…And just like that, HBO has closed the window on House of the Dragon Season 3 with Episode 8, aka the season finale – setting up the final season of the series coming in 2028. So we’ve got a ways to go, but before we get there let’s recap the finale. And before we recap the finale, let’s break down some over-all review-style thoughts about this episode; and this season.
Spoilers past this point, but I’m gonna throw something out there I’ve been mulling for a while, and something that has sort of become a hot topic in the Game of Thrones fandom: is this season bad? And I’d counter: maybe if you read Fire and Blood? Full disclosure, I’ve watched every episode of the shows in the franchise multiple times thanks to recapping and reviewing, I’ve read all the A Song of Ice And Fire novels and the Dunk & Egg novellas. But as to this point, I’ve skipped Fire & Blood because it was giving me Silmarillion vibes, aka “this is a lot of info” and I don’t love reading encyclopedias.
You’ve probably clicked directly out of this article at this point, but I’ve expressed this to a few folks and they told me that no, actually, Fire & Blood (the book by George R.R. Martin which House of the Dragon is partially based on) is a lot of fun, so I currently have it on hold at the library (support your local library, folks!) and have been waffling about whether to read it now, or wait to read it until 2028 after House of the Dragon is done. The main reason, and to get back to my point? My impression is if you have read the book, you hate Season 3 of House of the Dragon.
There are, mind you, plenty of fair criticisms about the direction of this season, and I would argue from my non-book reader point of view that after two of the strongest episodes the series has ever done – the double-header of “Queen’s Landing” and “Rhaenyra Triumphant” – the season fizzled out a bit following storylines that seem destined to set up the final fight in Season 4 instead of completing the thoughts it had set up in the season premiere (or rather, in Episode 2 as “Salt and Sea, Fire and Blood” is pretty much the season finale of Season 2, shunted to Season 3).
The main arc, taking Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy), giving her what she’s been aiming for this whole time, asking “what kind of Queen do you want to be” and answering it with “a cruel, terrible one” in the closing shot? Good. Other choices? Less good, and less direct as they wavered back and forth; some characters getting lost, others wandering, and scenes particularly in this finale looking like they were shot on an empty soundstage, a rarity for the show.
But from everything I’ve seen from book readers, most of the hatred is coming from not providing a one-to-one with Martin’s vision/history, as laid out in Fire & Blood. On that note, I don’t know what to tell you, folks: adaptation is not merely representation, it’s interpretation. You are 100% within your rights to disagree with the choices made, but having the screen version of a book follow its own path and story isn’t a bad thing. And in fact, it can be a very good thing, particularly if the writers/directors/actors/etc. are making choices for the more visual medium, versus just throwing the book up on screen.
Is it bad that Nettles has been excised from the narrative, and had this fan-fave character shoved onto Rhaena’s (Phoebe Campbell) arc? Possibly if you love Nettles, but adding another character into an already busy show when you have one that thus far has gotten nothing to do and instead consolidating seems like a good production decision to me.
What about the whole Helaena (Phia Saban) situation, where Martin absolutely lost his s**t online once the show cut out her son, Maelor? Whichever dog you have in that particular race, the show hasn’t done much with the children except use them as tools anyway, so would a baby wandering around really have made much of a difference? I do have quibbles with how they completed Helaena’s story arc here, particularly how her death by jumping out a window (folks love jumping out those Red Keep windows on these shows) was visually unclear in the episode, which is a direction issue and not necessarily a story issue… Particularly because her death was her only means of escape, and connected strongly with both Rhaenyra’s arc (refusal to escape what she incorrectly thinks is her destiny, moving fully into ego), and Alicent’s (Olivia Cooke) arc (failing to kill her son to save her daughter, and instead her daughter dies in the process… The only survival Alicent has guaranteed is her own). I also have issues with how the show depicts death by suicide, but that’s another topic entirely.
Again, without dismissing fan concerns in any way, you have to judge the show on the show. You can compare to the book, but you’ve got live actors, production concerns, and decisions that need to be made and followed. Some work, some don’t. But overall we get some big battle scenes in this episode, one scene that made me laugh out loud (Ormund, I will miss your comedy puking), and all the pieces in place for what should be a devastating final season. Did everything stick the landing? No. But don’t be an Ulf (Tom Bennett), burning both sides because you got slapped around a bunch. Instead, we got what was mostly a rousing season of TV with some great performances – D’Arcy in particular should have that Emmy on lock – and a scale of action we seldom see anymore. No need to Dracarys the whole thing, folks.
