House of the Dragon Season 3 Review (1-3 episodes)

The third season of House of the Dragon has officially premiered. The most anticipated fantasy series is back on screens and, judging by all signs, in its best shape yet. Critics who have already seen the show are rushing to award it the highest scores. The first episode left me with plenty of impressions as well, and this is only the warm-up. In this article, I will provide brief reviews of every episode, covering all the important details without missing anything.

I'll try to avoid major spoilers, but completely avoiding them won't be possible. You've been warned!

The first episode immediately throws us into the thick of the action. Season 2 ended with a huge question mark. Alicent offered to surrender King's Landing to Rhaenyra Targaryen if she spared her children. The terms seem ideal, as neither of the former friends truly wants unnecessary bloodshed. However, as is often the case in the world of George R. R. Martin, chance intervenes. King Aegon, wounded by a dragon in Season 2 and serving as Rhaenyra's primary rival for the Iron Throne, was supposed to become a bargaining chip in a peace agreement. Instead, he escapes the palace on his own. This sets off a chain of events that causes Alicent's plan to unravel, and she no longer has time to warn the dragon queen.

Meanwhile, Lady Hightower's second son, the one-eyed Aemond, has tasted power and completely lost his grip on reality. Not only does he see his brother's escape as an opportunity to seize the throne, but he also, rather unexpectedly, appears to have designs on his own mother. The infamous Targaryen madness is flourishing before our eyes.

A few minutes are devoted to Daemon, whose role in the second season proved controversial. Rhaenyra's uncle and husband spent much of his time wandering through visions of an existential crisis and speaking with a witch who may or may not have been real. Now, however, the story has reached the point of open war. Another battle is already drawing to a close when unexpected allies finally arrive to join Daemon, allies whose involvement in the Dance of the Dragons has long been anticipated: the Starks.

Still, I wouldn't dismiss Daemon's Season 2 storyline entirely. Recent reports revealed that the show's head showrunner decided to deviate from Martin's source material, sparking considerable controversy. The latest trailers have already hinted that Rhaenyra's position will once again become unstable. It is entirely possible that Daemon will emerge as a more appealing leader in the eyes of the Blacks. He fights and bleeds alongside them, forges alliances, and leads from the front. Meanwhile, the queen continues to remain behind castle walls.

These are merely background details for now, but they will undoubtedly become important later. The episode focuses on the Battle of the Gullet, a conflict familiar to every fan of the books. It is one of the bloodiest naval engagements of the Dance of the Dragons, where the Velaryon fleet clashes with the Triarchy, an alliance of the three Free Cities: Myr, Lys, and Tyrosh. The creators promised something spectacular. Not only is the royal fleet commanded by Admiral Corlys Velaryon himself, but dragons are also expected to join the battle.

To some extent, those promises are fulfilled. The battle is memorable and visually impressive. It is one of the largest conflicts seen in either Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon, yet the creators once again play tricks with scale. For most of the episode, we only see two ships: Corlys's flagship and that of his main opponent, Triarchy admiral Sharako Lohar. Everything else unfolds somewhere in the distance, in the background, something attentive viewers are unlikely to miss. This is not The Lord of the Rings, but at least it no longer resembles a brawl in a swimming pool. That's progress.

The dragons add another layer to the spectacle. Rhaenyra herself was supposed to come to Corlys's aid, but in the end it is her son Jacaerys and Daemon's eldest daughter from his previous marriage, Baela, who take flight. At this point, it's worth remembering a storyline that slowly developed throughout Season 2. Baela's sister, Rhaena, struggled to find a dragon of her own. For a Targaryen, that is practically the equivalent of being branded an outcast, so the young woman suffered greatly because of it.

At the end of the previous season, Rhaena set out to tame a wild dragon roaming the countryside, and in the very first episode we see how that storyline concludes. The dragon does indeed bond with the princess, but it has never been trained to obey commands in Valyrian and responds poorly to orders. Rhaena sends her newly acquired winged companion into the Battle of the Gullet without proper preparation, leading to disastrous consequences. The sequence is presented in an emotional and even logical manner, though the decision itself is undeniably foolish. The consequences of Rhaena's choice will almost certainly come back to haunt her in the future. It will be interesting to see just how severely.

The duel between Corlys and Sharako, however, could have been more compelling. Overall, it is a well-directed confrontation, if not for one major issue: at the decisive moment, Corlys is swept into the sea, and his fate becomes unknown. The admiral completely disappears from the screen despite not being seriously injured, and his place in the story is taken by Alyn, the Velaryon bastard. It is this young man who ends up claiming the entire climax that should have belonged to his noble-born father.

Elsewhere, the show is still building momentum, and it is too early to discuss the arcs of many other characters. The second episode promises plenty of drama and surprises, as King Aegon will likely come face to face with Rhaenyra, albeit under very different circumstances. What will come of it remains impossible to predict. As I mentioned earlier, the series is following its own path, making the source material an unreliable guide. Still, there is once again a reason to look forward to Mondays. Hopefully, the creators have learned from past mistakes and are ready to surprise viewers. This time, for all the right reasons.

