Special thanks to HBO for advance screeners of House of the Dragon.
Trigger warning: Anxiety will be talked about in this review.
Episode three of House of the Dragon opens with Rhaenyra (Emma D’arcy) finally sitting on the throne. What came with that throne would be a shock to Rhaenyra, many of the problems of the realm coming to Rhaenyra for a solution. Rhaenyra constantly gives out orders, but, still it is falling on deaf ears. Emma does an excellent job showing just what anxiety looks like. It had my anxiety coming out a bit, because I was worried about how Rhaneyra will be adapting to being on the throne.
When Rhaenyra comes to terms with her anxiety, she seeks out Alicent (Olivia Cooke) for advice. Alicent explains that it is tough being on the throne. Being thrust into things that neither King nor Queen might not want to do. Alicent reminisces on how Rhaenyra’s father, Viserys(Paddy Considine), had to handle many of the problems. Rhaenyra understands and rushes out to get her thoughts together. One other thing to be noted during the episode is the rats. It is a huge problem in the castle they are in, and Rhaneyra is quite annoyed with them constantly running around. Rhaenyra still has not dealt fully with Jace’s death, and it totally shows as being on the throne weighs upon her. Rhaenyra also has some money issues, because she asks where all the money went before King Viserys died. Alicent said she does not know what happened to it.
Final Thoughts:
This episode really shows where Rhaenyra’s head is at. Ulf (Tom Bennett), Hugh (Kieran Bew), and Addam (Clinton Liberty) come back to talk to Rhaneyra, and take the oath. Rhaeyra definitely has goes through so many emotions during this episode. Corlys (Steve Toussaint) and Rhaneyra get into an argument, about giving Addam a rightful name. Corlys points out that her sons were not legitimate either, and calls her out on it. Mostly having anxious feelings as trying to rule Kings Landing and the surrounding areas that need to be ruled over. I really liked this episode, regardless of feelings of anxiety came up many times. In the back of my mind, I want Rhaneyra to do well as queen. Rhaenyra tries to lean on Daemon (Matt Smith). who is there for her. Of course Daemon usually has his own agenda during many of these episodes. I love that they talk to each other in High Valeryian. In the end of this episode, it seems that Rhaneyra is finding the footing needed to be on the throne. Overall this episode was a nice little preview of seeing the hesitant Rhaenyra being front and center. I can not wait to see what happens in episode four.
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