House of the Dragon season 3 episode 5 ends with the most shocking death of the season to date, and it has major ramifications for what’s likely to come for Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and her reign as the Queen of Westeros.
At the end of the fifth episode of the season, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) discovers Ser Luthor Largent (Tom Cullen), the commander of the City Watch, also known as the Gold Cloaks, murdered.
It’s not just that Ser Luthor has been killed. Luthor and the bodies of several other Gold Cloaks have been staged as if they were having a feast. Behind them, a message has been written in their blood. It reads, “A Feast for Traitors.”
I’d say that Daemon definitely got the message.
Who is killing Ser Luthor and the Gold Cloaks?
If you were paying close attention to this episode, you know that Ormund Hightower (James Norton) is the one behind these attacks on the Gold Cloaks and the latest attack on Ser Luthor.
In the episode, we saw a man in Flea Bottom send a bird with a note to Ormund in Tumbleton informing him that three more Gold Cloaks have been killed.
Later, we saw Luthor and Daemon interrogate a suspect in the killings and learn Ormund was orchestrating the killings in a larger effort to place Daeron Targaryen (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth), the youngest brother of Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), Helaena (Phia Saban), and Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), on the Iron Throne.
But how does killing the Gold Cloaks make that happen? Why did he specifically target Ser Luthor?
Why is Ormund targeting Luthor and the Gold Cloaks?
Ormund has been rather cagey with his full plans so far, which is refreshing. I love that Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon typically allow the more strategic thinkers to keep some of their motives a secret. We usually see them show us their motivations, rather than hearing it in some big speech. It leads to moments like Ser Luthor’s murder in episode 5.
Ultimately, there are multiple reasons that Ormund is targeting the Gold Cloaks, and some are more obvious than others.
Most importantly, Ormund recognizes that he is, basically, the underdog in this conflict when it comes to military might. He knows that he can’t just march into King’s Landing, blow the doors off, and take back the city. Rhaenyra has too many men loyal to her and too many dragons.
So, Ormund is getting creative. He’s making life harder for Rhaenyra by literally killing the people who control the city. He’s also taking a military strategy from the Yellow Toad of Dorne, whom he speaks about to Daeron in the episode’s brief history lesson.
Meria Martell, also known as the Yellow Toad of Dorne, ruled Dorne during Aegon’s Conquest and the First Dornish War. She was successful against the forces of Aegon the Conqueror because she refused to let the dragons gain the upper hand. She retreated and hid her men and army in the deserts and sands around Sunspear. Then, slowly but surely, she used tactics like Ormund uses here to drive the Targaryen forces and those loyal to them out of Dorne.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Ormund tells Daeron this story in this particular episode. House of the Dragon is giving viewers a glimpse of what Ormund is planning and how he thinks Rhaenyra is vulnerable. And he’s right.
Ormund’s plan to target the Gold Cloaks isn’t a copy of the Yellow Toad of Dorne’s strategy, though. There’s more to it than that.
Daemon gives a big speech about how the Gold Cloaks are the difference between anarchy and civility in King’s Landing. Ormund knows he can upset the balance in the city by simply targeting the Gold Cloaks.
They already aren’t getting paid, so who wants that job when your life is now on the line? Without the Gold Cloaks at full strength, Rhaenyra will have a hard time quelling any unrest in the city. More on that shortly!
The Gold Cloaks are basically viewed as traitors to the Greens and those loyal to them when it comes to this civil war. They had a duty to defend the city, and they simply changed sides when Rhaenyra and Daemon rolled into the city. So, the Greens do view Luthor and the Gold Cloaks as traitors to their cause. And that sends a message to every Gold Cloak who is still alive that they could be next. It’s a terrible spot for the City Watch to be in.
So, we’ve covered how guerrilla tactics and targeting the Gold Cloaks benefit Ormund directly by literally reducing the number but also planting those seeds of doubt and fear in the heads of the Gold Cloaks. There’s one other big reason Ormund is doing this, too, and that’s to cause as much chaos as possible.
Essentially, Ormund is capitalizing on the chaos of the moment and giving the people a common enemy. Rhaenyra is to blame for many problems in the city because of her blockade. Now, she’s in charge, and she’s still struggling to meet the basic needs of the people. In addition to killing the City Watch, Ormund is basically funding the opposition against her, and it’s quite easy to sway a hungry and tired population against an oppressor.
The seeds of distrust have been planted, and Ormund is simply watering those seeds and letting that distrust and anger grow into something much bigger than he could do if he simply took back the city from Rhaenyra.
It works twofold. First, Rhaenyra loses support of the people, which makes her vulnerable. Then, it forces Rhaenyra to juggle so much more than she can handle, which will likely result in her making mistakes out of anger or fear.
So, yes. Ormund is engaging in literal warfare by targeting Luthor and the Gold Cloaks, but he’s also psychologically torturing Rhaenyra and Daemon by proving that no one is even close to being safe in the city.
Rhaenyra's Ormund problem is similar to Daenerys' issue with the Sons of the Harpy in Game of Thrones
Is anyone else getting Game of Thrones flashbacks with this storyline?
In Game of Thrones, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) marches to Meereen after liberating other cities, and she decides that she’s going to take her first shot at ruling.
It goes okay, but then, her soldiers and those loyal to her continue to be attacked and killed by secret assassins known as the Sons of the Harpy. The group was made of the noblemen and former slave masters of Meereen.
Of course, in this timeline, Daenerys is quite a long way from taking Meereen, but there are definitely some parallels between what Ormund is doing now and what the Sons of the Harpy did in Meereen.
In essence, the attacks weren’t going to wipe out Dany’s army, but it made every day more complicated. Her resources spread thinner and thinner. The attacks weighed on her, and she could not understand why the people would not appreciate her as a ruler.
It's a little different than what Ormund is doing, but the goal was basically the same. They tried to cause as much dysfunction, disorganization, and chaos to make it harder for Dany to rule. It also had a chilling effect on those who supported her.
Don’t you think it’s going to be harder for regular people to support Rhaenyra if they think they could be killed for it? Doesn’t that sound like Rhaenyra and what she is facing now?
We’re a long way from remedying the Ormund situation in House of the Dragon season 3, but I have a feeling that Ormund will have some problems of his own arriving in Tumbleton very soon.
Still, Ormund has backed Rhaenyra into a corner. It's going to be very interesting to see how she responds as House of the Dragon season 3 continues.
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