July 2026 – Simon’s Incoherent Blog

House of the Dragon: Season 3, Episode 5 – Unbowed and Unbent

“There is good in Rhaenyra. But the crown is a weight that crushes.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

If you’re one of those fans who wishes the plot of House of the Dragon would just get on with it, this episode was probably immensely frustrating. Focusing as it does principally on character rather, it was an hour of people sitting down and soul searching, usually in two handed scenes, during which the overall plot advanced by maybe a couple of inches. But these are good characters, and I’d guess showrunner Ryan Condal is banking on viewers being invested enough in them by now to be gripped by an episode that focuses almost entirely on enlarging them.

House of the Dragon: Season 3, Episode 4 – Tumbleton

“He dares me to rain fire down on a seat that raised my banner. And the realm would name me ‘Maegor Returned’. They’d rise up against me, and the same gods who delivered me to the throne would rightly cast me down.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

After a fairly eventful first three episodes, this week sees House of the Dragon settle back into the more… sedate pace for which it’s become known. That figures, what with this originally having been planned as the second episode of the season, where traditionally the political wrangling holds sway. And so it does here. If you’d been hoping that Ormund Hightower’s surprise seizing of the town of Tumbleton would lead to another Great Big Battle, you’d have been disappointed (so far).

House of the Dragon: Season 3, Episode 3 – Rhaenyra Triumphant

“The air is thick with ghosts.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

As expected after the shuffling of episodes between seasons, this week’s House of the Dragon came across very like a season opener, complete with a rather unusual (for this show) pre-credits scene. Rhaenyra has successfully taken King’s Landing. She sits on the Iron Throne. She has everything she ever wanted. And this week showed that, like so many conquerors before her, she’s finding actually running a kingdom even harder work than conquering it.

House of the Dragon: Season 3, Episode 2 – Queen’s Landing

“The boys who clung to me, who hid their little faces in my skirts – dead, so that I might sit on a throne of swords.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

It’s been a busy week, so I’m just now getting on to catching up with House of the Dragon – the very day the next episode goes out!

Continuing straight on from last week’s epic battle, this ep opens with a striking shot of its conclusion from below the waves; dragonfire flying everywhere, debris and bodies floating in the sea. But the battle’s nearly over – who has survived, and who has been horribly killed?