You Have Requested : House.of.the.Dragon.S01E03... ~UPD~
If you're just joining us, here are recaps of episode one and episode two and a glossary of people and places you may have forgotten.
You have requested : House.of.the.Dragon.S01E03...
Three years have passed since the last episode. King Viserys has married his teen bride Alicent and they've had a son named Aegon, after the founder of the Targaryen Dynasty. Alicent is expecting a second child, as well.
Still another lord suggests Ser Laenor Velaryon, the son of Corlys and Rhaenys, as Rhaenyra Suitor Number 3. (Don't worry, we haven't met him yet, but we will, before the episode is over.) You'll remember that awkward walk the king took last week with the 12-year-old? Yeah. Laenor is her older brother.
The king drunkenly, weepily confides in Alicent. He had a vision when Rhaenyra was young: He dreamed that he'd have a male son. It grew into an obsession, which drove him to sacrifice his first wife's life in favor of her infant son, who died. He thought naming Rhaenyra his heir would ameliorate his grief and regret. But all this political jockeying around him has got him second-guessing himself.
Fire and Blood, the book on which House of the Dragon is based, took place over 300 years. To cover much of that ground, the show needs to get a move on: Episode 3 is set three years after the events of episode 2. You'll recall in that episode King Viserys Targaryen announced to the Small Council his intention to marry Alicent Hightower. Now King Viserys and Queen Hightower have a son, Aegon, and as episode 3 opens we see scenes from Aegon's second birthday celebrations.
Viserys is informed of this development and is told that the Crabfeeder's forces have retreated to Stepstone caves, neutralizing the dragon advantage. Viserys doesn't want to hear it: "It's been three years, it can wait another three days."
Rhaenyra walks outside to get a breather, and there she stumbles upon Jason Lannister. He introduces himself and offers her wine -- then brags about how good the wine of Lannisport is, and how much better Casterly Rock is for hunting than King's Landing. The only thing Lannisport doesn't have, he says, is a dragon pit, though he'd be happy to build one.
"Since you came of age, I've been slowly drowning in a lake of parchment flung from every corner of the realm," Viserys says, getting increasingly frustrated. "Marriage proposals all, and I have tried often to discuss it with you and you refuse it at every turn."
"I so wanted it to be true," he says. "I put all my thought and will into it. My obsession killed Rhaenyra's mother. I thought Rhaenyra was the way out of my abyss of grief and regret, that naming her heir would begin to set things right. I never imagined I would remarry, that I would have a son."
Jump ahead to the next day. King Viserys is hungover. His hunters have trapped the white stag -- which turns out to not be white at all -- holding it in place with ropes. Jason Lannister presents the gold spear to King Viserys, and all the men implore him to give it the killing blow. It's a distressing scene. Viserys stabs the stag once, but he only wounds it. It squeals in horror, but he's too hungover or sick or old to immediately act. After encouragement from an aid, he stabs the stag again, dealing a fatal blow. King Viserys gets a polite golf clap for his efforts.
Viserys says she's mistaken him, that he was just trying to help. He exclaims that she's been alone and angry for the past three years, and that a family might help. Rhaenyra points out that if the king was only interested in serving the realm, he would have married Lady Laena, daughter of Lord Corlys, rather than Alicent Hightower. Viserys concedes the point. He says Rhaenyra needs to get married, but she can make the choice of who it's to.
Things are getting mutinous in the Stepstones, as Lord Corlys and Daemon's combined forces have become flustered. The Crabfeeder and his men are hiding out in Stepstone caves, so dragon's don't help much. There are mutterings from Corlys' soldiers that Daemon isn't worth fighting for. Just as all eyes turn to Daemon, King Viserys' men approach, informing the gang that the royal forces will be joining soon to help out.
Meanwhile, Rhaenyra and Criston set up camp for the night in the kingswood. Rhaenyra asks Criston if he feels the realm will respect her as queen. He wholeheartedly believes they will. We also learn that Criston fooled around a bit while his father served at Blackhaven. However, since joining the kingsguard, he has taken his vows of chastity seriously. Sorry, Rhaenyra. Make all the googly eyes you want, but Ser Criston keeps it chaste.
