Spoilers ahead for Episode 3 of House of the Dragon Season 3.
While Game of Thrones‘ ending remains controversial years later, the fandom is once again back in Westeros thanks to its spinoffs. While A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms recently earned a bunch of Emmy nominations, Season 3 of House of the Dragon is currently airing on HBO (and streaming with an HBO Max subscription). And the most recent episode did something I wish that GOT tried during its time on the air.
House of the Dragon Season 3 has been a doozy so far, with the book-to-screen adaptation showing the ongoing Dance of the Dragons. Episode 3, “Rhaenyra Triumphant,” did something unique in that it was told pretty much entirely through Emma D’Arcy’s character’s POV. And having read a number of the Song of Ice and Fire books, I wish that this was something that Game of Thrones experimented with throughout its time on the air.
“Rhaenyra Triumphant” Focused Almost Entirely On Emma D’Arcy’s Character
While Game of Thrones is an ensemble project that followed a massive cast of characters, George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books are actually told through the first-person perspective. In each chapter, we follow a different character’s story, with only a handful of characters being narrators, such as Jon Snow, Arya, Cersei, and others. This allows readers to really get to know those characters, although it also results in other non-POV characters being more mysterious, like Margaery Tyrell.
Game of Thrones abandoning the first-person narration helped to flesh out the other characters, but I thought that being with Rhaenyra throughout the most recent of HOTD showed that the flagship series should have tried this for at least an episode or two during its eight seasons on the air. It certainly would have pleased longtime fans of the novels like me.
Episode 3 of HOTD Season 3 was telling a very specific story, with Rhaenyra struggling to actually rule now that she’s claimed the Iron Throne. It felt almost like a bottle episode, since we were with her almost the entire time, rather than jumping around to various characters. This showed off just how incredible Emma D’Arcy is as an actor, and allowed Rhaenyra’s perspective and rising frustrations to take center stage. That includes towards the end of the episode when Corlys clapped back and called her late sons bastards. Yikes.
Bottle episodes are often very memorable when they happen in TV shows. I’m thinking of Girls’ “The Panic in Central Park” or Breaking Bad’s “Fly.” And now that we’ve seen how successful this was in House of the Dragon, I think Game of Thrones really fumbled the chance to do something exciting when it was airing.
House of the Dragon airs new episodes Sundays as part of the 2026 TV schedule. We’ll just have to see if any more POV episodes happen before its fourth and final season completes the story.