Okay, intro out of the way, let’s get into the recap. As usual, HBO did not send over the episode title in advance (which is when I’m writing this recap) so let’s assume the episode is titled “Ulf On The Shelf” and see how close we come. Also of note, I’ll break this down mostly by area of Westeros, though given the enormous battle scene that takes place through most of the episode, we’ll see how that all goes.
The Opening Tapestry
Before we even get to the episode, though, probably important to note that our opening sequence has changed once again and is now on F**KING FIRE. As we’ll see by the end of the episode, it’s possible with Helaena dead, this tapestry opening may be dead, too – she was the one making it, after all. And the fire burning it up seems to indicate that further, as it’s all in flames by the end. How wild would it be if Season 4 returns to the clockwork of Game of Thrones? I’m actually now convinced this is what’s going to happen.
But curiously, the flames start to engulf the tapestry in earnest with the depiction of the death of Criston Cole (Fabian Frankel), giving his passing a fair amount of importance in the narrative. Oh, and then there’s Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), his face half burned, dragon wings behind his back like Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) in the much maligned shot from the final season of Game of Thrones. While Rhaenyra is, I would argue, slow burning Daenerys’s sped up arc from conqueror to Mad Queen, perhaps it’s Aegon who will eventually win the Iron Throne? That sure seems to be what the tapestry is telling us.
King’s Landing
Enough burning tapestries! Let’s get to humans, baby. We open for real with Maester Orwyle (Kurt Egyiawan) booking it through the Red Keep, demanding to see Rhaenyra, She’s asleep, and while we don’t hear what Orwyle has to say, she immediately runs to Daemon (Matt Smith), who is getting dressed and eyeing his armor: he’s ready for war, just like he has been all season long.
“He is risen!” Rhaenyra hilariously opens with, and no, she doesn’t mean Jesus: she means Aegon. What follows is a recap of what we saw last episode, that Aegon is alive, Sunfyre (his dragon) is alive, and all Rhaenyra’s worst fears are alive as well… Aegon’s supporters have announced his return throughout the realm, directly contradicting her pronouncement that he was dead, killed by Aemond (Ewan Mitchell).
Rhaenyra is losing it, as she’s also lost the smallfolk: they’re gathered outside the Sept in King’s Landing, looking for guidance on who is supposed to rule. Daemon, though, isn’t thrown… He reminds her that she has six dragons (she doesn’t anymore, but they don’t know that), and just has to wield that power. She’s not quite there, though, still haunted by the memory of her father Viserys (Paddy Considine). She still needs to be accepted as ruler, and orders Daemon to stay the course, while defending King’s Landing from a possible attack by Aegon with Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew) standing guard on the city. In the meantime, Daemon will go to Tumbleton and root out the Hightowers, house by house. She reminds him that “the realm is watching… Do not make a monster of me.”
Daemon seems happy to agree, and Rhaenyra promises that once Tumbleton is taken care of and Ormund (James Norton) and Daeron (Benjamin Evans Ainsworth) are dead, she’ll go after Aegon herself.
That’s all well and good, but what about Corlys (Steve Toussaint), who is being held hostage in Tumbleton? That’s what Baela (Bethany Antonia) would like to know about… Are they going to rescue him? Rhaenyra explains that Daemon will save Corlys after they free the city, but Baela thinks he’ll be dead by that point. I won’t blow by blow here, but the tension that’s been bubbling between Rhaenyra and Baela all season bubbles over, with the latter going too far by blaming Corlys being taken on her Queen. She digs in further, saying that, “If a person is useful to you, you wield them. But if not, you abandon them.” Which: correct, but Baela has been pretty useless, and is definitely being insolent, as Rhaenyra calls out.
Over on the shore, Alyn (Abubakar Salim) is waiting for the Velaryon host to join in protecting the city. In a quirk of “this is a TV show and sometimes we need to hide things” there are like 10 of them – with presumably thousands more, just off camera, having a great time too. And while the soldiers want to go save Corlys as well, Alyn is stepping up in a big way here, declaring himself Corlys’s heir and ordering them to join the City Watch.
