Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for House of the Dragon season 3, episode 8.The House of the Dragon season 3 finale pushes Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) into Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) territory, with some unfortunate similarities to Game of Thrones season 8. Seven years later, Dany’s fate still casts a shadow over HBO’s Westeros franchise. Her descent into becoming the so-called Mad Queen, before being killed by Jon Snow in the series finale, was one of the major reasons the final episodes of Thrones sparked such a vitriolic backlash. But House of the Dragon was supposed to be different.
This was a chance to learn from the mistakes that hurt Game of Thrones. There would, inevitably, be comparisons between Rhaenyra and Daenerys. After all, both are silver-haired, dragon-riding Targaryens who believe the Iron Throne is both their birthright and their destiny. I knew, thanks to George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, that Rhaenyra would not just be a straightforward hero, and that there’d be some major perception shifts to come, but it’s how they play out that causes the problems.
The ending to House of the Dragon season 3 is what really sees Rhaenyra take her biggest steps to becoming the show’s de facto villain, or at least (and really, more importantly) being perceived as such. With the death of Helaena Targaryen by suicide, which comes after Rhaenyra’s cruel treatment of her (and others) in the installment, it makes it clear that she has now crossed the Rubicon, but that journey could’ve been better executed.
Rhaenyra Follows Daenerys To Become House Of The Dragon’s Targaryen Villain
Rhaenyra’s apparent villain turn comes via several key interactions throughout the finale. She’s callous toward Baela Targaryen, saying she should’ve abandoned her after the Battle of the Gullet, and does not care about saving Corlys Velaryon or the others at Tumbleton. Later, she attempts to send Mysaria away. But it’s the scenes with Helaena that really cement it, given she is one of the show’s most innocent and more purely “good” characters.
Initially, she tries to play to Helaena’s concern for her unborn child, but later she becomes much more cruel about it. She has Helaena force-fed, and thus basically tortured, and at the end of the episode, when Helaena has taken her own life, she just shuts the window before it cuts to black. With Ormund killed, and Aegon having been portrayed in a more sympathetic light across season 3, the implication is clear: Rhaenyra is the show’s main villain now.
The specifics are different, but some of the methodology here is out of the same playbook as Daenerys’ arc. They’re two people who have been transformed by extreme losses and grief, which has given way to fear and paranoia even with those closest to them. At the same time, though, they’re confident in their approach because of a belief in their destiny and divinity, both for the Iron Throne and (to varying degrees) to be the Prince That Was Promised.
Rhaenyra’s Turn Has The Same Problem As Daenerys’ Game Of Thrones Ending
There is not an inherent problem with Rhaenyra becoming a villain, just like there wasn’t with Daenerys. Sure, there will be some who refuse to accept it no matter what, but it is an interesting arc and, in House of the Dragon‘s case, one that was expected. In the book, where Rhaenyra is presented in a far more negative light due to the biases of those writing the story, she is a lot less likable and sympathetic anyway, but even still the people of King’s Landing do eventually turn against her.
It’s been coming, and a lot of the storyline has worked, but the problem is how fast things just progressed. The show has done a good job of showing both her paranoia, disorientation, and increasing God complex across the past couple of seasons, but now that it’s arrived at the season 3 finale, it’s jumped ahead. I feel like I’ve missed a couple of episodes that would’ve properly bridged things from episode 7, where she’s at least keeping up a pretense with Helaena and having sex with Mysaria, to now where she’s being monstrously cruel and sending her lover away.
It isn’t that it’s completely out of character – this is the arc that has been building, and Helaena’s comments about the things Rhaenyra loves being ugly make sense – but it’s as though instead of following the path they were laying out, the writers decided to jump several steps ahead. That is, really, the crux of the problem with Daenerys’ story as well: it was never that her turn was the wrong decision or that there was no set-up for it, but it needed more time for it to land and feel like it was fully earned, and so audiences could understand it properly.
What’s particularly frustrating in this case is that it had laid some strong foundations, but then decided to build a house out of cardboard. Something like season 3, episode 3 is a perfect example: for me, this is one of the strongest episodes of the entire series, and at that point the insight into Rhaenyra’s psyche suggested that we’d get much more depth into what promised to be a very patient, developed progression to her more villainous turn. While things mounted up, so no one can say this is surprising, it hasn’t done enough to make this shift not abrupt.
There’s Still Time For House Of The Dragon To Fix Its Rhaenyra Problem
Fortunately, House of the Dragon does still have time on its side, something that Game of Thrones didn’t have. Daenerys burned King’s Landing in the penultimate episode of the show, whereas there is still an entire fourth season to come to add to Rhaenyra’s story.
Again, there is plenty of good here. Before the finale, I’d thought they were largely doing a solid job with the character, albeit more so in the earlier episodes of the season, which as a whole was more assured. Emma D’Arcy, it must be said, has done truly stunning work with the character, but it’s simply a case that the pacing has caught up with things.
This is partially due to how it’s been structured: House of the Dragon season 3’s first two episodes were, in effect, the real ending of season 2, which means that the “true” third season has only been six episodes. It’s expected that season 4 will again have eight episodes, which itself doesn’t sound like enough to end this story, but it can still do a lot with Rhaenyra’s arc.
It needs to again take us inside her head as much as possible, and to really examine – both from her more internal perspective, and from an external one – her actions and motivations. How does she feel about Helaena’s death? What does it do to her and Alicent’s relationship? Does she care about anything beyond winning this war? There’s lots to explore with her, and it can all go into better contextualizing these final moments, but it’s also the last chance to get it right and avoid her fate being seen in the exact same way as Daenerys’ was.
All three seasons of House of the Dragon are now streaming in full on HBO Max.
- Release Date
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August 21, 2022
- Network
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HBO
- Directors
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Clare Kilner, Geeta Patel
- Writers
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Gabe Fonseca
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Fabien Frankel
Ser Criston Cole