Critics, fans, and publications have drawn comparisons between House of the Dragon and fantasy series The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power on Amazon Prime Video. The Rings of Power is a prequel series set thousands of years before the events of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, while House of the Dragon is a prequel series set before Game of Thrones.[151] The similar fantasy genre, close release dates, and extensive fan bases were cited in articles comparing the two series.[3][152][153] Commentators and fans alike have described these comparisons as the "biggest battle in TV history".[154][155] More negative criticism from the two fan bases also included the character diversity, with some publications describing some of the criticism as racist.[156][157][158][159] Martin stated that although he hopes both shows are successful, he wants to see House of the Dragon "succeed more."[160] Lindsey Weber, an executive producer for The Rings of Power, stated that the head-to-head conflict between the two shows are "totally manufactured by the media for headlines".[155] Show co-creator J. D. Payne said the only competition he sees is with "themselves"; however, he wishes well for "anyone else working on storytelling".[161]
Financially, the budget for The Rings of Power is almost $450 million more than House of the Dragon.[88] Both series fared successfully in the ratings.[162] According to Nielsen and first-party data, The Rings of Power's first two episodes had more than 1.25 billion minutes of streaming minutes after three days of availability. In comparison, a few hours after the episode two premiere of House of the Dragon, the show had reached more than 1.06 billion minutes of streaming minutes.[c][141][163] Following the season finale for House of the Dragon, weekly streaming viewership passed 1 billion viewing minutes for the first time.[163] According to Nielsen data, The Rings of Power has a higher percentage of older viewers, with more than 70% of viewers being over the age of 35.[164] In any given week, The Rings of Power tended to have more streams than House of the Dragon given that the viewership of House of the Dragon was split between those watching online and those watching on HBO channel while that of The Rings of Power was online only. However, following both series debuts, streaming viewership for The Rings of Power decreased over the first season, while House of the Dragon viewership increased. The viewership of individual episodes of House of the Dragon also tended to increase over a number of weeks after the episodes became available while that of The Rings of Power dropped sharply after the first two weeks.[165] Despite the age gap in viewership, commentators have stated one of the reasons both shows did well was the consistent release schedule that helped create social-media buzz.[166][167] Both shows have highlighted the "streaming wars" between both Amazon and HBO and the entertainment industry as a whole.[168][169][170]
Not only are Viserys and Alicent (Emily Carey) married, they have a 2-year-old son, Aegon, and another baby on the way. Despite having the royal son he's always wanted, Viserys doesn't waver from Rhaenyra as his heir, much to the chagrin of Aegon's grandpa Otto (Rhys Ifans) and the rest of the patriarchal court.
In spite of her insolence and his new son, Viserys is dead set on Rhaenyra inheriting the throne. Is it because he really believes she'll be the best ruler? Because he doesn't want to be seen as someone who goes back on his word? Does he think his new son is lesser, because Alicent is his mother? We have no idea, because the writers don't tell us, and Viserys mostly spends this episode getting drunk and ranting about the whole affair.
With the announcement of a white hart stag being spotted, the King of the Kingswood, Rhaenyra is able to flee this argument with her father and run off on horseback. Ser Criston Cole chases after his princess and the two prove to have built quite the relationship since she hand-selected the common-born knight to be a member of the Kingsguard.
Princess Rhaenyra walks into the council room to find out about this letter and the information that her father is sending aid to the Stepstones. Rhaenyra and Viserys then get into it about how much control they have when it comes to duty and tradition.
He's Corlys and Rhaenys' son. We saw him previously as a child in the audience at the jousting tournament in Episode 1. He's now about 15 years old, and he is who Lyonel Strong suggests Viserys have Rhaenyra marry.
The preview for the new episode teases a conflict between Daemon and the Crab-Feeder that was established at the end of episode two. Corlys Velaryon approached Daemon in the final scenes of Sunday's episode and asked for his help in the Stepping Stones. If Daemon can take his army down to the shore and stop the Crab-Feeder's pirate forces from crushing the trade routes, he would gain power and loyalty from other houses in Westeros. When he eventually moves to take his spot on the Iron Throne, he would likely have more support from Westeros than his brother, due to his abilities as a military leader. 041b061a72