Later, Rhaenyra is staring at her crown, when her lady-in-waiting, Elinda Massey (Jordon Stevens) enters to inform her that Helaena isn’t eating. Shocking, really, that the one spoonful of watery soup Alicent gave her two episodes back wasn’t enough. But Rhaenyra doesn’t really care about that: she needs Alyn. He’s going to escort Rhaenyra to the Grand Sept to be crowned, today. Oh, and Rhaenyra needs one more thing done: Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno)? You’re fired.
It’s a shock to Mysaria, who gets dismissed by Elinda… Not Rhaenyra. Why is that? Why is Mysaria dismissed, now, particularly as they banged last episode? It likely has to do with one of two things. Either Rhaenyra suspects that Mysaria has been lying to her about many things. Or, more likely, with the smallfolk turning against her, Rhaenyra is tipping towards Daemon’s side, aka that of the conquering dragon. Mysaria is a weakness she needs to purge, and if the Queen is going into full on conqueror mode, her mitigating influence just isn’t necessary anymore.
Is making an enemy of Mysaria a good idea? We’ve seen she has no power other than when she wields the might of the Queen, and sometimes not even then. But we wouldn’t count the White Worm out quite yet.
Over to Helaena now, who is not looking great. She’s got her hour outside, and as a soldier brings her back to her room, she sees the scene from her dream last episode: a cart with a white horse, which we now discover is taking Mysaria away from King’s Landing. As they pass each other, the latter tells the former that she should not trust the Queen, Aegon is back, and his dragon lives. Not only that, but Helaena’s unborn child is a hostage, and Rhaenyra will never release her. To glue this on to the dream last episode, this is the moment where Helaena likely realizes her only escape is death. If Rhaenyra wins, she and her child will be trapped forever. If Aegon wins, she will have to return to being married to her horrible brother. There’s really only one move for her to make here, and she does make it later on.
Rhaenyra isn’t having any of it, though, storming into Helaena’s room and demanding that her “sister” needs to eat. To be clear, they are sisters, but the way Rhaenyra uses the word is deployed like a weapon, not a sign of affection or familial relation. Rhaenyra continues to plug Helaena for info, taking the tapestry from her, and assuring her she means no harm. “Do you think life is nothing more than not being dead,” says Helaena, followed by maybe the harshest thing she’s said in three seasons. “Our father would hate you for this.”
This also causes Rhaenyra to explain how she is beginning to ditch Viserys’s do no harm philosophy, but Helaena is having none of it, talking about a beautiful beetle that only emerges in summer in King’s Landing. What is the point of this? Rhaenyra doesn’t know, but I’d venture it goes back to what Helaena said about life: she sees the beauty in things around her; Rhaenyra is only focused on herself, and her own glory.
“All the things you care about are ugly,” Helaena continues, also calling Rhaenyra ugly. And when her “sister” continues to belligerently cross-stitch, Rhaenyra calls the guards over and they horrifically force Helaena to eat. This is the life that awaits her if she stays in King’s Landing. Force feeding, like a pig, meant only to breed an heir to Aegon who can be used as a human shield.
Meanwhile, out in the courtyard Alyn is preparing to usher Rhaenyra to the Great Sept. Addam (Clinton Liberty), his brother, is wondering if he’s going to Tumbleton. But more than that, he’s wondering what’s going on with Alyn, who has totally sold out to Rhaenyra. Getting back to what I said up top, in terms of character arcs that don’t work… Alyn’s doesn’t work, right? Yes they’ve been walking us up to this point, but he has been a steady and logical hand (and Hand) so far. To have him completely drink the Rhaenyra Kool-Aid for his own ambition feels too much, too quickly.
Regardless, Rhaenyra emerges in her full dragon armor/Queen regalia, entering the litter, oddly with her son, Joffrey. Odd because we spent several episodes of Rhaenyra clearly scared to talk to her own son; and now, there he is!
Like two ships in the night, Mysaria rides through King’s Landing, putting up her hood (likely so nobody sees her being shipped out of town, embarrassingly), while Rhaenyra is ferried through town by her soldiers. Mysaria, of note, uses the confusion to escape into the city. In the Queen’s litter, after seeing a “Queen of Bastards” graffiti, the Queen tells her bastard the Song of Ice and Fire prophecy that was passed to her by Viserys; slightly less solemnly, though. Side-Note: really cool eye makeup on Rhaenyra.
