Spoilers ahead for the latest episode of House of the Dragon.
House of the Dragon: Season 3’s sixth episode, “Faceless Men”, depicts a moment that its director called “an instigating event for a lot of bad things” to come in the series.
As a frustrated Rhaenyra hears petitions from her complaining subjects, she cuts her finger on the Iron Throne, something that also happened to her father, King Viserys I, and proved a bad omen for him personally and for his reign.
“That cut on Rhaenyra’s finger becomes an instigating event for a lot of bad things,” director Loni Peristere declared in HBO’s Inside the Episode featurette.
“One of the greatest scenes in the series is the moment that Rhaenyra cuts her finger on the iron throne. We all know what that means,” Peristere explained. “There’s infections that follow. There’s rot that follows. It basically reveals what’s ultimately happening for real in Rhaenyra’s tenure as queen.”
Rhaenyra actor Emma D’Arcy added: “There’s obviously some significant foreshadowing in this moment. Though I don’t know to what extent Rhaenyra is cognizant of its significance. Viserys kept his own condition very private. I don’t know how she could know that the throne was the root of his illness. I think Rhaenyra perceives it is part of kind of broader hostility. I think she experiences the throne and the crown and the council, the sort of vestiges of leadership as hostile in some way.”
House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal views the cut as representative of Rhaenyra being “torn between the old principles of Daemon and the new progressive principles of Viserys. It was more of a symbol to show the struggle that she is going through and to remind her that Viserys looms very large in her life.”
The “rot that follows” Peristere warned of is almost immediately evident when Rhaenyra orders Alicent to kill her own son, Rhaenyra’s archenemy Aemond, if she wants better treatment for her and her daughter Helaena.
Helaena’s pregnancy certainly is a challenge to Rhaenyra’s rule and, in the words of Condal, makes both mother and unborn child “expendable” to the queen:
“It puts Rhaenyra in a really terrible spot. And this brings her back to all these existential questions as to how she’s gonna be able to win her throne in a way that she doesn’t completely compromise her moral standing.”
Rhaenyra may soon find herself left with little choice but to do the unthinkable in order to preserve her rule and end the civil war.
The episode’s co-writer, David Hancock, warned that Rhaenyra’s ambition to defeat Ormund Hightower while growing neglectful of her subjects could lead her to make a terrible strategic miscalculation: “If she kills indiscriminately, subjects loyal to her might well rise up in insurrection. However many dragons you have, you can’t quell an entire kingdom rebelling against you.”
For more coverage of all things Westeros, check out our House of the Dragon: Season 3 Episode 6 review, learn how the episode gave that legacy character the send-off they bitterly deserved, and read the news that author George R.R. Martin is writing a fourth book in his Dunk and Egg series.
