Rhaenyra’s First Day As Queen

To invoke Lord Jerry of Seinfeld: Anyone can take power, but holding power is a different story. And that’s the lesson a tired, grieving, everyone-dancing-on-her-last-nerve Rhaenyra learns the hard way in this week’s “House of the Dragon.”

The Black queen’s first days on the Iron Throne involve smarmy nobles, tough choices, and rampant rats — and that’s before a deceptive blonde enters the fray. 

Read on for the highlights of Episode 3.

Daemon and all three dragons meet with Ormund Hightower in the field to tell him that the war is over and Rhaenyra is queen; she’s offering clemency if he and his troops will bend the knee. “In the interest of peace, I will submit,” Ormund says reluctantly, kneeling to make his vow. Everything seems settled, but then a smug Daemon adds that he’ll be taking Ormund’s dragon-riding ward, Daeron Targaryen, back with him — given that he’s an heir to the throne and a potential threat to Rhaenyra’s reign. Daemon promises to treat the boy kindly, and Ormund turns Daeron over to his uncle.

“The air is thick with ghosts,” Rhaenyra says, standing in her father’s quarters, tearful as she reminisces about when Viserys and Aemma were alive and things were simpler. But all Daemon, who is with her, wants to do is grouse about how he should’ve incinerated Ormund, Daeron, and all of the soldiers. But Rhaenyra wants to prove she’s the measured leader her father thought she could be… and it’s time to get started.

First order of business: Meet and question Daeron, who seems mightily afraid of his half-sister and who says nothing when she asks him about #TeamGreen’s plans to thwart her. Annoyed, she orders guards to hold him in his room. After he’s gone, Daemon casually reminds her that she’ll have to kill the youth to ensure he doesn’t try to unseat her.

Second order of business: Learn that there’s basically no money for anything, thanks to Tyland’s maneuverings (and the fact that they believe him dead after the Battle of the Gullet). But Rhaenyra is irked, mainly because she wants a big, public coronation to legitimize her rule, and there aren’t funds to pay for it. Mysaria — now the official Mistress of Whispers, much to Daemon’s dismay — points out that the people are on the verge of starving, and the optics of an expensive to-do aren’t great. Rhaenyra orders her adviseres to send ravens to the major houses and demand tribute.

Next up: Where’s Aemond and/or Sheepstealer? No one knows. So Rhaenyra offers a bounty (she doesn’t have) for the capture of the missing factions. And the person who kills Aemond can have Harrenhal, because “I have no need of it now — all the Riverlands are mine.” Her decisive exit from the meeting, however, is interrupted by a rat underfoot; they’re running rampant in the wake of Aegon’s killing all of King’s Landing’s exterminators.

Rhaenyra beats a path to the rooms where Alicent and Helaena are being held. “Where is my gold?” she demands, but Alicent says even her own father kept her out of the loop on that one. “I would refer you to the man himself, but you slew him without ceremony,” the Green queen quips. They get into a shouting match when Alicent doesn’t have any of the answers Rhaenyra needs. “I have done all I could!” Alicent cries. “Will you blame me, only, for what men have done?”

After everyone takes a breath, Rhaenyra says she’ll free the women after Aemond has been found and eliminated. Until then, they’ll be treated as prisoners at a white-collar-crime penitentiary. “So my position is such that I must hope for the capture and death of my son,” Alicent observes.

From there, Rhaenyra does a walk-and-talk with Mysaria that would make Josh Lyman proud. She’s hesitant to kill Daeron, who after all is her half-brother and an innocent, but then she sees Jace walking through the castle — it’s just someone who vaguely resembles him, but the visual brings the queen up short — and the reminder of her dead sons steels her resolve. But there are so many things still on her to-do list! “There are mountains to be dealt with, and I have none yet to trust with them,” she complains.

And when Rhaenyra walks into the throne room, an Everest-sized issue pops up before her in the form of the high septon. She asks about being anointed ruler, and he says that can’t happen because he has no proof of Aegon’s death. He’s also unmoved by her claim that the gods must’ve wanted her to rule, because why else would she have a dragon to help her? The man of the cloth is angered by her insinuation — he thinks dragons are dark magic and have nothing to do with The Seven — and he warns her that not playing by the faith’s rules will not go well for her.

At dinner that night with Rhaenyra, Alyn, and Addam, Corlys is like, “Hey guess what? These two are my sons, and I want to name Alyn my heir. Wanna legitimize them?” He points out that, without the young men as official Velaryons, Corlys won’t have an heir. She hesitates, though, and the old man is annoyed.

All in all, it’s been a DAY. And when Rhaenyra goes to bed that night, she seeks out the comfort of sleeping next to Daemon in his quarters rather than lying alone in her parents’ old bed.

The next morning, Rhaenyra dresses in preparation for hearing petitions from the public for the first time. Elinda helps her choose accessories that will send the right message — crown, chain, etc. — and then attends to Rhaenyra when the queen realizes that she’s gotten her period. Say it with me now, all women: OF COURSE SHE HAS.