At the Great Sept, Rhaenyra enters with an army and confronts the High Septon (Simon Chandler), demanding she be anointed Queen. He refuses: Aegon has been chosen to rule. “I am queen,” Rhaenyra purrs, but the High Septon refuses, again. Alyn goes to kill him, but hesitates when he starts shouting about how his soul will be damned, but Rhaenyra echoes Daemon, telling him he is the “blood of Old Valyria.” While this does drive Alyn on to kill the High Septon, an act of war against the Faith, the bigger thing here is Rhaenyra making the decision that she doesn’t need them… She already has all the divine anointing she needs from her own blood and (incorrectly interpreted) prophecy.
While Alyn considers what he’s done, Rhaenyra exits to talk to the gathered, silent smallfolk. She begins reasonably enough, talking about how her rule was approved by her father and the Lords who supported him. But then things take a turn as she talks about the history of Old Valyria, the Doom, and transitions into the Song of Ice and Fire prophecy – taking Joffrey’s legacy from him and putting it on herself. While Orwyle and Master of Coin Torrhen Manderly (Dan Fogler) share a little “er, uhoh” glance when she starts talking about the White Walkers, she continues that she is the prince that was promised. And, well, we know she isn’t, that’s Jon Snow (Kit Harington) a century or so later. But the point here is that Rhaenyra is now high on her own supply, fully owning that she is the only one who can save everyone, when this course of action is clearly leading to her own doom.
Helaena cross-stitches her last, heading to the window to her room. And now self-anointed, Rhaenyra returns, only to discover that Helaena has found an exit, after all: death. And I could be wrong, but this sure looks like the same window that King Tommen (Dean Charles-Chapman) jumps out of in Game of Thrones Season 6 over a century later (and also the same window that Aegon masturbated out of in Season 1, but let’s not besmirch the moment).
Rhaenyra looks out the window, and as she does miles away Alicent sees butterflies swarming and flying away. If you’ll recall, earlier in the season Helaena commented on the caterpillars, and how it wasn’t time yet for them to be there. This is, in essence, Helaena metamorphosizing and becoming free, her spirit letting her mother know that she’s gone. We see Helaena, dead, impaled on the spikes outside the window (though it isn’t clear). Rhaenyra looks at the final cross-stitch, seeing Helaena predicting her own death, her dress forming a butterfly’s wings; and right before that Rhaenyra’s ascendance to Queen, holding a sword, fire and dragons behind her. Not insignificantly blood-red thread surrounds her like a cage. Accepting this destiny, Rhaenyra closes the window. She’s not interested in what beauty she can find outside. She’s done. She is Queen. Not Rhaenyra the Kind, but Rhaenyra the Cruel.
Harrenhal
Spooky castle time! Aemond is asleep, dreaming of burning Aegon. This likely is partially due to the poison Alicent gave him last episode, and ineffectively: he’s alive, and being tended to by an annoyed Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin).
As Aemond sits up, Alys explains that they are both alone in the world, but she doesn’t want to be – not anymore. Aemond, though, doesn’t understand why Alys cares. He thinks he’s a kinslayer after killing Aegon, and is finally starting to accept that he did something very, very wrong. He believes he should be left alone.
In answer, Alys lays out her origin story, starting with when the Dragon Balerion burned Harrenhal. Quick note about continuity here: this was during Aegon’s (the original one) conquest of Westeros, and we’re currently in about 132 AC (After Conquest). Meaning Alys is talking about events over 132 years prior. Anywho, she explains that after Lord Harren was killed, a son of his lived – though he was horribly burned. And the boy’s mother “would have given anything to save him.” She summoned Maesters, but nobody was able to help. “So she turned to older cures,” and “treated with things that lived in the forest. But none of it could unmake what dragon fire made.” The son died, and the mother tried to take her own life, “and that is when she learned the cost. She discovered then that she was cursed.” She was cursed to remain confined to the Riverlands, but was stripped of her name, title, and castle, and sentenced to serve any lord who came to rule Harrenhal.
