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Warning: Spoilers for the series follow.
The third episode of the third season of House of the Dragon was much less action-packed than its two predecessors, but that’s appropriate, as we’ve now moved into the aftermath of Rhaenyra’s claiming of King’s Landing. As she soon discovers, it’s a lot easier to win than it is to actually govern, particularly when your predecessors were notoriously ill-equipped to do the hard work of said governing. It’s not long before poor Rhaenyra finds herself burdened with a number of contradictory demands,
Emma D’Arcy is, of course, phenomenal in this episode, as they have been throughout this season. They manage to capture so many complexities and ambiguities of this pivotal figure in the history of Westeros. While we want Rhaenyra to succeed as queen–mostly because Aegon and Aemond are just such shitty people–it’s hard not to see how this is all going to come crumbling down around her. Some of the challenges Rhaenyra faces are not of her own making, including the theft of the treasury, but others show just how ill-equipped she is to deal with the actual practicalities of ruling. The brilliance of D’Arcy’s performance lies in part in their ability to capture so many of the conflicting feelings Rhaenyra feels: joy and elation at finally having achieved her dreams, but crippling doubt and uncertainty as the full enormity of what she’s accomplished, and what’s left to do, start to weigh on her.
Olivia Cooke was also extraordinary as Alicent. Overall, I quite enjoy the way that the series adds more depth to this character than she ever had in Fire & Blood. With each episode we see the extent to which her entire life has been twisted and manipulated by others, none of whom–with the exception of Rhaenyra–have ever had her best interests in mind. In fact, it’s safe to say that none of her male relatives have ever even given much thought to what she thinks or how she feels. I also appreciated the ongoing chemistry between Cooke and D’Arcy, particularly that harrowing moment in which it’s revealed that the young man Rhaenyra believes to be Alicent’s son Daeron is in fact an imposter sent to King’s Landing by Ormund Hightower. That whole scene is perfect in almost every way, and it’s why I continue watching House of the Dragon.
In that sense, Rhaenyra and Alicent are far more alike than they are different, however much they might be on the opposite sides of a gaping political chasm. They are both women who have endured almost unspeakable loss and terror and grief, and they’re both doing the best they can to survive a terrible situation that none of them asked for. The irony, as it turns out, is that Alicent at least has made peace with the fact that being a ruler means giving up something of yourself, as you find yourself having to do things you’d never have imagined doing. Rhaenyra can’t quite seem to wrap her head around this fact, in large part, one suspects, because she can’t quite bring herself to believe she’d ever be capable of such things. In that sense, she’s very much her father’s daughter.
She’s also Viserys’ daughter in another key way: she has no ambitions to take Targaryen rule beyond the Sea. This is in marked contrast to Daemon, who still believes in absolute Targaryen supremacy, not just in Westeros but in all the world. One can’t help but wonder whether the dynastic madness has begun to take its toll, and it’s a good thing for the citizens of King’s Landing that she’s the one who’s actually sitting on the Iron Throne. When it comes down to it, Rhaenyra truly does care about her people, which is why she goes out of her way to punish those who would exploit them. At the same time, she also is in a mess that’s not entirely of her making but which she doesn’t seem able to rectify. Whether it’s alienating Corlys by refusing to legitimize his two bastard sons–because doing so would call her own son’s legitimacy into question–or alienating those who might be her best allies, she’s not exactly doing herself any favors when it comes to solidifying her rule and her power.
The bitter and ironic tragedy of it all is that these are all, in their own way, perfectly rational decisions to make. Legitimizing Corlys’ bastards would endanger her own heirs and, even more importantly, moving them into the succession of House Velaryon would also continue to remind her people that, as a woman, she probably shouldn’t have inherited the throne herself. Likewise, she had every right to punish the merchants and lesser lords and ladies for gorging themselves while the smallfolk starved, but this just means they’re not going to aid her when the going gets rough.
Much as I was captivated by this episode, however, I can’t help but be a bit skeptical about the ways in which the show continues to frame Rhaenyra–and Alicent, for that matter–as out of her depth when it comes to the throne she has sought with such fervor. It’s not just that she quails when it comes to doing ruthless things; it’s that she genuinely seems to have no idea how to run a kingdom. This, despite the fact that she’s had at least some experience as an administrator at Dragonstone, and we could thus hope she would have at least some knowledge of how a kingdom is run. Even more galling, I think, is the revelation that she’s gotten her period and has to deal with cramps while also holding audiences with various petitioners. It essentially renders her little more than a female body, and it buys into all of the tired old tropes about women, about their “embodied” natures, and about their supposed inability to rule. (It’s also worth noting that her father was literally falling apart, and while this was obviously meant to invoke pathos in the audience, it never seemed to call his ability to rule into question).
The thing about House of the Dragon, both the book and the series, is that it’s a story that’s fundamentally all about how a woman simply isn’t suited to rule a place like the Seven (er…Six) Kingdoms. Though this is obviously true of many of the male characters, too, and while it’s of a piece with Martin’s general hostility toward monarchy, I just can’t watch this kind of story without thinking of how, in our own world, we’ve seen a similar story play out time after time. A talented, successful, and accomplished woman is thrown into a botched political situation and then gets blamed by everyone when she fails to fix every problem as quickly as people would like. Unfortunately, the show comes dangerously close to indulging in the very misogyny it sometimes seems to be critiquing.
Still, I continue to enjoy this season of House of the Dragon much more than its predecessors, and I’m looking forward to seeing what’s in store for us next week.