“House of the Dragon” Episode 3 Review: Daemon’s Legendary Battle With the Crabfeeder
“House of the Dragon,” the third episode, is fascinating. This is mainly because of Daemon Targaryen. In this episode, he rides a dragon to the Stepstones and shows his bravery by eventually defeating the troublesome Crabfeeder. However, this dramatic battle is not the only storyline of the episode. There is a strange one.
The second main story of the episode is that Princess Rhaenyra and her knight Ser Criston Cole are sleeping out in the woods. As they sleep, the princess is attacked by a wild boar. Criston manages to slay the beast, while Rhaenyra stabs it repeatedly with a knife, spraying herself in blood in the process. Do you think wild boars attack?
“House of the Dragon” Episode 3 Review
In the third episode of the first season of “House of the Dragon,” we are introduced to the power of dragons, and there is a second story that tells us more about Princess Rhaenyra. She is out hunting with Ser Criston Cole. He is a member of the knights’ watch whom she picked to protect her. While they sleep in the woods, they are attacked by a wild boar. Ser Criston, who becomes an important character in the show, slays the beast, and she stabs it several times, splattering herself with the blood.
Is Jason Lannister a Potential Husband?
Princess Rhaenyra meets Jason Lannister the next day. He tries to woo her, flexing his power and calling Rhaenyra his queen…and potential wife. She rejects him, and proves that she will be hard to woo. Her bethrothal becomes a major story and a major preoccupation of her father, King Viserys. It seems that if he could not produce a male heir, perhaps she will (she eventually does).
However, in this episode she spurns potential mates and arranged marriages. In fact, she fights with the King about it in this episode. However, there is no shortage of scheming on the part of members of the small council to marry the Princess off. One of the culprits is Otto Hightower himself, the Hand of the King.
Dragons and the Crabfeeder
As the episode continues, we see the destructive power of dragons and why the people of Westeros are so troubled by them. This is the second big story of the “House of the Dragon” episode. Daemon rides into the stalemated battle against the Crabfeeder on his Dragon. The Crabfeeder is dug in, and himself ensconsed in a cave. Daemon shows his bravery in the stalemated, years-long fight with the enemy.
Ultimately, the battle is resolved in a dramatic scene. Daemon approaches the cave of the Crabfeeder holding a white flag of surrender. That is a ruse. As some of the Crabfeeder’s soldiers, called sellswords, approach Daemon, he kills them with a concealed knife. Archers then open fire, and Daemon is hit by one of the arrows. Just as the sellswords come out to surround Daemon, Corlys shows up with his army, and they (and Daemon) kill many of the sellsword army. As the battle rages, Daemon’s Dragon arrives and burns the sellsword army. Daemon pursues the Crabfeeder into a cave and emerges with his head.
Final Verdict: Episode Three “House of the Dragon”
This is an important episode of “House of the Dragon.” The primary importance of the episode comes from the fact that we are introduced to dragons in the episode, which Daemon uses to defeat the Crabfeeder. The other interesting story in this episode is the potential marriage of Princess Rhaenyra. She resists all political arrangements, and her father, the King, in the end, wants her to be happy, the episode suggests. In this episode, she seems not to know what she wants, which will be a recurring theme.
You can watch this and other episodes of “House of the Dragon” on HBO Max
