House of the Dragon has finally given us what we’ve been waiting for: Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) is officially Queen. After a major succession shakeup, seeing her half-brother Aegon Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) usurp the Iron Throne over a misunderstanding, the rightful heir is back where she’s supposed to be. But she’s got a lot of work to do if she wants to keep that seat.
Tonight’s new episode gives us a look at the start of Rhaenyra’s reign, seeing her navigate the needs of the castle, the city, and her closest confidants. While there’s the matter of Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) bringing Daeron Targaryen (the fake version played by Charlie Gordon) to King’s Landing, Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) stresses the importance of helping out the smallfolk with food. Meanwhile, Orwyle (Kurt Egyiawan) breaks the news that the crown’s gold is gone, and Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) has a very special request.
Corlys asks for his bastard sons to be legitimized
During a dinner between Rhaenyra, Corlys, Alyn (Abubakar Salim), and Addam (Clinton Liberty), Corlys puts Rhaenyra on the spot when asking if she could legitimize his sons. Now that Corlys no longer has an heir, he honors his bastards as his true sons, and needs Rhaenyra to formerly recognize that. He expresses wanting to name Alyn the heir to Driftmark. Rhaenyra seems surprised, and though she doesn’t give a definitive answer, she is clearly hesitant.
Corlys takes Rhaenyra’s non-answer as a yes, and feels blindsided later on when he realizes she’s dragging her feet on legitimizing them. As Daemon knights the dragonseeds—Ulf White (Tom Bennett), Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew), and Addam—Addam is visibly disappointed when Rhaenyra names him Addam “of Hull” instead of Addam “Velaryon.” And word travels back to Corlys fast.
In a particularly tense scene, Corlys confronts Rhaenyra, demanding to know why she won’t legitimize his sons. As he sees it, it’s a simple request. But Rhaenyra is thinking of the implications. She explains that she cannot do it right now, because she doesn’t want others to see her legitimizing bastards so early on in her reign and question her. She points out that the parentage of her sons—Corlys’ grandsons—was in question for so long years ago, which turns her against doing something like this.
Instead of understanding, Rhaenyra’s explanation only angers Corlys, and he reminds Rhaenyra that her sons—the late Lucerys (Elliot Grihault) and Jacaerys (Harry Collett), along with Joffrey (Oscar Eskinazi)—are bastards. She hid this from the realm, and now is turning her back on family members who are under similar circumstances. Corlys also points out that he and his family have done so much for her, and he even lost his wife Rhaenys (Eve Best) to her war. He doesn’t find this fair, but Rhaenyra has made up her mind.
Rhaenyra doesn’t want anything to threaten her claim—but could it be something deeper?
Though Rhaenyra’s reasons do make sense, I can’t help but wonder if her decision goes even deeper than the optics. When Corlys makes his request at the dinner table, Rhaenyra acknowledges that they’ve both lost greatly when it comes to their children. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to think that, perhaps only subconsciously, Rhaenyra doesn’t want Corlys to have heirs when she’s lost hers. Of course, she still has Joffrey—and two other sons after that—but there could be a part of her that’s displacing her heartbreak, disallowing others to move on and be happy with the family they have.
Rhaenyra loves all of her children, but losing Jace, her heir, is a particularly devastating blow. I don’t think she’ll ever be the same again, understandably. As this is still a very fresh wound, it seems she could be turning to displacement just a little bit with her decision here. I don’t think she’s being malicious, but it could be a subconscious defense mechanism she doesn’t even realize she’s doing. She could be rationalizing this decision by blaming what others might think.
Of course, I could be totally wrong, and maybe it really is only about what it might look like for Rhaenyra to legitimize bastards after being suspected of having a few herself. But it does open an interesting conversation about her feelings and her motives as the civil war continues on. She has more power than ever right now, and she’s got to be overwhelmed with emotions considering all she’s gone through to get there.
Tensions will inevitably grow in King’s Landing as Rhaenyra shares more time with Corlys and his sons, but at least we know all involved are honorable. Corlys is angry, but his sons are very level-headed. Hopefully this situation doesn’t lead to something that can’t be taken back.
Tune in to see what happens next when House of the Dragon season 3 episode 4 premieres on HBO and HBO Max next Sunday, July 12.
Add us as a preferred source on Google