This article contains spoilers.
House of the Dragon just wrapped up Season 3 with an explosive finale, and much to anticipate for the fourth and final season. In Episode 8, we finally get to watch the First Battle of Tumbleton unfold, along with a few character deaths and resurrections.
Picking up where Episode 7 left off, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) learns that Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) and his dragon, Sunfyre, are still alive. The news sends her into panic and desperation, and she resolves to come down on Tumbleton with force to quash their brother Daeron (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) and his tyrannical uncle Ormund Hightower (James Norton). As she sends Daemon (Matt Smith) off to Tumbleton, she reminds him not to use force against the innocent townspeople, as their deaths might repel the Great Houses from taking her side.
Just after her late-night tryst with the queen, Mistress of the Whispers Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) gets fired and is escorted through King’s Landing to the port, where a journey to the eastern city of Pentos has been arranged for her. On the way out, she comes across Helaena (Phia Saban), who is on the way back to her bedroom-prison from mandatory outdoor time. Mysaria tells her not to trust Rhaenyra and that Aegon is still alive. Rhaenyra visits her half-sister to try to get her to eat, but Helaena refuses and, in turn, gets force-fed her lunch.
The queen, set on getting anointed by High Septon Eustace (Simon Chandler), leaves for the Grand Sept (think St. Peter’s Basilica for Westeros) in chainmail and a crown, with her only remaining son Joffrey Velaryon (Oscar Eskinazi) in tow. But the High Septon refuses to anoint her again, especially with Aegon alive and capable of ruling. Alyn (Abubakar Salim) reluctantly executes him, with Rhaenyra reminding him that he has the blood of Old Valyria and answers to gods greater than the Seven.
As the High Septon bleeds out, Rhaenyra faces her people outside the Grand Sept, giving a speech about being Viserys’ heir. “I am the Prince That Was Promised,” she says in Valyrian.
Aegon and Aemond’s Bitter Reunion
Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) manages to survive getting poisoned by his own mother, Alicent (Olivia Cooke), who has left Harrenhal believing that she killed her son. He wakes up with guilt for having “killed” his brother, and asks why Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) chooses to be with him.
Alys tells him her backstory: 100 years ago, when Balerion burned Harrenhal along with Lord Harren Hoare and his line, a child and his mother survived, though he was badly burnt. To keep her son alive, Alys resorted to witchcraft, but he died, and she was cursed with immortality, made to serve whichever lord took Harrenhal. Now, she serves Aemond.
Later on, he gets out of bed again, hearing the sound of a dragon he thinks is Vhagar. But instead of his dragon, he finds Sunfyre and Aegon, who slaps him and says, “I’m alive, imbecile!” There, Aemond apologizes, but Aegon is still angry at him for trying to kill him. The older brother says they will find Vhagar so that they can fly over Tumbleton and bring Ormund and Daeron to heel, then take over King’s Landing before he could consider forgiving Aemond.
The First Battle of Tumbleton
In Tumbleton, Ormund sends little boys to the front of the battlements. Outnumbered and fearing for everyone’s lives, Daeron and his less evil uncle Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox) hatch a plan to broker peace between the Blacks and the Greens. Gwayne brings Corlys (Steve Toussaint) to Daemon outside the city walls, offering his freedom as a token of peace. He and Corlys also propose letting Daeron rule from Oldtown as the Lord of the Reach so that Rhaenyra could continue her reign over the Seven Kingdoms. But Daemon refuses, sending Gwayne back to the Hightowers and taking Corlys as a prisoner for trying to form a peace pact with the Greens.
Daemon returns to White Wolves commander Roderick Dustin (Tommy Flanagan) and Oscar Tully (Archie Barnes), Lord Paramount of the Riverlands, to talk strategy. The dragonseed Ulf (Tom Bennett) and his dragon Silverwing are still part of their plans, though unbeknownst to them, Ulf has taken Ormund’s side in the war. Inside the city walls, Ormund has found out that Daeron and Gwayne attempted a peace agreement with the Blacks. He searches for Ulf and finds him hungover and passed out in an outhouse, with his pants down. Ormund beats him up and humiliates him before sending him off to battle.
The Battle of Tumbleton happens in broad daylight, which is a huge step up from Game of Thrones Season 8, Episode 3’s unwatchable Battle of Winterfell. In this episode of House of the Dragon, the action sequences are easy to watch, but only if you can stomach all the slashing. The White Wolves are the first to charge towards the walls of Tumbleton, some of them getting knocked out by stones, arrows, and boiling oil. The Rivermen use a battering ram to open one of the city’s gates, while Daemon uses his dragon, Caraxes, to burn another gate down.
But just as the Blacks start to pour into the city, Ulf and Silverwing emerge and burn the troops outside Tumbleton. Roderick finds Ormund in one of the battlements, and a fight ensues between them. Ormund manages to cut off one of Roderick’s arms, but he gets nauseous when the blood spurts on his face, allowing Roderick to punch him and stab him in the ass. Ulf then orders Silverwing to burn Ormund, along with the fortresses and streets of Tumbleton.
Daemon gets knocked out during a fight with Jon Roxton (Joplin Sibtain), Ormund’s lieutenant, but is spared when rubble falls over Jon under Silverwing’s fire. When Daemon comes to, Tumbleton is in ruins. Corlys finds him and convinces him to retreat while Gwayne searches for Daeron.
Back in the Red Keep, having returned from the Grand Sept, Rhaenyra discovers that Helaena has jumped out the window. She finds the tapestry that her half-sister had been working on hanging out the window, implying that she was trying to escape. On the cloth, Helaena had embroidered a woman falling to her death, and another woman on the Iron Throne, covered in blood. Rhaenyra, lacking remorse, shuts the window.
House of the Dragon Season 3 is streaming on HBO Max.
Frequently Asked Questions
In House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 8, Ormund Hightower is burnt to death by Ulf and Silverwing in the Battle of Tumbleton, while Helaena Targaryen falls off a window and onto a pike in the Red Keep.
In the book Fire & Blood, the Greens won the First Battle of Tumbleton. In House of the Dragon, the outcome of the battle is not immediately clear, and its aftermath will most likely be covered in the show’s fourth season. It is only implied that the Blacks retreated after Ulf destroyed the city with dragonfire.
In House of the Dragon, Silverwing burns the Blacks and the townspeople, while Caraxes burns the gates and the battlements. Hugh abandons the Blacks and Vermithor instead of riding the dragon into battle. In Fire & Blood, Caraxes is not involved in the battle while the Greens used Silverwing, Vermithor, and Tessarion.
In House of the Dragon, Alys was the wife of Lord Harren Hoare during the Conquest, 100 years before the events of the show. Through witchcraft, she becomes immortal, spending her days serving any lord who takes Harrenhal.
Mysaria is removed from Rhaenyra’s Small Council because the queen no longer has any use for her. Before she could be sent away to Pentos, a city in Essos, she escapes the queen’s guards and returns to the streets of King’s Landing.
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