So the Black queen is irritated, uncomfortable, and kinda out of her depth as she hears the small folk’s complaints — including the accusation that the nobles have hoarded what existing food there is, leaving the poor with an unnecessary shortage. Daemon later scoffs, calling the problem not a real concern. Mysaria says the exact opposite. Corlys is no help whatsoever. So Rhaenyra decides to do what her father would have, and throw a banquet.

Next, she and Daemon officially knight Ulf, Hugh, and Addam. Afterward, Hugh approaches her about where he’ll live and how he should deal with the absence of his wife, who has relocated to be with her brother. “I am awash in dilemmas and deficiencies. Let me find my footing and I will attend to your requests,” she says, inadvertently giving me a new auto-reply for my work email.

Rhaenyra is taking a quiet moment in her room when Alicent comes by to request that Otto’s remains be buried near her mother in Hightown; Rhaenyra says yes. Then she asks Alicent how she handled the business of petitions when she was essentially ruling Westeros as Viserys lay dying. Alicent is like, “It sucks, and you’re gonna become someone you won’t recognize.” Rhaenyra balks, saying that didn’t happen to her father. Alicent counters that Viserys lived in a world that was not reality, and they don’t have that privilege.

That evening, Rhaenyra welcomes the nobles to the banquet she envisioned, thanking them for (eventually) pledging their loyalty to her cause. The rich toadies trip over themselves to assert how they never really backed the Hightowers, yadda yadda, and Rhaenyra smiles serenely, because she knows what’s coming next.

When dinner is served, each noble receives a plate of roast rat. “This is what the common folk of my city ate, this and worse, while you and those like you hid provisions away in your storehouses,” the queen tells her horrified guests. They sputter their defenses, but she doesn’t want to hear it. Instead, she informs them that her Gold Cloaks are at that very moment raiding their storerooms and bringing back supplies to feed the poor in the city. Then Rhaenyra basically tells them that Mama has spoken, and bids them good evening as they stew.

On her way out, she’s brought up short by the smug smirk of Torrhen Manderly, who points out that Rhaenyra’s move doesn’t get at the real truth: Her blockade of the city caused the shortages in the first place. Later, Daemon says Rhaenyra’s edict is kinda futile — it’ll only help a few people for a short time — and Rhaenyra agrees: He’s got to go to The Vale and demand that Lady Arryn, who never sent the swords she promised, rectify that in coin.

“You’ve come so far, and yet you still don’t know who you are,” he says patronizingly, pointing out that they have six dragons and near-unlimited power to take whatever they want, so why is she concerned with all this small-ball nonsense? “They say there is a city at the edge of the world where men have wings… those men will serve us. They will serve you,” he says. He adds that he and she could be gods, breaking into High Valyrian as he invokes the prophecy. She counters that Viserys knew there was such a thing as too much power, and the dream of Old Valyria ended in the Doom. How about we look to the future, hmm? she adds. Like a recalcitrant teenager whose request for pizza dinner has been turned down, Daemon stomps away, shouting “You still have to kill Daeron!” on his way out of the scene.

The next day, Rhaenyra goes into the city and hands out food to her citizens. Her gifts and promises of just rule are met with cheers and general goodwill. Less grateful, though, is Corlys when she acknowledges that she’s not going to legitimize his two sons. He immediately lights into her. “You will insult my house so that you may be seen to be something you are not,” he sneers, getting angrier as he point-blank calls out her sons Joffrery, Lucerys, and Jacaerys as b*stards themselves. “Say aloud to me the reason your children deserve what mine are denied,” he yells. She has no answer.

Rhaenyra’s next stop is Alicent’s quarters, where she tells the Green queen that Daeron is in the castle and she will spare his life… but he’ll be sent to The Wall. It’s merciful, but it’s awful — Alicent points out that the boy was sent to be a ward as an infant, and she’s only seen him once in the past five years. Rhaenyra organizes a meeting… and when Alicent doesn’t recognize Daeron, Rhaenyra realizes she’s been had. “Who are you then?!” she demands of the imposter, who tearfully says that Ormund “compelled” him to pretend to be the prince. The real Daeron is still with Hightower. “What game does he play?” Rhaenyra wonders.

Pretty soon, she gets a hint. A man, dirty with soot, stumbles to the gates of the Red Keep to let #TeamBlack know that Ormund and his men have taken Tumbleton and are holding its people hostage. Daeron’s dragon is with them inside the gates. “I alone escaped,” he tells her. And when she declares she’ll burn them all, the survivor points out that she’d be killing innocents along with the Hightowers.

“My arm is long. He cannot win,” she says, right as a pile of #TeamGreen tapestries and the like is set ablaze in the courtyard behind her.

Now it’s your turn. What did you think of the episode? Sound off in the comments!