‘House of the Dragon’ Episode 3: 5 Things You Might Have Missed, Including The Lannister Twins, White Hart Symbolism, and More Nymeria Easter Eggs

At the start of the episode, Rhaenyra is rebelliously avoiding court by hanging out in the godswood with her books, her wine, and personal minstrel. The minstrel ends the sad song with the lines, “Under the dragon’s eye,” which could lead us to believe it’s a song about Targaryen glory. Not so. When the minstrel starts the song again, he opens the plaintive ballad with the lines, “She fled with her ships and her people/Her heart broken for those –”

Alicent’s arrival cuts the song off, but it’s clear that this is a song about Nymeria, the mythic queen of the Rhoynar who led her people from their homes along the river Rhoyne in Essos on an exodus across the seas. After many tragic attempts to find a safe place to live, Nymeria’s 10,000 ships finally arrived in Dorne. She burned the ships and wed Mors Martell. She accomplished this all at the height of the Valyrian empire, ergo “under the dragon’s eye.” (And yes, Arya Stark’s direwolf was named after the warrior queen.)

This is the second time in just three episodes that House of the Dragon where Rhaenyra is meditating on Nymeria. In episode one, Alicent quizzes Rhaenyra on the queen’s history, and now Alicent is ruining Rhaenyra’s chill vibes. Besides showing us just how fractured the girls’ relationship has become, it’s HBO once more planting the idea of Nymeria as a hero in our heads. After all, one of the many Game of Thrones spin-offs in development is 10,000 Ships, which would be a show about Nymeria.

And while you may have caught that the minstrel’s name was Samwell — showing that future Night’s Watch brother Samwell Tarly had a classic Westerosi name — you might not have caught the meta joke. Rhaenyra is telling Samwell to play the same song over and over again. You could say she’s consistently telling him to “Play it again, Sam.” You know, like in the classic movie Casablanca.

When Rhaenyra first enters what we’ll call “the party tent” at the royal hunt, she finds herself eavesdropping on several highborn ladies’ conversation. They’re talking about how Daemon’s war in the Stepstones is falling apart, but they’re specifically gossiping about how a certain Lord Swann’s niece, Lady Johanna, has been held for ransom by the Crabfeeder (Daniel Scott-Smith). However this Lord Swann is stingy and not going to pay the ransom. Alicent asks what is to become of Lady Johanna and another woman says the rumor is she’s going to be sold to a pleasure house in Lys. Emphasis on it being a scurrilous rumor.

The thing is it’s not a rumor. In George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood he devotes a few intriguing lines to Lady Johanna Swann, saying, “When her famously niggardly uncle refused to pay the ransom, she was sold to a pillow house, where she rose to become the celebrated courtesan known as the Black Swan, and ruler of Lys in all but name. Alas, her tale, however fascinating, has no bearing upon our present history.”

And that’s it! That’s all we hear about Lady Johanna Swann in the books, aside from a mention in one of the “Dunk and Egg” stories. It’s such an intriguing aside, though, right? Clearly Martin has thought about this character and has a whole story floating around his head. Otherwise why mention it at all in Fire & Blood? My bigger question is why namedrop her at all in House of the Dragon? Is it simply an Easter egg for Fire & Blood readers or will we learn more about this character eventually?

Rhaenyra wasn’t the only person eavesdropping on the ladies’ gossip circle. Lord Lyonel Strong’s son Larys (Matthew Needham) — unfortunately nicknamed “The Clubfoot” because, uh, he has a club foot and people in Westeros are ableist — joins the chit chat. If Larys seems sort of creepy, that’s because he comes from the Lord Varys/Littlefinger School of “People Who Are All Up In Everyone’s Business.” Keep your eye on him in the weeks ahead.

Also keep an eye on his older brother, Ser Harwin “Breakbones” Strong. While we don’t officially meet him, Viserys very contemptuously suggests that Lord Lyonel Strong is trying to marry Rhaenyra to his son in a mid-episode scene. Lord Lyonel actually isn’t trying to do this! He knows that even though his son is “the strongest” knight in the realm, it’s a bad political match. Instead, Lyonel is trying to convince Viserys to match Rhaenyra with Laenor Velaryon to heal up that family wound.

Still, it shouldn’t escape your notice that Ser Harwin himself watches Rhaenyra as she enters the camp later, covered in blood, with the boar she killed. And Ser Harwin likes what he sees. Keep your eyes on both Strong brothers, folks…they’re part of this incendiary story, too.

The Strongs aren’t the only brothers we met in House of the Dragon Episode 3. We also meet this era’s Lannister twins. (I guess twins are a thing in the Lannister gene pool!)

We first meet Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall) when he tries to talk to Viserys about the disaster in the Stepstones on Aegon’s name day. Viserys wants nothing to do with it because it’s a bummer and he wants to fete his best boy. Tyland immediately comes across as a more timid, more serious Lannister than we’re used to.

Then we meet his pompous twin brother Lord Jason Lannister, also played by Jefferson Hall. Jason believes that he can woo Rhaenyra to be his wife. Boy, is he wrong! Rhaenyra wants nothing to do with the preening peacock and his terrible attempt at flirtation sparks a major fight between the princess and her father. Jason later gifts Viserys the gold tipped spear that he flails at using against a tied up stag.

One thing that’s fun to note is that the Lannisters of this era are just as ambitious as Lord Tywin and his golden-haired brood. However, none of them seemingly have the killer instinct of Tywin, Tyrion, or Cersei. They also don’t seem to have the same sexual obsession with one another, which is nice to see in a show about incestuous dragon lords.

Following in the footsteps of The Queen, The Crown, Becoming Elizabeth, and even Game of Thrones itself, House of the Dragon gave us some profound “royal characters as hunted wildlife” metaphors last night.

When Viserys arrives at the campsite for the royal hunt, he is told that a white hart has been spotted by hunters. The white hart is considered the “king” of the Kingswood and Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) says it is a sign that the Seven bless the day — and, more specifically, baby Aegon. However the white hart eludes the royal hunters. They only manage to catch a stag for the king to poke to death. And a hideously drunk Viserys can’t even summon the energy to take a tied down animal out with one strike. It’s a scene that metaphorically symbolizes how weak Viserys is as king and how his ineffectiveness will cause more harm than good. (If you can’t quickly kill an animal, you prolong its pain.)

Meanwhile, Rhaenyra not only is able to kill the boar who tries to attack her, but she is also visited by the white hart. The forest finds her worthy of the Iron Throne, not Viserys or Aegon. Intriguingly, when Ser Criston attempts to take down the hart, Rhaenyra says, “Don’t.” The animal keeps its live and its freedom.

So Rhaenyra has not only been blessed by the white hart, but she is giving the animal that metaphorically represents her the freedom she so desperately craves. Well, either that, or they’re trying to connect her to all the stag/Diana references that are all over Peter Morgan’s The Crown.