It was obvious that after the massive Battle of the Gullet, the next episode would take a timeout from epic showdowns. The characters needed time and space to process the fallout. Rhaenyra faces yet another loss, one that heavily impacts the morale of the Blacks. Still, Targaryen madness continues to bypass the Queen. Despite all the upheaval, she remains a level-headed woman. Daenerys, for example, went off the deep end over far smaller losses.

Here I want to pause and give credit to Emma D'Arcy, whose acting remains flawless. That said, her portrayal of the Queen is drifting further and further away from the Rhaenyra we saw in Season 1. The sharp-witted girl who was bored at official functions and desperate to break every rule is long gone. The current Rhaenyra often comes across as weak and vulnerable. On one hand, that makes sense. She's a woman and a mother who's been through horrific trials. On the other hand, Rhaenyra should have grown into a far more hardened ruler—not heartless, but dangerous and commanding.

All those qualities are now embodied by Daemon. The Queen's husband is forced to rush back from the battlefield to support his beloved niece and help her do the one thing that matters: take King's Landing. Alicent didn't lie and did everything to uphold her end of the deal, so Aemond and his massive dragon Vhagar abandon the capital, leaving it defenseless. This is Rhaenyra's perfect moment, and Daemon urges her to seize it, despite her grief and inner fracture.

In parallel, we only briefly touch on the fates of Rhaena and Rhaenyra's rival, Aegon. The former continues her streak of questionable — though understandable — decisions and flees Dragonstone to escape Rhaenyra's wrath. The show practically ignores the fact that it was for the Queen that the young girl had been taming Sheepstealer in the first place, but now her prospects are murky. None of the lords want to help her, so Rhaena will apparently live side by side with the dragon like a wildling for a while. I really hope her storyline doesn't end here, because otherwise it'll be another one-off shocker — the kind the finale of the original Game of Thrones was guilty of: pull off one sudden, jaw-dropping move to advance the plot, then conveniently vanish into thin air.

Aegon's fate is far more intriguing. During the Triarchy's attack on the convoy, the crippled king manages to escape captivity. This automatically nullifies all of Alicent's attempts to end the conflict. If Aegon reaches his loyal allies, the war will reignite with renewed ferocity, since he never actually abdicated.

As I suspected, Corlys Velaryon, though washed overboard during the Battle of the Gullet, survived. He effectively legitimized his bastards as Velaryons by acknowledging kinship, which opens up real prospects for Alyn to become a proper lord. The Sea Snake probably won't play a major role this season — his arc will likely focus on securing those succession rights. But in the fourth episode, Alyn is definitely set to become a key figure in the conflict.

Speaking of the conflict: the taking of King's Landing was spectacular. Four dragons circle above the city, and the castle's inhabitants make one final choice of sides. It was emotional and yet grounded — true to the best traditions of the House of the Dragon world. Still, the creators couldn't resist a twist, so in the finale we get the return of one of the most important characters from earlier seasons. His death becomes yet another obstacle to the pact between Alicent and Rhaenyra — even though both should understand that there was no other way out of that situation.

Without spoiling too much, I'm genuinely afraid that the entire conflict of House of the Dragon will boil down to two emotional women who can't put global interests above personal feelings. The final seconds of the episode practically scream that something like that is coming, but I'll believe until the very end that the real problem will be the surviving Aegon and his one-eyed brother. That would make far more sense.

Also, the creators keep pushing the storyline with the mysterious witch who appeared out of nowhere and is already dictating terms. Daemon rightly reminds her that help alone isn't enough to claim the reward she's counting on. The world operates by certain rules, and some things just don't work. You can't, for instance, simply hand over lordship of a territory to a woman with no lineage or noble name. This is somehow framed as a major point of conflict and Daemon's betrayal, even though it's obvious that the situation is a bit more complicated.

In the end, it's the witch who will decide the fate of one-eyed Aemond. It'll be incredibly frustrating if she saves the mad Targaryen simply because the other one didn't promise her a castle.

King's Landing, despite the importance of the events depicted, ended up being a breather episode. A lot of screen time is devoted to the characters' emotional turmoil and inner conflicts. Still, it remains engaging to watch. The situation keeps tightening, and it's hard to predict how it will all end.

The third episode of House of the Dragon is entirely devoted to the dragon queen's first days on the Iron Throne in King's Landing. It's an interesting turn of events because, in more conventional fantasy stories, we're used to everything turning out fine after the hero wins. House of the Dragon, however, continues to present a far more realistic view of what comes next.

