House of the Dragon: War is imminent as the Targaryens and the Hightowers prepare for a battle that will define all of Westeros
HBO’s House of the Dragons returns with the third episode of its action-packed second season, teasing that a full-scale war is looming.
The new episode runs for a whopping one hour and ten minutes and sets the context for the war to come.
The trailer for this episode showed soldiers from both the Targaryens and Hightowers gathering as the battle drew closer.
Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) says she has “lost my throne and I want it back,” while still mourning the death of her son Lucerys.
The new season has been shortened slightly: from 10 episodes in the first season to only 8 in season 2.
HBO’s House of the Dragons returns with the third episode of its action-packed second season, announcing that a full-scale war is coming.
HBO’s House of the Dragons returns with the third episode of its action-packed second season, teasing that a full-scale war is looming
The episode opens with four soldiers standing in a field talking. When someone starts shouting, it turns out to be rival soldiers.
They are told not to move the boundary stones because they both have a claim to the land they are standing on.
One says Rhaenyra is a ‘baby killer’, while the other says Aegon is not a real king.
One draws his sword while the others laugh, though we later see them and many other soldiers dead on that same field after the impending battle.
Meanwhile, Rhaenyra buries the twins Eryck and Aryck – the former had been sent to kill her.
Rhaenys (Eve Best) says that Otto Hightower would never have ordered this, adding: ‘Soon they won’t even remember how the war started in the first place.
Rhaenys thinks they can stop the road by going through Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), although Rhaenyra disagrees.
“Alicent is in King’s Landing. Her son sits on my throne. There is nothing more to say,” Raenyra says.
Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) – the new Hand of the King – is late to a small council meeting when the king is told of the first battle, which was won in the king’s favor.
‘Call it what you want. I call it war, and so does Dragonstone. The real question is, what are we going to do about it?’ says Aegon.
They suggest writing to Lord Tully, but others think he is worthless as they continue to argue.
Cole says that the Riverlands are the “key to the war” and that he will use it to his advantage, or he will take Harenhaal himself.
Cole says that the Gods favor the bold, but Alicent thinks that the Gods did not favor Aryk as King Aegon fools them by saying he will fly away with Cole.
HBO’s House of the Dragons returns with the third episode of its action-packed second season, teasing that a full-scale war is looming.
The series is set 200 years before the events of HBO’s flagship series Game of Thrones, and 100 years after House Targaryen’s rule over Westeros.
By the end of Season 1, King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) had died, leaving his only son, Aegon II, claiming the Iron Throne.
Rhaenyra felt she had a right to the throne when House Targaryen became divided between factions led by Rhaenyra and Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), Rhaenyra’s former best friend and wife of King Viserys.
The Season 2 premiere saw a slight drop in ratings, with 7.8 million people watching the series across all platforms last week.
That number was a 22% drop from the 10 million viewers who watched the series premiere in August 2022.
The decline was attributed to linear viewing, those who watched the episode live on HBO, which was 1 million less than the series premiere.
The second episode of Season 1 even rose to 10.2 million, representing a series peak, with 9.3 million viewers watching the Season 1 finale.
Sunday’s season two debut was written by showrunner Ryan Condal and directed by Alan Taylor, who previously directed episodes of Game of Thrones, as well as HBO classics such as Boardwalk Empire, Sex and the City, The Sopranos and the prequel film The Many Saints of Newark.
The series is set 200 years before the events of HBO’s flagship series Game of Thrones, and 100 years after House Targaryen’s rule over Westeros.
The new episode, which lasts no less than one hour and ten minutes, forms the basis for the coming war.
The show’s second season began with a revised opening credits sequence that was noticeably different from the one that aired in the show’s first season.
The first season of House of the Dragon featured an animated opening that incorporated Old Valyria into a stone model.
It was presided over by the late King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine). It featured red blood flowing through the streets of Valyria, with symbolism referencing the Targaryen leaders.
House of the Dragon airs new episodes on Sundays at 9:00 PM ET/6:00 PM PT, only on HBO.