Viserys is utterly disgusted with the whole affair.

And who can blame him? Paddy Considine’s acting here is impeccable. Viserys is a man profoundly uncomfortable with the situation he is in, and the set design shows this at all junctures. Let’s talk about this a moment, shall we? When last time we saw a king hunting in the godswood in “Game of Thrones” season 1 episode 6, it was three dudes walking through the wood. This time, we get dozens of people, horses, CGI animals, tents. And what tents! The royal tent is a palace of canvas, and it allows for hosting lavish feasts.

Unfortunately, these lavish feasts cannot entertain Viserys. As he informed us in the opening of the episode, he just wants to enjoy the party, and all that he’s left is, to quote, “fucking politicking”. The production design makes this clear through great blocking: Viserys sits apart, on an elevated throne, with no one to talk to, only servants to serve him wine and people advising or asking favors – often enough at the same time. The camera cuts away to young Aegon, ten meters apart that could as well be ten miles, and to Alicent surrounded by the court’s ladies, equally far away.

As we see when Viserys returns to court, it’s Alicent’s company that he craves most. She is the one woman he can confide to, the one person he can trust and who seems to be interested in him as a person rather than as a PEZ-dispenser for royal favor. And the thing is: it’s true, at least in part. This episode really gives Alicent a spotlight, first in the spat she has with Rhaenyra and then with her husband. When she’s talking to Viserys, she almost immediately drops the mission that her father gave her – make sure Aegon is named heir, all for the good of the realm and to keep with the laws of gods and men, of course – and instead counsels Viserys to send help to Daemon himself. Like Lyonel Strong, who seems to be the one guy counseling Viserys not for personal gain, she actually seems to act out of larger motives.

This makes her falling-out with Rhaenyra all the more problematic. The two of them essentially switched places. For most of their relationship, Rhaenyra was the social superior. Now, she may be heir and princess, but Alicent is queen. And as she reminds Rhaenyra when she sends the singer away, that trumps her friend’s station. However, Alicent still wants to mend the relationship with Rhaenyra, she doesn’t want the conflict that’s already brewing between blacks and greens. As her father reminds her, though, politics is a stronger force.

Rhaenyra in the meantime is all impetuous teenager. She brushes off Alicent and makes faces during the whole long drive to the hunt. Despite Viserys’ gentle reproachments about her duties as a princess (he pointedly doesn’t call her future queen here, even if he doesn’t intend it, maybe) is falling on deaf ears. At the feast, she’s alienating everyone around her, insulting Lady Redwyne (surely not something that will come back to bite her) and Jason Lannister (ditto). And these two are just the ones we’re shown explicitly. If she wants to be queen, she is not doing this right, that’s for sure.

Rhaenyra is in a weird in-between space here. She’s badass, as shown when she slays the boar and brings it back, and she definitely could stake out her own identity in a way that appeals more to the martial Westerosi society. When she stops Ser Criston from killing the White Hart, she’s also doing her own play at potent symbolism, even if Cole is the only one around to see it. These episodes do an incredibly good job at laying the groundwork of the later Rhaenyra, with all her flaws and her erratic ruling style during her short days in King’s Landing. Not that this will keep the haters from claiming it all came out of the blue when it happens, mind you.

Talking of Cole, the kingsguard knight and Rhaenyra spark a romantic relationship here without one touch, finding an easy rapport. The way in which Ser Criston jokes about killing Ser Jason for Rhaenyra and her laughter in reaction show an intimacy that Viserys only ever finds with Alicent, if that. Rhaenyra lives intensely, and everyone else be damned.

And don’t we know that attitude? Her uncle does the same thing, even if he chooses the battlefield for it. The war, as established, is going poorly. We open the episode with Daemon attacking the Crabfeeder and not finding him. Burning some catapults firing at Velaryon ships doesn’t do the trick. His shouts of “Where is Prince Dahar?” are the only line of dialogue Matt Smith will utter the whole episode, by the way. The man uses his considerable presence to act the hell out of this stuff non-verbally.

But who cares where the Crabfeeder is; the man is not a character, he’s a foil to unite even the warring factions, if only for a moment. He’s a force of nature, a slasher-movie villain. He’s here to be disposed off, which is just what will happen at the end of the episode. But for now, we’re at a Velaryon war council, meeting two more members of the family. On the one hand, we have Vaemond Velaryon, brother of Corlys, who’s much cooler on the whole “Daemon’s private war” thing and warns of immediate mutiny. Then we have Laenor, the guy that Lyonel Strong counselled Viserys to marry to Rhaenyra, a youth who’s full into the whole “proving your manhood on the battlefield” thing and also a dragon rider, as will be revealed to great effect in the ending of the episode.

The war council is interrupted by a messenger bringing a missive from the king: ten ships and two thousand infantry are being sent to bail Daemon out. It’s not phrased like that, but the meaning is implied. Daemon snaps. In a beautiful, entirely wordless scene that hinges on you paying attention to one sentence Vaemond Velaryon said – that it would need a lot of meat to lure the Crabfeeder out – Daemon rows onto the shores of the Crabfeeder’s hideout alone, waves a white flag and offers up his sword, only to start murdering dudes and outrun volley after volley of arrows.

The Crabfeeder knows something is wrong, both in the situation and with Daemon. We’ll get to the latter, but it’s beautifully done how the Crabfeeder nervously scans the skies for the dragons he assumes must come, seeing none, and sending more and more troops out. And then, when everything seems lost for Daemon, the troops stage their surprise assault, and Laenor roasts the archers. This allows Daemon to go for the Crabfeeder. We are not shown how he kills him, as it’s not important. The end result, in which a blood-spattered prince drags the carcass of his enemy into camp says it all and is surely an intentional call-back to Rhaenyra’s return to the hunting camp.

Still, something is deeply wrong with Daemon Targaryen. I made the Jaime Lannister comparison often, and here, it falters. This mad, suicidal attack is nothing Jaime would have done. Trying to close the war out of spite before help can arrive – totally. But this craving for attention from his brother while at the same time shoving him away is a weird and self-destructive character trait, and another thing he has in common with his niece. We also see he doesn’t much care for the lives of his own underlings (the initial scene when the captive is trampled to death by Caraxes is just great), which established his Targaryen supremacist worldview. No wonder this guy will more or less abandon the war later on to fight Aemond.

That leaves some closing observations. The episode already starts building up a scaffolding for future storylins, introducing a lot of characters. For example, we get the first appearace of Larys Strong, who will play a huge role going forward. The allegiance of the Lannisters in the war to come is set up. This many characters also allows the show to do something “Game of Thrones” never managed: to have a lot of mid-level commanders we actually know to bite it. During the “Battle of the Bastards”, there was really no one on the battlefield to die that we actually knew. When the Fishfeed comes around, you can see actual Lannisters dying that you’ve seen before. This is a structural storytelling decision that, much like the time jumps, I can only applaud and that makes the show unique.

The production design also continues to impress. The nightmarish beach of the Crabfeeder, the whole hunt, all of it is communicating so much story and character in its spectacle. It’s just satisfying to see budget and story to come together in unison.

Another stray observation regards Caraxes. The design of the dragon is very distinctive. When you see this shape, you will know it’s Daemon, and that will be important further on as we get to know these beasts and the role they’ll play for the war.