{"id":732294,"date":"2026-06-29T05:39:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T05:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/732294\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T05:39:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T05:39:17","slug":"house-of-the-dragon-season-3-episode-2-the-day-rhaenyra-finally-became-queen-after-some-stumbles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/732294\/","title":{"rendered":"House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 2: The day Rhaenyra finally became queen\u2014after some stumbles."},"content":{"rendered":"

After each episode of House of the Dragon, Slate writers will gather to answer a crucial question: Who is the worst person in Westeros<\/a>? This week: senior editor Jenny G. Zhang and senior writer Rebecca Onion answer the call.<\/p>\n

Jenny G. Zhang: Hello, Rebecca! I am pleased to be back here chatting all things House of the Dragon with you. I am also surprisingly pleased by how this season is turning out so far, with a jam-packed premiere<\/a> (aka the Season 2 Finale That Never Was<\/a>) and an equally jam-packed second episode this week.<\/p>\n

We jump right into the aftermath of the Battle of the Gullet: corpses galore, the question of Lord Corlys\u2019 fate, Baela bringing Jacaerys\u2019 body back to Rhaenyra, who meets her (second!) dead son with initial denial and subsequent wild grief so well portrayed, I have to commend Emma D\u2019Arcy for their performance. Rhaenyra turns an accusatory eye to all of her household, including her Queensguard member Ser Lorent (Max Wrottesley), who conspired with Jace to lock her up, but I think we can forgive a devastated mother for this display.<\/p>\n

Also in the aftermath: Rhaena turns up in the Vale again, begging for asylum from Lady Jeyne Arryn (Amanda Collin), since she did just inadvertently cause the death of the Crown Prince by riding a wild dragon into a battle she had no business being near. Jeyne, ever the pragmatic, refuses, but does make clear that she\u2019ll turn a blind eye if Rhaena and Sheepstealer happen to inhabit some unseen corner of her territory. Keep that in mind, going forward \u2026<\/p>\n

Daemon, meanwhile, is a busy bee this episode, gadding about the Riverlands with his men, returning to Rhaenyra\u2019s side when he hears the news of Jace\u2019s death, dealing with the dragonseeds\u2019 insubordination, tussling with his former lover turned current rival Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), so on and so forth. There are a few things he does that make me raise him as an admittedly distant possibility for Worst Person in Westeros. For one, he basically laughs at Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) when the witch asks for Harrenhal in return for gathering the Rivermen, saying that the crown isn\u2019t in the habit of doling out castles (even ruined ones, I guess) to midwives\u2014I\u2019m sure that won\u2019t come back to bite the Blacks in the ass. Second, when he\u2019s back at Rhaenyra\u2019s side, he forces a bit of tough love on her and tells her, more or less, that she has to stop moping and resume action in the war, lest she let her sons \u201cdie in vain.\u201d Was he wrong to interrupt a mother in her grief, or was he right to ask a monarch to do what she has to do?<\/p>\n

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Rebecca Onion: Hello, Jenny, and thank you for setting this table, which is absolutely laden with corpses. The second time I watched the episode I had to fast-forward past the moment when Rhaenyra first sees Jace\u2019s body. Emma D\u2019Arcy wrecked me a few times in this episode, first at this moment, then when Rhaenyra is lying in her bed weeping, thinking about how the two boys who \u201chid their little faces\u201d in her skirts are both gone. Daemon, who comes in and seems almost annoyed to have to console his niece-wife, is far from the best person to accompany Rhaneyra through these moments. These weren\u2019t his biological children, but I have the feeling that even if they were, he would immediately begin scheming for the upper hand in whatever unfolds next.<\/p>\n

But Daemon\u2019s callousness (normal, by Daemon standards) pales in comparison to what happens back in King\u2019s Landing, where Alicent finds herself accosted in her chamber by Lord Jasper Wylde (Paul Kennedy), who\u2019s the Master of Laws on Aegon\u2019s small council. Alicent is out on a limb, having gone to the City Watch\u2019s locker room (very Hannah Wells<\/a> of her) to speak with the Gold Cloaks\u2019 commander, Ser Luthor Largent (Tom Cullen), to warn him that Rhaenyra will return to King\u2019s Landing, and (by implication) ask for him to allow Rhaenyra to take the throne. After, she\u2019s back in her chamber, packing things up in a hurry, when Lord Jasper comes in, talking all creepy about the way Alicent \u201csnaked her way into the halls of power\u201d at a young age and \u201cfound much enjoyment\u201d with Ser Criston. Ramping up, Lord Jasper lets Alicent know that, thanks to a traitorous Kingsguard member, he knows that she was sneaking about, secretly meeting with the City Watch. A tussle ensues and Jasper has Alicent pinned on the ground, until her screams finally bring Grand Maester Orwyle (Kurt Egyiawan) into the chamber. Thankfully, the maester sides with Alicent, exerting his authority to put Lord Jasper in custody.<\/p>\n

This is pretty bad. Not only was this man trying to rape Alicent, he also was so ready to do it the moment he heard anything irregular about her behavior. It felt like he\u2019d been rehearsing these lines in his mind at every small council meeting, every time he bristled at a woman being present. Gross! What do you think, can we name Jasper the Worst?<\/p>\n

