Season 3 of House of the Dragon has come to an end, and "The Treasons of Tumbleton" concluded with plenty of fire and blood, as well as a tragic death that would appear to signify a point of no return for Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen.
Despairing at the news that Aegon and his "resurrected" dragon, Sunfyre, are now at large and have amassed a fanatical following, Rhaenyra abandons any attempt at a semi-peaceful resolution to the conflict and instructs Daemon to "kill every Hightower" in Tumbleton. She warns her uncle/lover not to "make a monster" of her by causing unnecessary collateral damage, but things don't exactly go according to plan in that regard.
In Tumbleton, Ormund begins to panic when he can't find Ulf the White, who is, not too surprisingly, in the process of getting inebriated in a local tavern. When Hightower finally locates the drunken Dragonrider, he lays a beating on him. Not a smart move.
Gwayne, meanwhile, attempts to strike a deal with Daemon by handing over the captive Corlys and proposing a division of the realm, which would allow both Rhaenyra and Daeron to rule. Daemon considers it... briefly, but still unaware of Ulf's betrayal, the Rogue Prince rejects the offer and orders Roddie "The Ruin" and his Winter Wolves to attack the city head-on.
As Ulf finally takes flight on Silverwing and begins to burn the unsuspecting Black armies, Roderick finds Ormund near the battlements. The Hightower lord manages to slice one of his foe's arms off, but his highly sensitive disposition proves to be his downfall, and when he turns to vomit, Roddie gives him a "proper f*cking from the North" with a sword right up the kingdom come.
Ormund was no doubt done for, anyway, but just in case, Silverwing sets both men alight with a final "f*ck you, too" from Ulf.
The vengeful Dragonrider proceeds to indiscriminately burn all around him, as a shell-shocked Daemon - who, let's be honest, just had his ass handed to him by Jon Roxton - is convinced to abandon the town by Corlys.
Back in King's Landing, a defiant Helaena refuses to eat, and recognizes a growing darkness in her half-sister. “All the things you care about are ugly,” she says. “You, yourself...ugly.” Rhaenyra responds by force-feeding the already fragile youngster before marching on the Red Keep.
When the High Septon refuses to ordain her, Rhaenyra orders his execution. She then addresses her subjects, delving into the prophecy of the "sinister threat" emerging from beyond the Wall, while declaring herself the Prince that was Promised. When Rhaenyra returns to the palace, she learns that Helaena has taken her own life by leaping from her window.
The Queen then picks up Helaena’s last tapestry, which depicts Alicent's daughter falling to her death, followed by Rhaenyra sitting on the throne with dragon fire behind her. Rhaenyra closes the window, seemingly resigning herself to whatever grim path awaits her.
“Helaena is sort of the moral heart of the show, I think," Emma D’Arcy tells THR. "She’s maybe the only character who has a proximity to power, but remains kind of uncontaminated. And so, I think her death sort of condemns Rhaenyra to the path she’s chosen. I think there’s sort of no way back after that.”
Showrunner Ryan Condal also addressed Rhaenyra bringing up the Ice and Fire prophecy, which does not happen in George R.R. Martin's Fire and Blood.
“It’s not in the book and it’s not in the history, but there is a bunch of talk about how Rhaenyra became very despotic, and became a tyrant at the end, and was very unpopular with the people. So much of [the Targaryens’] existence is their self-aggrandizement. For the stonemasons standing there in the crowd just looking up at this [speech], it could just sound like somebody trying to make something of themselves.”
What did you make of the finale and Season 3 overall? Let us know in the comments.
"The prequel series finds the Targaryen dynasty at the absolute apex of its power, with more than 15 dragons under their yoke. Most empires—real and imagined—crumble from such heights. In the case of the Targaryens, their slow fall begins almost 193 years before the events of Game of Thrones, when King Viserys Targaryen breaks with a century of tradition by naming his daughter Rhaenyra heir to the Iron Throne. But when Viserys later fathers a son, the court is shocked when Rhaenyra retains her status as his heir, and seeds of division sow friction across the realm."
House of the Dragon season 3 sees Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Fabien Frankel, Ewan Mitchell, Tom Glynn-Carney, Sonoya Mizuno, and Rhys Ifans reprise their respective roles. Additional returning cast includes Harry Collett, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell, Phia Saban, Jefferson Hall, and Matthew Needham.
Season 3 directors include Loni Peristere (episodes 1,6), Clare Kilner (episodes 2,3,4), Nina Lopez-Corrado (episodes 5,7), and Andrij Parekh (episode 8).