So just to be uber-clear: Alys Rivers is the wife of Harren Hoare, the ruler of Harrenhal who was killed during Aegon’s Conquest, making her well over 132 years old. After making a deal with either the Children of the Forest, the Green Men, or both, she’s been cursed to live in Harrenhal forever. Now you know! That’s her deal! (Also it’s a clear parallel with Helaena’s story, as she in essence saves her own son by taking her life, something Alys was unable to do).
And with that confession, Aemond kisses her. She finally has a damaged son again, and Aemond finally has a mommy who will kiss him. Cute!
Back asleep, Aemond hears what sounds like a dragon landing… Is it Vhagar? Nope, it’s Aegon arriving on Sunfyre. The once and future king hobbles off his dragon and approaches his brother, and this is the scene that looks the most “shot on a soundstage” I’ve ever seen on this show; Aemond and Aegon seem to be floating in nothingness. Perhaps it’s meant to make us wonder if it’s a dream. But instead it just looks fake, sadly.
Anywho, Aegon comes in and immediately slaps Aemond, and says, “I’m allllliiive,” which is objectively hilarious, and it is nice to see these two awful people together again. Aegon was fully prepared to kill Aemond, but Aemond is on his knees, begging for forgiveness. Aegon tries to provoke Aemond, but the latter has changed, and admits to everything, accepting his sentence to die.
Alys, at that point, enters, and Aegon seems surprisingly uncurious about who she is. “Who is she?” he asks, to which Aemond says, “My betrothed,” which really gets Alys in the feels and weirds Aegon out. He ignores that, and instead sets out the plan. They’re finding Vhagar, spanking Daeron and Ormund, then heading everyone to King’s Landing under his banner to take out Rhaenyra. Things won’t quite turn out that way, but I guess we’ll have to wait until next season to find out what they’ll do once they find out Ormund is a crispy critter and Daeron is in the wind.
Tumbleton
Over in the little city causing big trouble, the troops are getting ready for the imminent attack, as Ormund is armored up and once again buttering up Daeron by telling him the whole army is for him. First, though, Daeron must be made a knight. He makes the young Targaryen kneel before him, and as he knights him we see scenes of Tumbleton preparing for the invasion. And Daeron, as we’ll see, really takes his duty to heart… He may know Ormund is wrong, but being told to protect the people and soldiers sticks with him.
Outside the city is Ulf’s dragon, so where’s Ulf? Getting wasted in a pub, yelling about the Targaryens, and giving up all of Ormund’s strategizing. He’s also gone full Men’s Rights, echoing Ormund’s misogynistic rants about Rhaenyra.
Meanwhile, on the ramparts Daeron and Gwayne (Freddie Fox) look out at the assembled armies of the Winter Wolves and Oscar Tully’s (Archie Barnes) men. Gwayne has mostly given up, but things get worse when it turns out that Ormund is putting children up front. Basically, if someone wants to use a dragon to burn the ramparts, they’re gonna kill a bunch of kids, and they know (or think) Rhaenyra doesn’t want to be known as a mass child murderer. While this plan is devious and horrible, another one is falling apart: Ulf is missing, so a frustrated Ormund sends his second-in-command Jon Roxton (Joplin Sibtain) out to search for him.
Daeron sees the kids, and decides he needs to fight for the men on his dragon, but Gwayne begs him not to die needlessly. Instead, seeing Daemon arrive on Caraxes, Gwayne comes up with another option: Corlys. Gwayne makes an offer to Corlys, to switch sides and pledge himself to Daeron. Corlys sticks to his honor, so they go with Option B.
Daemon gets on horseback and rides with Oscar and the head of the Winter Wolves, Roderick Dustin (Tommy Flanagan). They note that if it wasn’t for Criston Cole, they all would have been there earlier, with Daemon quipping, “So easy to forget about him. Do tell me how he died,” with Roderick answering, “badly.” Yowch!
That’s when Gwayne approaches, with Corlys in chains. Gwayne wants to make a deal… Corlys in exchange for peace, “at the behest of Daeron Targaryen.” Daemon isn’t hearing any of it, but Gwayne continues, offering that Rhaenyra can rule everywhere except Oldtown, where Daeron will be King. Corlys, surprisingly, sort of agrees. He offers up that since some of the houses believe a woman can’t rule, they should give Daeron Oldtown and name him “Lord Paramount of the Reach,” that he can be a warden to the South, and if he marries Rhaena it will “seal the breach” between Team Black and Team Green.
