House Of The Dragon Episode 3 has just released on HBO Max, and we get an episode that focuses on
disputes surrounding the birth of the King's son, Rhaenyra's struggles in the midst of
that and Daemon taking some action. In this spoiler review and analysis, I'm going to be
breaking down and giving you my thoughts on House of The Dragon episode 3, entitled Second Of
His Name. But before I get into it, if you want to see more videos on Season 1 of House Of The
Dragon, then don't forget to support this video by giving it a like rating, subscribing to
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But without further a do, lets dive into my review for House Of The Dragon Episode 3.
So the episode title, Second Of His Name, refers to the fact that Viserys newborn son
Aegon shares a name with Aegon the Conqueror, the warrior who once united the Seven Kingdoms
under the Targaryen rule we see today. Of course, most of those in power or around the King presume
that young Aegon will overtake Rhaenyra as the new heir to the throne, and the episode
focuses on showing the complex significance of that and how Rhaenyra and Viserys feel
towards everything going on. And that links appropriately into the particular
timeline of this episode too.
Apparently, it’s been three years since the events of the previous one, and after
learning that Viserys intended to marry Alicent Hightower, we see that this decision has casted
more doom on the King himself. While the King and a pregnant Alicent are celebrating the second
birthday of their son and are at peace with marriage, Viserys has put a bigger wench in
the relationship with his daughter, he's lost the powerful connection with Corlys Velaryon,
and as this episodes firmly highlights, shown that he's not an effective king. When his
advisors initially bring up the losing battle in the Stepstones, one that poses a danger to
everyone in the Seven Kingdoms, the king ignores this until the end. He’s focused on the
future of Rhaenyra and he wants her to hurry along and marry to create a new powerful connection.
The preferable outcome for the king would be for her to marry someone who brings a new
alliance for the Targaryens, but not one that's too powerful, as that person could make a play
for the throne. We focus a lot on the king getting drunk alongside feeling saddened over
thinking his daughter hates him and that his men look at him with weakness. A lot of that
comes through the fact that he's a very indecisive ruler, but I do get the anxieties surrounding
it too. Of course, most around him would want to see baby Aegon as the heir and his decisions
surrounding that lead to tensions rising. All of this begins at a luxiourious gettogether
on the edge of the Kingswood, celebrating the 2nd birthday of Aegon. We are quickly introduced to
a new lanister in Jason Lannister, who eyes up Rhaenyra and eventually suggests that
she could be his wife. We learnt that this was encouraged by Viserys, and with her rejecting
the proposal and leaving the kingswood party, it leaves her father in his stressful thoughts.
Rhaenyra And Criston Cole Fight A Boar Ser Criston Cole goes after her, staying
with the current heir for a night of camping and listening to her talk about how she doesn’t want
to get married off at random. She doesn't like that her ex-friend has married her father,
that he has a son and that she'll be replaced as heir. While I found in previous episodes that
Rhaenyra came across as quite one note, I did like that this one focused a lot more on her
frustrations and the complex position that she and the king are both in, and it's in conversations
like this, which we'd get in the earlier seasons of thrones, that make you connect more
with the characters and their current anxieties. The problem I had with this episode is the way
the action that supports it doesn't feel seemslessly constructed, and it feels like
it's there to suspend disbelief. It reminded me of a bad mix between season 1 and season 8 of thrones
and I just wish it was executed better. We could have used this moment to further
show some deeper chemistry between Rhaenyra and Cristen Cole, but instead, the scene is interupted
by a raging boar, which they take down together, with the current heir killing
it bloody. While this is happening, we get a whole scene with Alicent interacting with the
grand dames of the court, giving us some added exposition surrounding the war in the Stepstones,
and Rhaenyra’s disconnection from her Uncle Daemon. It just feels like interesting moments
pulled down by less-interesting ones or shocking action, and I think the the final
scene makes that clearer. But I'll get to that once we reach the ending.
That's because before, we do get a final moment in this celebration affair, and it involves the
King on his way to kill a white hart, that has been spotted in the Kingswood. They say
that the white Hart is a symbol of royalty, and if Viserys were to carry out the killing,
it would apparently act as a be a good sign for their power going forward. But when he arrives
to do so, there's actually no white hart, and instead, they only manage to capture a regular
old stag, that his men hold by ropes at it's antlers. In a slow struggle, he kills it after
two stabs, and I think the whole sequence carries a great meaning. It can mean for one
that he’s failing as a king, because he's quite indecisive and slow in his actions, and two, the
stag’s death is heard by Rhaenyra and Criston across the kingswood, in which they actually
see the white hart. With Cristen ready to draw his sword, she decides to let it live and
therefore, it shows the current situation in a metaphorical fashion. It's probabaly the
most effective scene in this entire episode and I think just in those few minutes, it communicates
the feelings and actions of both Viserys and Rhaenyra more successfully than the other
elongated scenes we saw. And this leads to a final few scenes in King’s Landing, where we get an
important moment between the two central characters. Viserys tries to
restore friendly words with Rhaenyra and he tells her that she should be
the one to choose whom she marries, and swears on her mother that he won’t revoke
her as heir. So while he's going to do the right thing going forward, we know that this is going
to cause bigger problems with everyone else, and we can imagine that the family dynamics are
only going to get more tension-filled in the episodes to come. We already saw this kind of
moment between them in the previous episode, but I guess episode 3 as a whole shocasses even
more the doom that will come in the decisions made. Hopefully it does lead to effective
moments because it does promise that the intriguing narrative points are still to come.