It turns out that taking the throne is much easier than holding onto it. The castle has been neglected for months, rats are everywhere, and they're happily feasting on what remains of the food supplies. Rhaenyra's blockade, which was meant to undermine the people's trust in the Hightowers, has drained the resources of both the wealthy and the poor. Now the queen is forced to deal with the consequences. Matters become even worse when she discovers that the royal treasury is nearly empty.

To her own surprise, Rhaenyra realizes that her experience as a ruler falls well short of Alicent's. That realization forces the dragon queen to seek advice from her former sworn enemy. At the same time, King's Landing is in a genuinely dire state, and it's difficult to predict how she intends to solve its many problems. Once again, the script draws a clear contrast between Daemon's and Rhaenyra's approaches. He wants to send the dragons off on further conquests and worry little about the condition of the people, while she tries to restore the spirit and style of governance practiced by her father, Viserys, when the realm prospered. Once again, we're reminded that the queen's husband feels far more at home on the battlefield than in the council chamber.

Rhaenyra's mental state is also put to the test. She has never truly processed the loss of her second son and heir, and now those suppressed emotions are catching up with her. Sitting on the throne means constantly deciding whose requests to deny and whose to grant. For the first time, we see clear examples that the Blacks are far from being the unquestionable good guys in this story.

Corlys Velaryon asks permission to legitimize his bastard sons and officially acknowledge them as members of his family. The previous two episodes seemed to build toward this moment, making the decision appear obvious. Yet Rhaenyra unexpectedly refuses, fearing public condemnation. She also refuses to let Alicent leave with her daughter, effectively keeping her as a hostage. Finally, the queen takes Alicent's son away from his uncle after Daemon forces the latter to surrender. The Hightowers are promised that the boy will remain unharmed, but almost immediately Daemon advises Rhaenyra to have him killed, since he is a direct rival in the struggle for the throne.

Alicent's son is also at the center of the episode's biggest surprise. It appears that the former dowager queen's brother will become Rhaenyra's primary adversary in the coming episodes. The preview for Episode 4 strongly hints at this as well.

At this point, the season's direction seems fairly clear. Viserys's daughter arrived in King's Landing as the people's liberator, but harsh realities will force her to tighten her grip on power just as the Hightowers did before her. Predictably, this will breed resentment. She has already alienated the nobility, and the common folk are likely to follow. The outcome of such a conflict is not difficult to foresee. The people may once again turn toward the Greens, especially since the Hightowers command a formidable army. The war is not only far from over, it may not even be close to its final act.

That said, the episode isn't without some questionable creative decisions. For some reason, the audience is explicitly told that Rhaenyra has started her menstrual cycle. While this undoubtedly makes her situation even more difficult, there is honestly no compelling reason to emphasize such a physiological detail. The audience already understands perfectly well how overwhelming her circumstances are. It's difficult to explain why the writers chose to include this. Perhaps it's meant as a nod to feminism, emphasizing that being a queen is fundamentally different from being a king, even in matters like these. It's not a bad idea in itself, but the execution feels rather clumsy and awkward.

Still, the episode's most significant moment is contained within a single line of dialogue, and many viewers may not even notice it. Daemon tells his wife that Aegon's dragon, Sunfyre, is dead and already decomposing. In the source material, Sunfyre survives his injuries, recovers after a long period of healing, and ultimately plays a decisive role. The Targaryen civil war was always meant to end with the dragon queen being devoured by Aegon's dragon. This outcome is even mentioned in one of the episodes of Game of Thrones. But now the canon has changed. No one knows what will become of Rhaenyra or how this conflict will ultimately end. This may well be one of the reasons behind George R. R. Martin's reported disagreement with the show's creators.

On the one hand, such a change could significantly increase audience interest. On the other hand, there's no guarantee that the show's ending won't end up resembling the controversial finale of Game of Thrones. Creative liberties taken by filmmakers sometimes come at a very high cost. If that happens, Martin will be the one left standing, because he has already finished telling this story.

Another undeniable strength of the episode is its music. The sound design perfectly underscores the moments when Rhaenyra seems ready to snap and burn alive anyone standing in the way of her ambitions. This growing tension and psychological fracture could eventually lead her down a path similar to Daenerys's descent into madness in the final season of Game of Thrones. Several shots deliberately draw visual parallels between the two Targaryens. At the same time, the creators cleverly play with audience expectations, subtly suggesting that Rhaenyra is still far from becoming her distant descendant. During the banquet with the nobility, experienced viewers may expect something reminiscent of the Red Wedding, but no. The scene ends with nothing more than the queen's speech.

Episode 3 of House of the Dragon creates an unexpected intrigue and completely rewrites established canon. That's an impressive achievement for what initially appears to be a filler episode where, on the surface, very little happens. So far, the show continues to earn its excellent ratings, and I share the audience's enthusiasm. Despite a few rough edges and some debatable writing choices, there hasn't been a single episode that could truly be called skippable or insignificant. That's already a considerable step forward compared to the previous season.