House of the Dragon Season 3: Rhaenyra Killing THAT Character Explained & What It Really Means

House of the Dragon returned with the Battle of the Gullet, which brought chaos, destruction, and the death of Jacaerys Velaryon. Season 3, Episode 2, deals with the fallout of that, picking up the broken pieces and trying to find a way to move forward with them. It begins like the previous episode ended: in heartbreaking fashion. Where that was a murder, this is grief, portrayed in a raw, gut-wrenching way by Emma D’Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen gradually breaks, and it informs everything that comes next. Warning: major SPOILERS ahead.

Most notably, it pushes Rhaenyra into her most decisive action yet. With Aemond having left King’s Landing on Vhagar, and Alicent Hightower and Helaena Targaryen convincing the guards to stand down, Rhaenyra heads to the Westeros capital on her dragon Syrax. She’s accompanied by Daemon Targaryen on Caraxes, alongside Hugh the Hammer (on Vermithor) and Ulf the White (on Silverwing), but they’re hardly needed: the fall of King’s Landing is swift, and the city, and the Iron Throne, belongs to Rhaenyra. But before she sits upon it, there’s the matter of dealing with traitors to the crown, namely Jasper Wylde, aka Ironrod, and even bigger, Otto Hightower.

Otto was last seen in a cell in the House of the Dragon Season 2 finale, with it unclear exactly where he was. It turns out he’d been left in the dungeons of the Red Keep, as a gift to Daemon and Rhaenyra from Larys Strong, and it’s one they accept with relish. Otto is quickly put to the sword, but it’ll continue to have ramifications.

Rhaenyra Had To Kill Otto, But Her Botched Beheading Is A Bad Sign

Rhaenyra had little choice but to kill Otto. As the orchestrator of the plot to usurp her rule and install Aegon on the Iron Throne instead of her, then, if she is to be the rightful queen, his actions must be seen as treasonous, and the punishment for high treason is death. This is a reversal of where things were at the end of Season 1: when Otto stood before Rhaenyra on Dragonstone, she refused to allow Daemon to execute him, both out of her lingering fondness for Alicent and because she would not be the one to spark the civil war into life. After the loss of two sons, that time has long since passed.

With it treason that does for Otto, the same is true for Ironrod. He served as Master of Laws under King Viserys I and later supported the conspiracy to raise Aegon to king ahead of Rhaenyra’s claim, though it’s also made more deserved and satisfying after his attempted assault of Alicent earlier in the episode. While Jasper’s beheading, done by Daemon, was swift and clean, the same cannot be said for Otto’s.

Performed by Rhaenyra, she follows the adage we first heard from Ned Stark in Game of Thrones Season 1: the man (or in this case, woman) who passes the sentence must swing the sword, which also fulfils D’Arcy’s dream of Rhaenyra finally getting to use one. Unfortunately, it’s a clunky blow that does not sever the head on first swing, instead requiring a second go. It calls to mind Theon Greyjoy’s botched beheading of Rodrik Cassell in Game of Thrones Season 2, which ended up being a terrible omen for how is efforts at ruling Winterfell would go. The same might be true of Rhaenyra.

What Rhaenyra Killing Otto Means For Her & Alicent

Rhaenyra has just killed a political adversary, but also the father of her former best friend. She and Alicent continue to have a complicated relationship, but with the latter having agreed to open the gates to the city, and accepted that two of her sons will have to die, the death of Otto on top of all that will make it even more complex. It shows to Alicent just how ruthless Rhaenyra is willing to be, and just how much the war has changed them.

At the same time, there’s not a whole lot Alicent can do. She looks shocked at the sight of Otto’s death, and Rhaenyra initially looks apologetic, before firming up in resolve, clearly showing things are being done on her terms. Though it’s likely that she’ll be made comfortable, Alicent is now effectively going to be Rhaenyra’s prisoner, changing the dynamic between them further, but also leaving the door open for many more scenes between them than we had in Season 2, so that it can be explored in much greater depth.

Why Did Larys Strong Leave Otto In A Cell For Rhaenyra & Daemon?

When we first saw Otto in a cell back in Season 2, it wasn’t clear exactly where he was, but there were two prevalent theories: the first, which I admittedly preferred, was that he’d been taken by House Beesbury, Rhaenyra loyalists in the Reach. The second is that he was in the Red Keep, and that proved to be true, with it transpiring that Larys Strong had him locked up there and left as a gift for Rhaenyra and Daemon.

Although Larys has been advising Aegon, this is canny strategy from him, and in keeping with his Littlefinger-esque machinations. Removing Otto from the board takes away a political rival, someone who sees through his own games, and gives him greater influence over Aegon and, thus, the realm. But by playing it as a gift offered up to Rhaenyra, foreseeing the possibility of King’s Landing falling, it also works to curry favor with the new queen if and when he returns to the city.

Rhaenyra Has Taken King’s Landing & The Iron Throne: Now What?

Rhaenyra has finally claimed the Iron Throne, accomplishing her biggest goal of the series, so… what comes next? She has the throne, she has the city, she has several large dragons, but this is not the end of the war. Aegon and Aemond are both still out there, and for as long as that is the case, her rule will never be cemented. There os also the matter of how she rules: the smallfolk of King’s Landing have struggled, in part because of the blockade on the Gullet, and so while there will be those who celebrate the queen, there will also be plenty unhappy to see her.

One interesting change from the book is that, in George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, Rhaenyra is said to have cut herself on the Iron Throne when she first sat on it, something that doesn’t happen in the TV show. In the source material, that’s an ill omen for her reign; in the show, we have her execution of Otto as a sign of that, but perhaps it will take a different approach to her reign. No matter would, though, her story, and her battles, are far from over.

New episodes of House of the Dragon Season 3 release at 9 pm ET on Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.

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