This article contains spoilers for “House of the Dragon” season 3, episode 3.
House of the Dragon Season 3 is off to an amazing start. The season started with what very clearly should have been the end of season 2 – a huge climactic battle – followed by an episode that changed the status quo and ended abruptly. Now, Episode 3 sets up the new normal for King’s Landing and the many, many challenges that Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) must face now that she’s taken over the city.
One of those problems is what to do with the Dragonseed, the Targaryen bastards Rhaenyra recruited to become dragon riders and help win the war. Important Dragonseeds to keep in mind are Ulf (Tom Bennett), Hugh (Kieran Bew) and Adam (Clinton Liberty). Where Ulf spent the last two episodes demanding a big castle, none of the three stood in the way of the absurd amount of treasure and titles a man like Bronn (Jerome Flynn) has earned on Game of Thrones. (Remember when he somehow became Lord of Highgarden and Coin master? Wild.)
However, Dragonseeds do get something: titles. In episode 3, Rhaenyra appointed Daemon (Matt Smith) as a knight of the three men, giving them a status, title and surname. It’s a huge moment for the Dragonborn, but watching Damon recite the knighthood as he knights three people — especially Ulf — takes on a different meaning after watching Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
That’s because none of these people can hold a candle to a true knight like Knight of the Seven Kingdoms character Raymun Fossaway (Sean Thomas)and you’ll be pissed off watching those Dragonseeds get knighted the same way.
Raymun Fossway is a real knight, unlike these buffoons
Raymun Fossaway’s knighting as a Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was a loving, touching moment that highlighted the honor of chivalry and the values a true knight should possess. This scene even made Brienne of Tarth’s knighting in Game of Thrones more powerful because of how it connected Brienne to her ancestor, Sir Duncan the Tall.
By comparison, the House of the Dragon scene in Season 3, Episode 3 seems like a shame. Everyone on stage looks like they didn’t want to be there. Adam only wants to legitimize Rhaenyra as she promised Adam’s father, but she refuses. Hugh doesn’t seem to care too much about what the knighthood brings. Ulf is so smug that he actually considers knighthood beneath him now that he has a dragon and wants to be considered as important as the queen herself. When Rhaenyra asks what name he will choose for himself, Ulf asks to be called Targaryen, which she promptly refuses. Then, when Daemon is about to place his sword on Ulf’s shoulders and recite the oath, he looks not honored, but frightened and unworthy.
Of course, Adam is not doing anything wrong. He is the only honorable one here. Hugh feels in the middle. But Ulf? So far we’ve only seen him as a brash drunk who continues to use his background to get favors (mostly free drinks) without actually doing anything to earn respect. Is this how a knight should be?
Chivalry in Westeros is about to get even more depressing
The way Dragon House depicts its knighting ceremony feels like a slap in the face to the whole idea of chivalry. This is an example of Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. sort of ruining the rest of the Westeros franchise; this show has such a reverence for certain traditions and values, and here is House of the Dragon dragging them through the mud in the name of a quick victory in the war.
Again, that’s the whole point of this particular show. House of the Dragon is meant to be the moment of the fall of the Roman Empire for Westeros, depicting the slow process that destroys House Targaryen. War forces both sides to abandon the perceived purity of their ideals and resort to brutal atrocities and deception to gain the upper hand, and Dragonseed is a prime example of this. At the core of Targaryen power is the idea that only they are can ride dragons and that’s why they’re better than everyone else. However, Rhaenyra is forced to use bastards and lowlifes like Ulf, ruining the very concept of a dragon rider.
We know from The Knight of the Seven Kingdoms that institutions will only become more corrupt as time goes on. By the time of Duncan the Tall, long after the House of the Dragon, true chivalry seems an almost foreign concept. Dank’s mentor, Ser Arlan, may not have been the most memorable knight in the kingdom, but at least he did the right thing and stood up for the people who couldn’t defend themselves. From what we saw of that show, he took chivalry seriously, which is more than some of the other characters can say. This slow deterioration makes the moment in Game of Thrones when Brienne is knighted all the more poignant, because it restores moral righteousness to the position after centuries of corruption, apathy, and people like Wulf.