Jenny: This was a disturbing scene to watch, even for a franchise that is notorious for (both gratuitously and non-gratuitously) dipping into sexual violence. The way the Master of Laws\u2019 predatory lust ramps up throughout the course of the interaction, even getting turned on by Alicent\u2019s pleas to not cross this unforgivable line, made my skin crawl. I think it\u2019s safe to say that this sex pest is most definitely one of the vilest characters around.<\/p>\n

But before we mete out his appropriate sentence, there are a couple other names I want to bring up for discussion. There\u2019s a perennial Worst Person in Westeros candidate: ol\u2019 one-eyed Aemond. After taking an Oedipal turn in Episode 1, Aemond finally heeds his mother\u2019s advice and flees King\u2019s Landing, flying Vhagar to Harrenhal, which has been left unguarded by the dragonseeds. He burns the garrison of Rivermen and singlehandedly storms the castle, finding an unarmed Ser Simon Strong (Simon Russell Beale) dining with his family. Strong is a bit of a fan favorite, partly for his jolly demeanor and partly for his pragmatism in the face of threatening presences like Daemon\u2019s and Aemond\u2019s. Well, sorry to his fans, because Ser Simon finally meets his end here, slain by Aemond even as the chastellan attempts to surrender without bloodshed. Aemond then kills Simon\u2019s sons, but not before receiving a nasty stab wound from one of them. It feels like immediate karma for Aemond to be seriously injured, beseeching a watchful Alys Rivers for help, just moments after he needlessly killed everyone\u2019s favorite remaining Strong. What do you make of that bit of rudeness, Rebecca?<\/p>\n

Rebecca: I worry Aemond is in danger of becoming a \u201cso evil he\u2019s not interesting\u201d character. His brother Aegon was in the same boat, until he got his burns\u2014now he\u2019s still bad, but lacking power, which makes him interesting again. And Daemon is evil, but his wiliness is entertaining, and he often does the right thing for the wrong reason, which softens up the viewer. (Maybe just this viewer.) Daemon is also quite competent when it comes to murder, while Aemond coasts on his sociopathy\u2014and his dragon. The killing of Ser Strong, an old man in an almost empty castle, was such child\u2019s play for Aemond, it was horrible to watch. But maybe the wound the prince got in the process will push his character in a different direction. In comparison, I do think Lord Jasper\u2019s attempted rape trumps this cold-blooded murder, which did have political import\u2014even if it didn\u2019t need to be carried out in quite that cruel of a way.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one more candidate, and that\u2019s Rhaenyra, who flies to King\u2019s Landing with Daemon, ready to take the Iron Throne with the help of the Gold Cloaks, who are loyal to their former commander Daemon. She is still misty-eyed and trembling from Jace\u2019s death, but not so much so that she can\u2019t get it together to take the sword from Daemon and chop off Lord Otto Hightower\u2019s (Rhys Ifans) head when he charges her to do so for the sake of publicly solidifying her takeover. (It takes her two chops, which is frankly disgusting.) For a few days, Rhaenyra had second thoughts about the cost of her crusade, but when it comes down to it, she\u2019ll kill for power, like we always knew she would.<\/p>\n

What do you think, Jenny\u2014does Rhaenyra have a chance, or is Lord Jasper our No. 1?<\/p>\n

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\n Nadira Goffe and Rebecca Onion
\n The Worst Person in the House of the Dragon Premiere May, Ironically, Also Be Its Best
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Jenny: Yes, this is the day Rhaenyra finally becomes queen, in a sense. I was admittedly tickled by Otto Hightower\u2019s reemergence and the culprit responsible: Larys Strong, that sly Master of Whisperers. Fully prepared for either scenario\u2014Aegon winning or Rhaenyra winning\u2014he imprisoned Otto, which we caught a tantalizing glimpse of in the previous season. Daemon\u2019s sheer delight upon finding his old rival in the dungeons was also amusing, partly for those reasons you articulated about Daemon\u2019s appeal: He\u2019s not a good person, but he makes no pretenses to be, and he keeps things entertaining. (Plus, Matt Smith is just charismatic as hell.)<\/p>\n

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Rhaenyra\u2019s initial reluctance to kill her father\u2019s Hand, followed by her decision to do so anyway, followed by her inability to land a clean cut (which, ouch, this is why Otto asked for Daemon to behead him, so he wouldn\u2019t have to suffer being \u201chacked\u201d at), sums up many of Rhaenyra\u2019s flaws as a leader: She can be indecisive, not yet ready to pay the full costs of power\u2014and even when she commits to a course of action, her wavering still brings avoidable messiness.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure, when she sees Alicent\u2014apprehended, along with Helaena and Jaehaera, by the City Watch as they try to escape King\u2019s Landing\u2014enter the room and spy her childhood friend sitting on a throne above her father\u2019s decapitated head, Rhaenyra may feel like one of the worst people in Westeros. (Hey, that\u2019s being a ruler for you!) But this was, in theory, a necessary step to ending the larger conflict. Lord Jasper Wylde, on the other hand, was going to assault Alicent purely for his own twisted pleasure. He ultimately gets what\u2019s coming to him: a swift beheading at the hands of Daemon, and, now, our bequeathing of this week\u2019s Worst Person in Westeros title. RIP, ya filthy animal.<\/p>\n

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