“House of the Dragon” Season 3, Episode 3, “Rhaenyra Triumphant,” begins with Daemon confronting Ormund Hightower, backed by the dragonseeds and their dragons. Otto Hightower is dead, and Rhaenyra is on the throne, Daemon tells him. Ormund makes a show of being ready to fight, but he submits. Before Ormund rides home, Daemon demands that he hand over Alicent’s youngest son, Daeron. Rhaenyra is now victorious and wants to stage a grand coronation, but she lacks the funds.
She takes her place on the Iron Throne with relatively few people present and no ceremony at all. She is distant and distracted as she hears the petitions of the smallfolk. It is a little anticlimactic, one of the bigger surprises in the episode, given this moment has been 20 episodes in the making. She must now rule, but she is consumed with worry over dragons and threats to her crown. She says she will never have justice. [Kevin: confirm this line.] Do you think Rhaenyra thought ruling would be like this?
Rhaenyra Is Victorious
In “House of the Dragon” Season 3, Episode 3, Rhaenyra is the undisputed queen, at least on paper. She spends the episode consolidating her rule by rooting out her enemies and searching for her gold. However, she is hampered by becoming ever more paranoid and obsessed with dragons. Sheepstealer is still on the loose. [Kevin: “Vaegar” is not a dragon in the series. Confirm which other dragon you mean, or cut it.]
It is amusing that she makes Ulf, Hugh and Addam of Hull knights in the midst of hearing many petitions. She knights Addam as “of Hull” rather than giving him the Velaryon name, and Lord Corlys is furious. She also seeks advice from Alicent on how to handle the demands of being queen. Then she arranges a banquet for the nobles. She has the servants bring them rats, because they hoarded food while the people in the city starved. She tells them her Gold Cloaks are searching their houses for all they have stored away.
There Is No Money
The gold needed to pay for a proper coronation is not in the treasury. Tyland Lannister sent it out of the city for safekeeping, and Lord Jasper Wylde may have known where it went. Tyland is presumed dead after the Battle of the Gullet, and Daemon beheaded Jasper in the previous episode, so the whereabouts of the treasury are a mystery. This is the subject of the Small Council meeting right after Rhaenyra meets young Daeron Targaryen. She, Mysaria, Daemon, Lord Corlys and Grand Maester Orwyle are discussing the problem. Rhaenyra does not fully trust her advisers.
Rhaenyra insists she must have a coronation. Mysaria, the White Worm, suggests that an opulent coronation would upset the people, who are hungry. Rhaenyra decides to send ravens to every castle in the realm to demand tribute.
She confronts Alicent and Helaena and pointedly asks them where the gold is. Alicent says that Lord Jasper would know, but he is dead and cannot speak. [Kevin: other recaps give this line to the Grand Maester and say Aegon’s council kept Alicent out of the loop. Confirm who says it.] The whereabouts of the gold is an important story in “House of the Dragon” Season 3, Episode 3. She also asks where Aegon is and wants to eliminate all threats to her rule. The High Septon tells her that since Aegon was anointed king only months before, she cannot be. She needs Aegon declared dead, ideally with his body in the castle so the Silent Sisters can tend to him. She is warned not to make an enemy of the Faith.
Final Analysis: How to Deal With Disappointment
The main theme of the episode is Rhaenyra struggling with the burdens of rule, now that she is queen. She has few funds, hears many petitions from the smallfolk and is advised by several confidants whom she only partly trusts. She is obsessed with dragons and paranoid about threats to her new rule, like the one from Ormund Hightower, who deceived her by sending an impostor in place of Daeron Targaryen. She discovers the impostor only near the end of the episode, when Alicent does not recognize the boy. Soon after, she learns the Hightower army has seized the town of Tumbleton and taken its people hostage. She is having trouble sleeping and is trying anything she can to secure her rule. It is quite disappointing to her. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.
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