It’s actually a pretty good plan, except for one thing… Aegon. This is news to Gwayne, Corlys dismisses Aegon’s threat, and explains plainly that there are two paths before Daemon. One leads to a peaceful victory; the other to a “mountain of dead Hightowers.” And it’s pretty clear what Daemon, who has been champing at the bit all season wants, and it ain’t peace. He grabs Gwayne by the throat and explains that nobody will rule but Rhaenyra. He sends Gwayne back into the city, and holds Corlys as his prisoner.
Daemon then lays out the plan, which hinges (unfortunately) on Ulf, though he cautions everyone that they need to be careful with the townspeople as the realm is watching. “The queen’s moral standing must remain absolute,” he adds, which is when they find out that the battlements are stocked with children, so they come up with a new plan… Send the Winter Wolves over the walls, instead of burning them with dragons.
What follows is an enormous, nearly 20-minute-long battle scene which I could break down by being like “and then this happened and then this” but instead I’m going to try to bring you the broad strokes here.
The opening salvo? Roderick leads the Winter Wolves to first taunt and then attack the ramparts. And sure, plenty of them die in the process, but it’s basically zombie rules that the horde overwhelms; so eventually they do get on the walls, and climb them, while the children on the battlements sob and piss themselves (shouts to the director for not showing the face of the child who wets their pants so they won’t be embarrassed IRL with this footage for the rest of their life).
Inside the city, as the battle begins it seems Ulf has deserted, which annoys an exhausted Ormund. Further annoying? Discovering that King Daeron has been treating with the enemy, and released Corlys. It’s actually sort of spectacular how all season Ormund has been building this magnificent, intricate plan and then it completely falls apart while he wanders around Tumbleton searching for Ulf. Too bad, too, because he made an intriguing baddie for most of the episodes.
Naturally, Roderick gets up first, killing a bunch of dudes (including a kid who knocks him in the ankle), but isn’t able to stop the Hightower host from lighting up trenches, killing a bunch of folks. And outside, while Ulf is missing on both sides, Hugh arrives – he’s meant to be guarding King’s Landing, and that turns out to be Daemon’s last straw. He calls Caraxes, and does a Thanos “Fine, I’ll do it myself.” Approaching the Tumbleton gate, he burns the battlements, and some of Ormund’s Kids (worst charity ever?) are placed in front. Daemon tells them to get out of the way, and all but two of the children flee. So Daemon burninates them, with Caraxes’s head bursting through the gate and the army riding through, Hugh part of the host.
What’s next is chaos, with the Winter Wolves realizing they A) lost their main goal, to open the gate, and B) are still alive, which gets a hilarious groan from the warriors who want to die in glory. Roderick decides to go for Ormund, and as he chases him down they find Ulf, asleep on the toilet, pants down. Ormund wakes him up and smacks him; aka the one thing that Daemon did which won Ulf over to Ormund’s side. That won’t come back to haunt him, right?
Daemon, meanwhile, sees Ulf run by calling for his wife, Kat (Ellora Torchia), and in another darkly comic moment gives a bit of a “I can’t even with this right now” look. Instead, he turns back to the fight looking for Ormund, only to encounter Jon Roxton. I gotta be honest here: how was this fight so even? I don’t know how much we want to talk about power-scaling as it relates to House of the Dragon, but Daemon is the baddest of dudes in the Seven Kingdoms. That Roxton proceeds to almost beat him, almost take out his eye (anyone else thought Daemon was about to become even more like Aemond?)… It’s all a little bizarre. Daemon does live, and so does Jon Roxton. But it’s not like this guy is the Mountain or anything, he’s just a large dude who works for Ormund. (And as a side note, I’ve been told he is way more fleshed out in the book, but I’ll remind you that we’re watching a TV show here and thus far Jon Roxton has stood there and glowered).
Outside, Ulf walks with Ormund’s soldiers, who slit Daemon’s page’s throat while he gets on his dragon. And inside, Daeron is getting ready to ride his own dragon to protect his men, while Gwayne urges him, once again, to flee. Gwayne calls on Criston, noting that he knew other men who died for glory, and nothing was gained from it. Which is when they hear Ulf riding towards them. Daemon’s men cheer on Ulf’s dragon, but they’re a little premature there as he turns the beast around and starts frying his own troops. Corlys, seeing this, runs for his life, and it’s anarchy as Ulf burns the army. Daeron and Gwayne see this happening, realizing this is the secret Ormund has been hiding, and suddenly have hope they might survive. As if!
