Warning: This text comprises spoilers for “Home of the Dragon” Season 3, Episode 3.
By the third season of “Home of the Dragon,” it has been fairly clearly established that Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) has each proper to function Queen of the realm and proceed the Targaryen dynasty unimpeded. The truth has confirmed fairly totally different to date, in fact, and Workforce Black has waged the Dance of the Dragons in response. However ruling from King’s Touchdown is barely extra complicated than merely invading it, and it is now below Rhaenyra’s management following a cold takeover. (Properly, largely, as Rhys Ifans’ Otto Hightower would absolutely protest if solely he, uh, nonetheless had a head). And as she’s beset on all sides by points starting from famine to funds to social unrest and extra, Rhaenyra’s largest menace of all of them could have simply reared its ominous head.
One seemingly trivial dialog early in Episode 3 may pay dividends within the weeks to return. Within the midst of her infinite issues, Rhaenyra is abruptly confronted — and simply as rapidly rebuffed — by Excessive Septon Balman. Performed by Simon Chandler (reprising the position after first showing in Season 1), the non secular determine represents a vital image of legitimacy. However, having beforehand topped Tom Glynn-Carney’s Aegon II as king, his refusal to do the identical for Rhaenyra is simply one other in an extended line of setbacks.
As guide readers could have realized, nonetheless, it is his excessive vehemence in direction of dragons and his thinly-veiled threats to the aristocracy that ought to elevate eyebrows. George R.R. Martin’s “Hearth & Blood,” a type of patched-together historical past of Westeros on which this sequence relies, memorably depicts a beggar prophet recognized solely because the Shepherd, who performs an enormous position within the story to return. If our guess is true, “Home of the Dragon” could have begun establishing its personal adaptation of the pivotal character.
Did Home of the Dragon simply introduce its model of Hearth & Blood’s Shepherd?
Earlier than anybody is tempted to cry foul over one more change constructed from the pages of George R.R. Martin’s “Hearth & Blood” to “Home of the Dragon,” please maintain this in thoughts: Each adaptation has to take its personal distinctive path, and typically these deviations are fairly needed. On this case, it is really fairly straightforward to know why sequence co-creator and showrunner Ryan Condal and his writers would really feel the necessity to put their very own spin on the mysterious guide character known as the Shepherd — presuming that is precisely what’s taking place right here. Spoilers for “Hearth & Blood” and attainable occasions to return in the remainder of Season 3, naturally, will observe.
Readers know all too effectively that Rhaenyra’s reclaiming of King’s Touchdown would not precisely go based on plan. As her grip on the town weakens, “Hearth & Blood” reveals the way it all comes down crashing across the would-be Queen … and far of it’s spurred on by the Shepherd. Origins and id unknown, this beggar-turned-prophet rails in opposition to Rhaenyra and her black-magic dragons within the public sq.. When residing circumstances worsen and the tides of battle flip the opposite method, the Shepherd’s affect over the smallfolk grows, and shortly he instructions a whole mob of frightened, indignant, and murderous peasants able to do his bidding — culminating in a riot that results in the deaths of all of Rhaenyra’s dragons.
Is the present hinting that the self-righteous Excessive Septon could also be headed for this position? It definitely seems possible, and it is a intelligent workaround for a personality who seems out of nowhere within the guide. All can be revealed, as new episodes of “Home of the Dragon” hit HBO each Sunday.
