Home Of The Dragon Season 3’s Two Surprising Romances Defined

Winter is coming, and so are spoilers. This text discusses main plot particulars from “Home of the Dragon” Season 3 Episode 6.

Look, we’d as properly embrace it: “Home of the Dragon” is a shipper’s present. It nearly goes with out saying that viewers have come to anticipate that from a present which has delivered a bristly central dynamic between Emma D’Arcy’s Rhaenyra Targaryen and her childhood frenemy Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke). However Season 3 alone has already given us the hilarious road-trip comedy/enemies-to-lovers vibes between Larys (Matthew Needham) and Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), Daemon (Matt Smith) and his former flame Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) partaking in lovers’ quarrels, and, in fact, the unending stress between Ulf the White (Tom Bennett) and his booze.

But, what’s more likely to shock most informal followers could also be two low-simmering romances that abruptly come to a boil in Episode 6. Not like “Sport of Thrones” (the sooner seasons, no less than) or “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” few would mistake “Home of the Dragon” for a chamber piece centered solely on character above all else. We now have a number of compelling figures to comply with and root for (and in opposition to), in fact, however that is merely not one among this present’s most urgent priorities. That in all probability helps clarify why the abrupt developments in two particular subplots — Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) in Harrenhal, and Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim) and Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia) in, sure, one more occasion of incest on this collection — could really feel like they arrive out of nowhere.

The “why” behind each of those sudden pairings is value exploring. Sure similarities within the supply materials “Fireplace & Blood” go a great distance in direction of explaining these storylines. However, for probably the most half, we’re all left with two questionable storytelling selections.

By no means change, “Home of the Dragon.” By its very nature, the HBO prequel collection has had the unenviable activity of hitting sure mile markers on its solution to telling a narrative with an ending that has already been spoiled by “Sport of Thrones.” That inevitably signifies that sure twists and turns within the plot can really feel considerably … preordained, in a way of talking. (Much less beneficiant followers would in all probability name these moments “compelled.”)

One such occasion must be the Alyn/Baela romance, a pairing that even the nerdiest of guide followers possible by no means noticed coming within the present. For one factor, the 2 have shared possibly one actual scene collectively all through everything of “Home of the Dragon” the place they really exchanged dialogue and managed to get to know one another a little bit. For an additional, uh, it has been pretty well-established that they each have the identical father within the Sea Snake, Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint). Not that this franchise has stayed away from incest earlier than, I am going to grant you, however no less than different such pairings like Rhaenyra and Daemon had some precise sparks. Alyn and Baela, by stark distinction, are giving us nothing.

Now, in all equity, this can be a relationship that comes straight out of “Fireplace & Blood” — however with a twist. This does not truly occur till later within the story, and even then it is completed out of political want fairly than romantic need. It is easy to see why showrunner Ryan Condal and his writing staff would need to lay the groundwork for this a little bit earlier, however the execution of this could’t assist however really feel awfully random and rushed.

The Alys Rivers and Aemond Targaryen subplot, alternatively, is not fairly as simple to discern. On the very least, this advantages from having a number of episodes with the 2 enjoying off each other and studying to rely on one another (even when some would possibly say that is largely a retread of that divisive Daemon arc in Season 2). In the end, there’s some intrigue in seeing how their dynamic has grown from a protecting mom/son function to one thing a lot darker and extra disturbing — significantly after the reveal about her secret stash of dragon eggs and her want to rule because the “Woman of the Water” with him by her aspect. On the identical time, nevertheless, it is honest to ask one other query: The place the heck is that this going?

That is one occasion the place the present truly improves on what creator George R.R. Martin laid down within the guide. “Fireplace & Blood” hardly even touches on any actual relationship between Daemon and Alys, which solely makes it odder when Aemond takes the fortress and is reported to have instantly taken Alys into his mattress, as properly. She’s described as his lover from that time on, although Martin stays mild on element. The collection has completed some legwork to elucidate what every lonely character would see within the different… however with the present confirmed to finish in Season 4 and this season almost over, there is not precisely a ton of runway left to discover this a lot additional.

What we’re left with are two romances that, for very completely different causes, have us elevating an eyebrow or two. New episodes of “Home of the Dragon” air on HBO each Sunday.