This brings us to the ending segment of episode 3, which focuses fully on Daemon and Coryls fight
in the stepstones. Mid-war, Daemon arrives on his dragon Caraxes to find his Velaryon
allies concerned about their next steps in battle, but he also recieves a letter from
his king brother. In the letter, Viserys says that he’s finally going to provide the forces
aid, even after the complications between them, and he reminds him that troops and dragons are on
the way. This is another one of my favourite scenes, because with no dialogue, Daemon
communicates that he will not accept such a late attempt at help, and it also shows that
he's not willing to let his estranged brother back into his life that easily. Daemon reacts
by lashing out and beating the king’s messenger with his helmet, leaving the island and making
his way on a boat to the Crabfeeder’s hideout. I loved everything in this moment up until
the point where Daemon, using the suspention of disbelief, decides to fight his way through
loads of men and even arrows from the top of the cliffs, in order to beat the Crabfeeder. A
character who was literally introduced and set up last week, who would go on to meet his bloody
death offscreen. Don't get me wrong, the action is great to watch and visually spectacular
for a third episode in this prequel show, but I just wish it was more belivable and was executed
in a less silly way. Daemon is basically a one-man army, until he gets struck
by multiple arrows, and even then, we see him charging off into the cave after the crabfeeder.
He was saved by the late arrival of the two dragons that Viserys promised and the Velaryon
forces arrive to kill the raiders. And of course, Daemon still makes the biggest move by killing
the Crabfeeder, reemerging with half of his body. So while Daemon doesn't say a single
word in this episode, I think it speaks to the defference between him and the king,
when we've spent a whole episode listening to his brother talk, and then him being silent and
eventually deadly in action. He may be a violent monster, but he's also a figure of determination
and it's moments like this that might put him forward as the biggest candidate for the
throne. He's still as interesting as he was in the last two episodes, and I think the
performance of Matt Smith really carries this over the line. But like I said before, I just wish
the execution of the action surrounding him was better, and the very lengthened scenes in the
buildup didn't drag it down as much as it did. So what are my overall thoughts on this latest
episode of House Of The Dragon. Well, Second Of His Name gave us two storylines, one with fire,
and the other with the fucking politicing that Viserys so comedically points out. This
episode was a slow burn when it comes to how it was paced but I did really like a handful
of scenes within all the events that surrounded Viserys and Rhaenyra. Surprisingly, I liked the
moments with Rhaenyra in this episode a lot more than others, and I thought the scene with the
Stags towards the end was really effective. I think more time could have been dedicated to
pushing these notions forward, but I get that they tried to really help the audience get into
the heads of both Viserys and Rhaenyra, and create the realisation that a decision in
one way or another will still lead to bad consequences. While House Of The Dragon does move
slow at times, it is the character moments and dialogue that make things gripping at times too,
and I hope that this can be perfected better in the episodes to come. The questions of marriage,
succession and house loyalty make or break a Game Of Thrones show and that's definitely
what excites me here when it's done well. The battles and action scenes if staged correctly,
can really elevate that in a brutal way, but they do falter at times. Again I loved
Daemon's motivation and everything up until he arrives on that shoreline,
but the action that follows made me feel like I was watching season 8
again, with an extreme sense of disbelief. The real intrigue of the story lies in the glances
and character reactions and I hope the next episodes can make better use of that, alongside
how it stages it's action. Still, it was a decent episode from a character point
of things and I think it will be crucial come whatever chaos follows for the Targaryens.
But that was my spoiler review and explained video for House Of The Dragon Episode 3. I'm
giving it a rating of 7.5 out of 10. I will be doing a video every week on the show, so stay
tuned to my channel each week for breakdowns and reviews of the Game of Thrones spin-off.
But to those who have already seen the episode, what are your thoughts on all the events that
went down and what do you think will happen in Episode 4? Let me know down
below in the comments section. For more videos on House Of The Dragon,
then subscribe to the channel and turn on your notifications. Also if you enjoyed this video
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But anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed it, I've been Cortex and as always make some noise.