Spoilers follow for both House of the Dragon and the book Fire & Blood.
Season 3 of House of the Dragon has come to an end, and with it so too has any chance of Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) being the hero of this show. While her heel turn wasn’t as abrupt as and was far better developed than how Game of Thrones handled Daenerys’ descent into villainy, it seems the Iron Throne truly does corrupt, physically or morally, every Targaryen who occupies it.
By the final moments of this episode, Rhaenyra has fully gone over to the Dark Side. She ultimately chooses to sacrifice her humanity in pursuit of power and to win the war against the Greens.
Series co-creator and showrunner Ryan Condal joined D’Arcy in a virtual press conference for the season finale, where they spoke about Rhaenyra’s descent into tyranny. “We had always looked at Rhaenyra being torn between Viserys' philosophy, which is somewhat embodied by Mysaria. It's somewhat embodied by Alicent in her conversations with them. And then Daemon, which is the fire and blood, rule by dragons, uncompromising. It's very, very black and white to him and his empire building and his dreams and ambitions and all the reasons that Viserys passed him over to be king,” Condal explained.
“And Rhaenyra is torn between those two avenues, asking herself, ‘Can I rule as a woman during a time of war and still be true to the reasons that Viserys chose me to rule? Or do I simply just have to become Daemon in order to win and to hold this whole thing together?’ I think from Rhaenyra's perspective, [it] wouldn't be to be an authoritarian. It would just simply be to keep control, to hold the center. And she has to make all these compromises as she goes along.”
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For their part, D’Arcy said, “I really, really wanted to make sure that that journey was a legible one. I think broadly, if we're to be more practiced at protecting democracy, which seems increasingly fragile at times, we have to be smarter about understanding the behaviors of dictatorial leaders… This was an opportunity to attempt to try and make a certain type of behavior at least understood by an audience. And from an acting perspective, it felt much more playable to think about empathy and the sort of empathetic machine, and how that gets damaged and affected by events, than it did to solely think about her relationship with authoritarianism or something.”
Rhaenyra breaking bad comes just as her foe Aegon’s “resurrection” stuns the public and his brother Aemond seeks to atone for coveting his brother’s crown. Although neither brother can be considered a good guy now, this season has nevertheless revealed more layers of complexity to Aegon and Aemond as well as a growing self-awareness for both of them, as Condal explained:
“Even though he's still angry with his brother and has agendas, I think what [Aegon] realized in his evolution is that he does deserve a lot of the things that happened to him probably in some way and had to learn how to be a better king, and perhaps that he needed to be away and walk amongst the people as a pauper. And the irony of the season is that Aegon now, not in the proximity of the throne, goes on this incredible character evolution where he becomes a much more dimensionalized man who is more sympathetic and possibly more suited to rule. And then Rhaenyra in the proximity of the throne is turned and altered and somewhat corrupted by being in its orbit.”
Featuring some major deaths and a whole lot of devastation, the House of the Dragon Season 3 finale leaves fans with a lot to think about over the next few years before the show returns for its fourth and final season.
So let’s break it all down, including how the season finale differs from the show’s source material, George R. R. Martin’s Targaryen history book Fire & Blood.
Rhaenyra is incredibly high on her own supply by the time she arrives with her Kingsguard at the Great Sept of Baelor, demanding that the High Septon finally anoint her in public. When he refuses her, as he previously did, she labels him a traitor and orders Alyn of Hull to slay him right there on sacred ground.
Rhaenyra convinces Alyn to do it by reminding him that he has Valyrian blood and their gods are more powerful than those of the Faith of the Seven. Afterward, Rhaenyra, with her heir Joffrey and her guards and councilors at her side, addresses a crowd of smallfolk gathered outside the Great Sept.
She reveals what has thus far been a Targaryen monarch’s biggest secret: Aegon the Conqueror’s prophecy about the great evil from the north that will one day attack the realm. She declares herself Rhaenyra the Chosen, and that only her line and not the Hightower faction can save Westeros from this vague, looming danger. She even mutters to herself in High Valyrian: “I am the prince that was promised.”
It’s unclear how the people will respond to her Chosen One proclamations, but that glance between Ser Torrhen Manderly and Grand Maester Orwyle suggests they think she’s gone loco, which certainly doesn’t bode well for the Queen maintaining their loyalty in the series’ homestretch.