The time arrived for the Battle of Tumbleton in the House of the Dragon season 3 finale, and as we expected and predicted, the death toll was high, and the number of people who were burnt to a crisp was intense.
But as I was watching the finale, there was one thing I couldn’t stop thinking about — and that was how the aftermath of most of the burning seemed to parallel a lot of the Game of Thrones finale, as well as the episode before.
The destruction of Tumbleton parallels that of King's Landing
Look, this is the Dance of Dragons, a civil war that takes up an entire part of the Targaryen family tree. We know that with any dragon, there is going to be a lot of bloodshed, and most likely, we are going to see a lot of people dead.
But there was just something about this aftermath that hit harder than the one in Game of Thrones.
I think for some time during Game of Thrones, we were expecting Daenerys to turn. Don’t get me wrong, I was still upset when it happened, but all we really saw was her burning everything down and some people screaming. We mainly saw the aftermath. There were a lot of bodies burnt up and turned to ash, but we didn’t really see a lot of people actively suffering—just a whole lot of blackened corpses.
But with Tumbleton, it was incredibly different. Yes, we still saw corpses, plenty of dead bodies after the battle, and more. This time, however, we actively saw people suffering, moaning from severe burns along their bodies, and some people who had their armor literally melted into their skin—which hit a lot harder than any crisp body.
Having it from a Targaryen’s perspective changes it too.
Daemon's perspective parallels Jon Snow's perspective
Before I get comments saying that Jon Snow is a Targaryen, so the battle in King’s Landing is from a Targaryen’s POV, and he is horrified by the destruction—yes, I know, but Jon wasn’t always a Targaryen. In fact, he pretty much rejected his ancestry the moment he found out (still hate that storyline), and he heavily relies on his Stark side in making that final decision to kill Daenerys.
However, seeing this destruction from Daemon’s (Matt Smith) perspective—the man who has preached to Rhaenyra time and time again about the glory of Old Valyria and how he wishes to begin a new empire alongside her—was such a fantastic and better parallel. Because now, it’s like he’s gotten a front seat to what dragons can do when they give power to someone who doesn’t deserve it or someone who snaps, like Ser Ulf (Tom Bennett) and his betrayal. It's a wake-up call, in some way.
His look of horror and the pure destruction around him perfectly parallel Game of Thrones as well as Jon Snow, but this version hits so much harder.
It’s almost like Daemon is finally beginning to realize just how horrible this whole situation is and how many innocents are truly getting killed. Whether that really changes who he is fundamentally going forward is up to the writers. They did create a pretty divisive finale for fans because the writers diverged from the source material a bit, so who knows what they’re going to do for season 4.
Either way, it’s got me thinking more and more about what other parallels we could get in season 4. Now begins the long two-year wait and the theories that will ensue. And now my watch begins.
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