Hello, and welcome to my review of HBO’s House of the Dragon Episode 3 – Second of
his Name.
Well that was a great episode I gotta say.
Had me hooked from beginning to end.
Though I will say the ending was the main event for sure, it’s really making me happy
seeing how well this show is developing, for now at least.
Before getting into the 5 moments of the episode, Honorable mentions go to the scene between
Viserys and his master of laws Lyonel Strong.
For the second episode in a row this character has impressed me with his responsible, level
headed approach to politics.
His scenes are never big and showy but Lyonel Strong is quickly becoming one of my favourite
characters.
Another honorable mention goes to the introduction of the dragon seasmoke with it’s rider Laenor
Velaryon.
It’s pretty great being introduced more and more to their dragons, and I can only
imagine how the battles will look when the fighting really gets under way.
Now moving on I’ll start with what I felt was the fifth best moment of the episode and
that was the opening scene with Daemon Targaryen atop caraxes, killing enemies and his own
captured soldiers while hunting the Crab Feeder.
What a great way to start the episode, I was immediately hooked watching the rogue prince
burn his enemies alive.
And I also loved seeing the Triarchy soldiers fighting back, as the training and experience
they receive fighting dragons in this war will have serious consequences in the future,
so it was great getting to see the enemy adapt to the situation.
Now for the fourth best moment of the night, I chose Viserys, drunk and miserable while
on the hunt.
For me this show has presented Viserys even weaker and less self assured than my impression
from the books, especially when it comes to Rhaenyra, so I felt there were a lot of reasons
to dislike Viserys up to this point.
But my god seeing him sitting there, drinking himself into a stupor, looking like the most
miserable man on the planet during a day where he should be celebrating the birth of his
son Aegon.
I felt so damn sorry for him, seeing his spirit so utterly crushed.
In that moment I felt the weight of all those pressures upon him, and couldn’t help but
wonder whether his cousin Rhaenys, the queen who never was, might have been better suited
for this position and better able to make difficult decisions.
For the third best moment of the night, I went with the conversation between Viserys
and Alicent about his prophetic dream.
One of the biggest changes from the books I’ve noticed is how they’re making Alicent
a more sympathetic character, as they are making it clear she has a good nature but
has been trained and manipulated all her life to be in this position.
This pressure upon her was then furthered when Viserys revealed his dream, as Alicent
now has a non-selfish reason for wanting her son to be king.
In the books it seemed like Alicent and Otto were simply greedy and ambitious.
But the show is definitely making their perspective more understandable.
They’re still wrong IMO, but at least I am far more understanding of their views.
And that includes Otto, from the small scenes he’s having with his elder brother the head
of their house in oldtown.
This scene also helped me sympathize with Viserys more as he is clearly tortured by
the burden of knowledge, no doubt driving himself insane trying to figure out how to
make the prophecy he saw come true or at least figure out its meaning, all the while keeping
his word to his beloved daughter and heir.
For the number two spot I went with Viserys finally showing some strength and talking
to Rhaenyra about her future.
This is the scene I’ve been waiting for since Episode 1, as one of the things I liked
most about Viserys from the books was that he was always steadfast about his daughter.
He was weak and indecisive in every other area of life, but when it came to Rhaenyra,
he made it clear she was the heir and specifically went out of his way to train her for the position.
After the first 2 eps I figured they were changing this and making Viserys weak when
it comes to his daughter as well.
But finally, I got to see some strength for a moment, speaking honestly to his daughter
about what is expected of her, what she must do to win allies and consolidate her role
as heir.
Then making it clear he would not replace her and giving her the opportunity to chose
her own partner, both things she desperately needed to hear as it finally gives her sense
of power and control.
Finally, for the best moment of the episode, I went with the Daemon Targaryen’s defeat
of the Crab Feeder in the Stepstones.
Ok I have to admit they got me with this one, I was livid when Daemon attacked the messenger
from the Capital, especially after seeing how badly their soldiers were faring.
This part is very different from what I remembered, as in the books Viserys was helping Daemon
from the beginning, and this dramatic rift between them wasn’t anywhere near as extreme.
So when Daemon attacked the messenger, for a moment I genuinely thought he lost his damn
mind.
But then of course, they showed Daemon surrendering, and as soon as I saw the white flag I knew
it had to be a trap, so suddenly my interest was piqued, and my expectations grew.
Then the trap was sprung, and what followed was, I think pretty clearly the best action
scene in the show so far.
Although there were some small parts of this scene that went a bit to far for me in terms
of believability, overall it didn’t bother me because this all felt so epic and satisfying.
Seeing Laenor on Seasmoke, while Corlys led soldiers on the ground was all great stuff,
and the battle looked amazing.
I was a bit sad we didn’t get to see Daemon kill the crab feeder but it was definitely
a cool visual seeing his corpse dragged out of that cave.
And after all that, we get a final shot of Daemon covered in mud and blood, having defeated
the Crab Feed without the aid of his brother, and the only thought in my mind was that I
was looking at the King of the Stepstones and the Narrow Sea.
So those were my top 5 moments, and my god what a great episode that was, definitely
the best so far IMO.
There were a few things I could nitpick, that for me weren’t ideal, even during scenes
I enjoyed, like in the opening dragon scene, as I didn’t care for the prisoner who was
yelling and got killed.
This seemed like an unnecessary distraction to the epic scene unfolding around them.
I’m sure the writers were making some point about how common soldiers are killed without
any consideration, but I think it detracted from the scene.
I’m also not sold on the relationship between Criston Cole and Rhaenyra, to be honest I
thought they would be a lot closer by now.
At the moment I really don’t see much of a connection there.
The final criticism I had was from what I choose as best moment of the night, and that
was when the crab feeder pulled his troops from hiding and sent them to kill Daemon Targaryen.
To me this seemed absolutely ridiculous.
Why would he send all or most of his soldier after only 1 man, when they already had bowmen
at the ready and they knew a dragon could be lurking.
This didn’t make any sense and it seemed obvious they were walking into a trap.
This in addition to Daemon somehow being able to avoid hundreds of arrows stretched believability
too far for me, but since the scene was amazing in general, and ended on such a badass note,
these little criticisms didn’t affect my enjoyment very much at all.
Now, for the best kill of the Episode, I went with the many men burned alive by Daemon Targaryen
at the beginning of the Episode, largely because of that great shot we got of the crab feeder
watching from his cave.
While the best quote of the night goes to the Viserys voiceover reading the letter he
wrote to Daemon.
“Brother, I have ordered 10 ships and 2000 men to sail from King’s Landing, to join
the effort in the stepstones.
Though time and circumstance have seen us estranged.
Know that it is not my desire to see you fail in your course.
It is instead my hope that this aid will deliver the victory that has thus far evaded us.
I shall prey nightly to the gods for your safe return.”
I thought the message was very kind and generous all things considered, but as soon as I heard
Viserys say the word “fail” I knew Daemon was not going to take it well, and he most
definitely did not as he then attacked the messenger.
So those are my thoughts for the House of the Dragon Episode 3, Second of his name.
Overall I gave this episode a 9 out of ten, as this was another absolutely excellent addition
to the show.
But what did you all think?
Do you agree this is the best episode so far?
And how do you think the show as a whole is going?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below and be sure to check out the links to
some of my other recent videos, like the spoiler free Prelude to the House of the Dragon video,
the spoiler filled Dance of the Dragons video as well as many others.
So for now thank you all for watching and I’ll see you in the next one.