Heading to the battlements, Ormund is emboldened as well, but Roderick has his sights on him. They fight, with Ormund getting the upper hand – no pun intended, impaling him and chopping Roderick’s arm off. Seeing the severed arm, hilariously our lil pukey princess starts retching, which gives Roderick enough time to fight back, stabbing Ormund right up the butt. “That’s a proper f**king… By the North,” coos Roderick, positively gleeful. Which is when Ulf turns towards Tumbleton, somehow spotting Ormund from hundreds of feet in the air.
“F**k you too,” says Ulf, frying a horrified Ormund, and much to Roderick’s utter delight, him too, giving him the glorious death he desires. Ulf continues, destroying Tumbleton. Who will this be blamed on? The Hightowers? Rhaenyra? Ulf? Nobody? We’ll have to wait until next season for that, as well.
While Ulf continues to burninate the peasants, Daemon wakes up, stunned, the whole town covered in smoke and fire. Jon Roxton has seemingly fled, and Daemon looks around at the destruction – realizing that this is exactly what Rhaenyra did not want, forced to face what he’s been asking for all season in the worst way possible. Corlys finds Daemon as he’s chopping through enemy soldiers, and they leave. Ulf is chased off by Caraxes and Hugh’s dragon, Vermithor, while below the town burns.
Elsewhere, Gwayne pulls himself along the ground, looking for Daeron. Jon Roxton, Daemon’s blood still on his sword, finds Ormund’s burned body. And Hugh finds Kat, dead as well. He screams.
…And that’s it! Technically the stuff with Helaena and Rhaenyra happens afterwards, but we leave the season with a lot of pieces still in play on the board, though it sure seems the season’s main threat, the Hightowers, have been effectively neutered. But what of everyone else? Will Hugh leave the service of the Queen? Is Ulf as good as dead? And what will Aegon and Aemond do now that they’re riding together?
Most importantly, what will happen with Rhaenyra and Alicent? That is the core relationship, the heart of the show, and ultimately landing that particular ship far outweighs who is sitting on the Iron Throne at the end of the series. Right now with Rhaenyra unsalvageable and Alicent literally lost in the woods, the two couldn’t be farther apart. How they’ll get back to together, and how things will wrap up?
We’ll see in 2028, when it all ends on the final season of House of the Dragon.
House Of The Dragon Season 3 Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
New episodes of House of the Dragon premiere Sundays on HBO and HBO Max at 9 p.m. ET. Here’s what we expect from the full list of episodes in House of the Dragon Season 3 with premiere dates.
- Sunday, June 21, 2026: House of the Dragon, Season 3, Episode 1
- Sunday, June 28, 2026: House of the Dragon, Season 3, Episode 2
- Sunday, July 5, 2026: House of the Dragon, Season 3, Episode 3
- Sunday, July 12, 2026: House of the Dragon, Season 3, Episode 4
- Sunday, July 19, 2026: House of the Dragon, Season 3, Episode 5
- Sunday, July 26, 2026: House of the Dragon, Season 3, Episode 6
- Sunday, August 2, 2026: House of the Dragon, Season 3, Episode 7
- Sunday, August 9, 2026: House of the Dragon, Season 3, Episode 8 *Season Finale*
Where To Watch House Of The Dragon
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You are seriously missing out on a lot of criticisms from book readers that are not about adaptation.
They are about things not making sense. Personally I loved the change they did making Nettles Rhaena. It was a good change.
But the rest of it, it feels so contrived. Ormund for instance, a caricatured all powerful villian knowing all about the comings and goings in King’s Landing, is able to kill Gold Cloaks in broad daylight with nobody doing anything about it. Isn’t he just a bookworm from Oldtown? How is this character able to pull this off under Mysaria’s nose, under Daemon’s nose? The Rhaenyra arc, the Alicent arc and hare brained schemes, the Daemon arc. So many things here, I hate them because they don’t make sense, not because they are different from the books. It feels so, so contrived.
The Prince that was Promised are Jon Snow and Daenerys. And possibly a third person (“Three heads has the dragon”.)