After two seasons of waiting, House of the Dragon is finally making things happen. MyMMO editor Sophia Weiß knows: Rhaenyra is finally what she has always should have been, and Emma D’Arcy deserves all the acting awards in the world.
I predicted this myself and I was absolutely right: The first two episodes of House of the Dragon season three completely destroyed me. The battle in the Gurgle was absolutely gripping. Now, the creators have raised the stakes even higher – which is also reflected in the current rating on IMDB: Episode 3 of the third season has received a whopping 9.4 stars.
First of all, without spoilers: Emma D’Arcy’s portrayal of Rhaenyra in this episode is excellent. No matter if you are Team Black or Green. Regardless of whether you watch the series at all. D’Arcy’s performance reaches completely new heights and is incredibly gripping.
What pleases me the most is that the character Rhaenyra is finally becoming what I have been waiting for since two seasons. Oh, what am I saying? What I have been waiting for since Daenerys landed in Westeros with her three dragons!
9.4 Stars for Grief, Anger, and Finally a Queen
At the end of Episode one, Jacaerys Velaryon, Rhaenyra’s eldest son and crown prince of Team Black dies. Episode two continues this plot almost seamlessly: Baela, Jace’s fiancée, brings him home. Rhaenyra approaches the dead and seems initially not to understand what has happened.
She asks her son what he has done. Again and again. At some point, she shakes his lifeless body and has to be pulled away by her own bodyguard. The bodyguard who ignored his queen’s orders in the previous episode and locked her up at the command of the now deceased prince.
In the following moments, the grieving mother’s facial expressions go awry. She weeps. She screams. She accuses her court of high treason, for everyone in the room knew of Jace’s order, which should never have taken precedence over Rhaenyra’s own. If they had – as they should have – listened to their queen, the prince might not be dead now.
The scene itself is a masterful display of acting. I have never felt such intense emotions of grief, anger, and powerlessness through the television. Emma D’Arcy does not play Rhaenyra as the beautiful weeping female lead known from television. But as a broken, real woman. For that, I am very grateful to her.
After that, Rhaenyra sinks into deep grief. It takes her husband Daemon and a few encouraging words in Valyrian to bring her out of her rut:
Her two sons have died to secure her the throne. Giving up now and not securing the iron thing would be a waste of these two sacrifices.
Together with Daemon and the dragon seeds, the queen is finally doing what I, and I believe many others, have long wanted from her and also from Daenerys: They fly to King’s Landing and seize the Red Keep.
This only works because Alicent has kept her word and literally opened the gates. In the Red Keep itself, Daemon has the time of his life: He clears the way of the soldiers of Team Green and cuts down anyone who stands in their way. In the throne room, the Gold Cloaks also rush to help them. Thus, King’s Landing and the royal seat finally belong to the rightful queen.
As his first official act, the conspirator Otto Hightower loses his head by Rhaenyra’s hand. He had sent Alicent to Viserys in season one and had always pushed Aegon in the background as the crown prince.
Then the time has come: Trembling, but finally at the goal, Rhaenyra takes her throne, her deceased son Jace’s sword by her side.
Westeros finally has its first queen and the rightful heir of Viserys on her throne. A certain Daenerys can take a page from this.
Daenerys Lacked What Rhaenyra Has: A Doer By Her Side
For two seasons, I have repeatedly suffered because the black queen was still trying to maintain peace. In itself, she has nothing against her younger siblings, and war was never in her interest. But while she hesitated and faltered, Team Green simply created facts.
It is so sad that two of her sons had to die to finally get Rhaenyra into the right mindset to finally take the initiative herself. Sure, in episode one, her initiative was simply taken away from her when she wanted to rush to her fleet for help.
But precisely this Rhaenyra, who does not let herself be constantly sidelined, is what I was missing. Now she has created her own facts.
This is also something that has annoyed me about the last seasons of Game of Thrones: Daenerys had three rather large dragons. At the time of House of the Dragon, the walls of the Red Keep are still reinforced with crossbow-firing scorpions, but not anymore during Tommen Baratheon’s reign. If you do not give Cersei time to upgrade, it stays that way.
Dany could have simply flown to King’s Landing and taken the city. Sure, she did not want to be a conqueror. But as Olenna Tyrell once said: The lords of Westeros are sheep. Are you a sheep? No. You are a dragon. Be a dragon.
Unnecessary cruelties should not be practiced, of course. Then one would be no better than the rest of the world. But, to quote Sunzi:
If you know yourself and the enemy, you need not fear the outcome of a hundred battles.
If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.
Sunzi, The Art of War
Daenerys knew her own forces – the 8,000 fully trained Unsullied, about 100,000 Dothraki warriors, between 300 and 400 ships, and three at least medium-sized dragons. If I remember correctly, she also knew what Cersei had. Namely the Lannister army, the Golden Company, the Iron Fleet, and the City Watch.
All in all, Dany could have probably ended the conflict over the Iron Throne relatively easily and early to then deal with the problem in the North.
But she did not want to be a conqueror who burned everything down. She did not have to be either. At least at the beginning, she still had a whole bunch of very clever tacticians in her advisory board. They would have taken care of that for her. A little siege, a little dragon action – done.
What Daenerys lacked was probably just a doer like Rhaenyra has in Daemon by her side. Daemon is often a really bad husband. But when it came time to finally get his wife the seat that belongs to her? Wow, he delivered!
A doer does not have to be a man. Rhaenyra just happens to have a husband who creates facts. That could have been Olenna for Daenerys. Just a person who does not hesitate and wait, but stands up and says, “We are doing this now, let’s go” and then delivers results.
She Has the Crown, Now She Must Prove Herself Worthy
My favorite murder hobo Daemon has helped his queen to crown and realm. Now she just needs to prove that she is worthy of it all. Making wise decisions, for example.
In the books, she is called Rhaenyra the Cruel. It may very well be that she now makes a 180-degree turn after violence has brought her back to the Red Keep. After all that has happened to her so far, I must admit that I am willing to overlook one or two things.
How exactly her reign will look, we will probably see in the third episode. I am already looking forward to it, even if I unfortunately still have to wait a few days for it. You can read more about this here: House of the Dragon Season 3: When is Episode 3 coming? – All dates for the new season
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