House of The Dragon: The Burning Mill – S02E03 – RECAP

The last episode of House of the Dragon which is titled The Burning Mill has given us a peak but this time more realistic of the war of fire that is about to consume the seven kingdom, with the dance of dragons on its way, with the Greens this time at the hands of Criston Cole taking the first steps in actual war. This is still building up whats coming next based on previous events even from the first season, taking a bit much longer that most people would expect for actual war between the two but there is still context to be build before the no point of return on this conflict. We witness the consequences of the earlier scenes, such as the death of baby Jaehaerys and the increasing conflict between the Blacks and the Greens. The show has also added new characters and developed existing ones as the plot of the show progresses. Episode three turn out to be a very busy episode that features the battle at Burning Mill as well as Daemon’s capture of Harrenhal and the setting of the stage for future wars and alliances, in the matter of the Burning Mill battle I would have prefer they explain a bit more of it, I could understand how its not such a big deal for the actual war at hand, both families had grudge since for ever but still a big time jump. As I would imagine rather than been a very dramatic episode like episode 2 this was more about figuring out where both sides stand and whats next.

The series begins with the battle of burning mill between the houses Blackwood and Bracken, that was left just as that "A Centuries Old Symbolic of the Larger Conflict", because it would not really matter much at least for now. This is not just a battle, it is the continuation of the vendetta that started many years ago, these two houses have been enemies for so long that it is impossible to tell as to what actually led to the two houses to start fighting.

This battle is a perfect example of the conflict that is in the process of developing, perfect description of how hatred and ignorance can escalate to the level of a war, as it is seen with the conflict between Rhaenyra and Aegon II for the throne, soon there will be many events that will be consider the start of the war, but in reality they are all excuses.

In King’s Landing the Small Council is discussing the events of the Battle at Burning Mill, but just the more war like ones like Aegon, Aemond and Criston Cole who see it as a declaration of war and the others who want to play it down, when in fact as the rest said it was just another excuse for them to kill each other declaring sides.

The episode slowly starts to paint the picture of how slowly Alicent has no say in these meetings at all or her say has become insignificant, not only she had to wrestle her father when Otto was Hand of The King to make her voice still remain significant but now her "lover", Criston Cole has gone up in the ranks as Hand of The King, out matching her of who has more authority at the small council. Despite her efforts to remain rational and prevent the conflict, the more aggressive members of the council want to go to war, well at least half of them, from now on it would not be strange if Alicent start to become more like Cersie exactly as when Joffrey was king, Alicent will slowly start to become more ruthless and who knows if the table turns and she would be the one looking for Criston Cole. At the same time I would think the same how Aegon, as a king, start to morph into a Joffrey making everyone watching the show want so see him burn in dragon fire same as with Criston Cole but we are not there yet.

The taking of Harrenhal is one of the significant events of the episode, keep in mind that I have not read the books, from what I found online this is the real battle between Dragons that I would expect to watch on episode four, that same scene where Meleys fights Vhagar on one of the trailers. It was a bit disappointing how Daemon took the castle without any fight at all, even the guard who find him was not going to fight he only said "hold", so all he had to do was show up with his dragon, Caraxes and it was enough to have the Ser Simon Strong give up the castle and bend the knee.

The position of Harrenhal is ideal for controlling the Riverlands, this has been the plan on both sides but only Daemon decided to go for it and it was probably the results as his argument with Rhaenyra. As a result Daemon has made a big move in boxing in the Greens by taking Harrenhal, but he only has Caraxes with him, yes a dragon can out number an army but it would take him some time to get rid of the entire army that shows up opening the time frame for a scorpion or two to attack, all it takes is one shot to bring him down.

For the first time the show mention actual Dragon Seeds and probably not as Dragon Riders but to bastards that are Valyrian enough to be consider bastards, in the case of House of The Dragon series, potential dragon riders. This is very important because as more of this Dragon Seeds start to show up at this point in time there are two bastards who are Dragon Seeds, on episode 3 we heard Gaemon Palehair talking about it at a tavern. Same as Hugh Hammer shows on the first two episodes of this season, this is setting up the stage for when Rhaenyra start to gather this men either she call them directly or for some reason they start to departure Kings Landing looking for a better life next to their sibling and ruler, same as on Game of Thrones when war is in full force the small folks will start to suffer way more and having that reverse card on their hand, most Targaryan will go and be with the Blacks.

Towards the end of the episode there is a scene where Rhaenyra and Alicent meet in the sept, this was an intense scene from the moment both Rhaenyra and Mysaria took the "wise" decision to plan how this meeting would happen, basically sneaking Rhaenyra into Kings Landing without anyone noticing, even she jokes about it like OK when I get there what? ring the bells at the Red Keep and ask for Alicent, this is as risky and crazy as it goes without anyone at the Black Counsil knowing of her plan. It is a scene that clears up if Alicent really is a traitor as everyone thinks since she share what Viserys said before his death, she heard him mumbling about Aegon as a prince but it was him talking about the Song of Ice and Fire before his death. The truth comes out and in reality Alicent is not the bitch everyone thinks she is, she made a mistake and obviously would hype on it when she literally heard Viserys said "Aegon...prince to unite the realm", thats is sufficient excuse to think he had change his mind, as a mother she would want Aegon to be king, she trully regrets her mistake when Rhaenyra explains this too her but its too late now.

It is rather sad to watch this scene because now Alicent knows the truth but it does not change anything, this is to the multiple factors that had happen. First her father Otto is not in the council anymore, Criston Cole is the Hand of The King who was sleeping with her, baby Jaehaerys was decapitated by "instructions" of Daemon and the most recent event is the battle of Burning Mill, it is just too much to turn this ship around.

At this point in time the small council especially Aegon, Aemond and Criston Cole are willing to continue the war even if the facts are against them, even if Alicent suddenly tells the truth what is to do about Aegon son? that's enough reason to declare war. A real tragedy to see all this happening just because of Alicent mistake and I would laugh to watch Viserys face watching this entire situation unfolding.

In terms of context this episode was truly satisfying, it was still dramatic but not in the same sense as episode two, it was more about the clearing out the truth and gossips, episode three also makes evident that war has begone with the first troops going out from the Greens. The show now will put more emphasis on alliances, treason and power hunger as how the Greens will try to consume every other family that is on Rahenyras side and how some of them might jump ship at the event of their annihilation. The story is switching gears too preparing the next evolution on the Blacks army as Dragon Seeds are officially introduce, think of dragons as War Jets F-16 fully loaded, even the small dragons can cause a lot of damage to a ground army, the Blacks in this case have the most but not enough riders at the moment so this opens the door for the series to unveil this other dragons from now on, probably not on this season as I think that with what we have is enough but for sure it will on the next season, its been said that HOTD will be at least a four season series which sounds great from an entertaining perspective although I have no idea if the entire story will fit.

I have notice that when it comes to the GOT Universe there is much more information out there or at least people are more aware of this and if you like the show I would advice you NOT to look into this kind of content based on the books themself because most likely you will spoil the show yourself, happen to me already.