House of the Dragon season 3's most recent episode, "Faceless Men," places more of a spotlight on Ser Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew) than he's received throughout the season's previous outings. After requesting to take Ser Ulf the White's (Tom Bennett) place in Tumbleton, Hugh finally reunites with his beloved wife, Kat (Ellora Torchia).
However, Hugh's reunion doesn't play out as he expected. Although Hugh is elated to see Kat again after all this time, she has mixed feelings about their reconnection. While this scene will ultimately prove to be pivotal to Hugh's eventual journey, especially if House of the Dragon remains close to its source material, George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood, thematically, the sequence ties in nicely to a different HBO Westeros show: the recently aired first season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
Kat and Hugh’s reunion
Back in season 2, Hugh risked everything to become a dragonseed. After the tragic death of his daughter, a grief stricken Hugh searches for a better life, seizing the opportunity to attempt to bond with a dragon when remembering his potential Targaryen blood. Hugh exchanges a tearful goodbye with Kat, then heads off to mount a dragon.
Hugh eventually bonds with Vermithor, surviving the deadly process and officially becoming a dragonseed. Along with his fellow dragon-riders, Ulf and Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty), Hugh earns his knighthood, taking the name “Hammer.”
After asking Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) to fly to Tumbleton on dragon back, Hugh finally sees Kat again, for the first time as a dragonseed and a knight. However, Kat thought that he had died, since she had heard nothing about him in all that time. Since Hugh's departure, Kat's life had become considerably worse. After fleeing King's Landing in squalor to stay with her brother Leo (Abhin Calaya) in Tumbleton, the town was taken over by Hightower soldiers, and Leo himself was taken captive and killed by Prince Daeron Targaryen (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) at the behest of Lord Ormund Hightower (James Norton), as depicted in the fourth episode of the season, "Tumbleton."
Kat scolds Hugh for chasing glory, rather than remaining by her side during her time of grief. Hugh assumes their lives will become better now that he has become a knight and a dragon rider, but Kat's situation demonstrates that this is clearly not the case. She needed Hugh to act as her loving and caring husband, not another faraway, anonymous knight of the realm.
How Hugh parallels Duncan
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 1 leaves one major question ambiguous: Is Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) actually a knight? The series places doubt in the viewers' minds several times, including when he hesitates to knight Raymun Fossoway (Shaun Thomas), allowing the 100%-confirmed-to-be-knighted Ser Lyonel Baratheon (Daniel Ings) to perform the task instead. In a flashback, he asks a near death Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Thomas) why he'd never been knighted up to that point.
However, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms makes it abundantly clear that, in terms of character, Dunk's knighthood is ultimately irrelevant. Ser Duncan the Tall acts more nobly and heroically than most canonical knights throughout the entire franchise, standing up for those who cannot protect themselves, such as when he nearly got himself killed standing up for Tanselle (Tanzyn Crawford) when Prince Aerion Targaryen (Finn Bennett) attacks her during her own puppet show, even when it means risking himself in the process. Regardless of whether or not Ser Arlan actually knighted Dunk, he is undeniably a hero.
This is essentially the crux of Kat's argument to Hugh. In becoming a knight and a dragonseed, Hugh left his grief-stricken wife. As such, in chasing glory and knighthood, Hugh ends up ignoring the person who needs him most, becoming less heroic and knightly in the process. Just as Dunk embodies what it means to be a hero even without earning his own knighthood (potentially), Hugh forgets what it means to be a good man in pursuit of knightly glory, meaning an un-knighted Hugh who stood by Kat's side would be more of a knight than Ser Hugh Hammer.
For more from the world of Westeros, keep tuning into House of the Dragon season 3, airing on Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.
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