![]() ![]() But surrender is the last thing on his mind, as the vainglorious Valyrian ditches the flag in favor of his blade Dark Sister, using it to cut his way toward his enemy. Without dragons in the sky, without soldiers at his back, and with a white flag in hand, Daemon Targaryen heads into Crabfeeder territory, appearing ready to surrender the fight. Rather than accepting the helping hand, however, an overly proud Daemon turns his fists on the messenger and decides to end things himself, once and for all. Encouraged by counsel from several parties, including Queen Alicent, Viserys finally agrees to support the war, sending an envoy to tell Daemon and the Velaryons of his choice. Years later, Daemon and the Sea Snake’s private war looks like a lost cause, as the Crabfeeder and his minions prove impossible to root out of their cavernous hideaway. His rampage is ended by a torrent of flaming arrows shrieking across the night sky rather than test the old wisdom that “fire cannot kill a dragon,” Daemon wisely retreats, one arrow in his shoulder, but his life otherwise intact. First, at the start of the war, Daemon rides his dragon Caraxes the Blood Wyrm into battle all on his own, incinerating the Crabfeeder’s beach, literally crushing foe (and friend) underfoot. The episode begins and ends with the Rogue Prince who, perhaps inspired by Ser Leeroy Jenkins, attempts to end a yearslong conflict with Craghas Crabfeeder all by himself, on two separate occasions. With the king and his heir’s story settled, for now, we return to the supplanted: Prince Daemon Targaryen, on a hunt of his own. “But I swear to you now, on your mother’s memory: you will not be supplanted.” “I did waver, at one time,” the king tells his daughter when the two of them reunite back at the Red Keep. Here in the present, Viserys interprets the moment as a sign in its own right, one that affirms his desire to keep Rhaenyra exactly where she is: as heir to the Iron Throne. If she were here, Cersei Lannister would laugh at the irony, her own goblet in hand. Staring his own stag in the eye, and in a moment loaded with imagery calling forth toward the ghosts of Game of Thrones’s future, Viserys Targaryen joylessly kills the ordinary, tragically helpless stag-the symbol of House Baratheon-wielding a Lannister-crafted spear. ![]() If this stag was meant to signal the true heir to the Iron Throne, then it made its choice in favor of the princess, albeit privately. Instead, the white hart appears elsewhere in the woods, witnessed and mercifully spared by an awestruck Rhaenyra. Aegon’s supporters hoped the white hart’s presence would serve as an omen, leading Viserys toward naming his son as successor. Repeatedly told over the past day about a rare and regal white hart stag roaming the Kingswood, Viserys is brought face-to-face with an ordinary (if rather large) deer. The next morning, in the sober light of day, the hungover Viserys finds his doubts cast aside once more. “I never imagined that I would remarry, that I would have a son. “I thought Rhaenyra was the way out of my abyss, of grief, of regret, that naming her heir would begin to set things right,” Viserys tells Alicent. Indeed, Viserys himself has not made any indication of placing his son ahead of his daughter, his own long-ago dream of a boy born with a crown notwithstanding. Many in the realm view young Aegon as the heir apparent to the Iron Throne, despite public pledges of fealty to the current reigning heir, Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock). Not only are King Viserys (Paddy Considine) and Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey) husband and wife, they are also the proud parents to a two-year-old child - a boy, no less: Aegon the Second, named after Aegon the Conqueror. Three years have passed since “The Rogue Prince,” and much has changed. First, as usual, we’ll prioritize the prince’s brother. The Game of Thrones franchise’s megahit spinoff finally delivers its first explosive war scene in “Second of His Name,” an episode that follows two separate stories: Daemon and Lord Corlys Velaryon’s (Steve Toussaint) war against the Crabfeeder Craghas Drahar (Daniel Scott-Smith) in the Stepstones, while the Targaryen royal family throw a birthday party in mainland Westeros. Last week, House of the Dragons offered an episode titled “The Rogue Prince”-but it’s here in week three that Prince Daemon truly lives up to his rogue reputation. But Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) certainly shares the sentiment. “Don’t tell me what I can’t do,” says … well, another fictional character entirely.
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