House of the Dragon Episode 3 review: The urge of naming a new heir

Viserys now has a son, but will he name him heir of the Iron Throne in House of the Dragon Episode 3? Meanwhile, Daemon takes matters into his own hands.

During the previous episode, Viserys announced he would take a new wife. That wasn’t surprising, but it was hurtful for Rhaenyra to learn who the wife would be. Her best friend is going to be her stepmother.

House of the Dragon Episode 3 picks up two Name Days later. Alicent gave birth to a boy, and she is pregnant with another child. Rhaenyra is feeling the pressure while still angry at what she feels is a betrayal of her friend. It doesn’t help that her father is trying to marry her off to Jason Lannister.

While all that goes on, Daemon and Corlys are dealing with the Crabfeeder. Will they finally take him down? What happens when Viserys finally offers some help?

Pushing for the naming of a new heir in House of the Dragon Episode 3

Of course, many of the men in Westeros are pushing for Viserys to name a new heir. Rhaenyra still holds that title for now, but it’s clear even she’s certain that it will eventually be taken away from her. The king has a son.

However, Viserys isn’t naming Aegon the new heir just yet. It doesn’t matter that people will expect it. He named his daughter, and he had already promised her that nobody would surpass her. Alicent’s father, Otto, isn’t impressed with that, so he turns to Alicent to get the king to change his mind.

It is interesting that Viserys isn’t changing his mind just yet. He’s made a promise to his daughter, and it’s clear that he trusts her to rule the kingdom. In fact, she more than proves herself when she and Ser Criston take down a hog. You could feel the emotion in Rhaenyra as she stabbed the hog to death, and I’ve got to question whether he was imagining her father or her former best friend.

One thing that did stand out was the way she and Criston took down the hog compared to Viserys taking down the stag. Viserys needed people to hold the stag in place and took advice from someone else, while Rhaenrya (after Criston’s initial blow) took down the hog herself. It shows a strength in Rhaenrya, while her leaving the white stag to run away shows her compassion and empathy. She killed because she was being attacked, not because she found it fun.

Her walking through with blood everywhere while everyone looked on was perfect. Milly Alcock continues to show off her amazing skill to command the screen when she’s on it. I’m really going to miss her when we get the time jump and change of cast.

While all that happened, we saw Daemon and Corlys deal with the Crabfeeder. With the Crabfeeder winning, Viserys finally needed to offer some help. He didn’t want to at first, but Rhaenyra pointed out that he needed to do what was right for the people of Westeros. Of course, Daemon didn’t want his brother’s help, and finding out that Viserys was offering something meant Daemon was willing to do something reckless.

He initially made it look like he was surrendering, but we can’t trust Daemon to do anything he says he will. It’s a trap to lure some of the Crabfeeder’s men to him and then he can chase down the Crabfeeder. There is a battle, which was small in terms of the battles we saw in Game of Thrones, but it sets the tone for battles to come in House of the Dragon.

In the end, Corlys’s men realize what Daemon is doing and get into the battle. Daemon’s dragon also comes in to help take care of the Crabfeeder’s followers. The episode ends with the Crabfeeder’s death, but why do I get a sense that this isn’t over here?

We certainly continue with some excellent character development throughout the episode. Rhaenyra continues to prove that she is worthy of the Iron Throne, while Daemon continues to show how reckless he can be. What is Viserys going to do with the people around him?

House of the Dragon is available to stream on HBO and HBO Max.