The Targaryen Fanboy Stomped By Daemon’s Dragon in ‘House of the Dragon’ Episode 3 is More Important Than You Think

I don’t think I’m a malevolent person, but the first scene of House of the Dragon Episode 3 had me re-evaluating that position. I laughed when that random Velaryon knight (Aron von Andrian) was crushed to death by his own team’s dragon. I’m sorry, but I just thought it was hilarious that a common soldier would think that Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) was lighting up the Triarchy to specifically rescue one guy from being eaten by the crabs. But the more I think about it, this horrifically hysterical moment acts as a larger metaphor for one of the most persistent themes in George R.R. Martin‘s work. We might be dazzled by dragonlords and rooting for certain lords and ladies to win the proverbial “Game of Thrones,” but we actually shouldn’t be cheering for any of them.

House of the Dragon Episode 3 opens with a burning Seahorse sigil. Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) is clearly not winning his Stepstones War, but don’t tell his men that. As a wounded Westerosi soldier is being nailed to a stake so the crabs can eat him, he defiantly tells Crabfeeder (Daniel Scott-Smith) that House Velaryon is coming for him. The Crabfeeder just scoots some crabs onto the guy as he curses him. It’s not looking good for our random loyal soldier.

Then we hear a whistle. Prince Daemon has arrived with his dragon Caraxes. Our faithful soldier yells in exaltation, egging the dragonlord on. “Here my prince! Save meeee!” And then Caraxes stomps the poor idiot to death. Prince Daemon’s biggest, most loyal fanboy cried out for his prince to save him and was instead crushed to death under the weight of his lord’s dragon. I laughed so hard.

I laughed so much at this nameless dude’s death that I paused my House of the Dragon screener, rewound, and watched it again. It was a dark comedy at its most pitch black. A commoner devotes their life to serving a silver-haired incest baby — Daemon’s parents were siblings, his grandparents were siblings, his great-grandparents were cousins, and his great-great-grandparents were siblings — only to be crushed by said silver-haired incest baby. Prince Daemon is not fighting the Triarchy for the good of his men. He’s doing it for the good of himself. It’s a bleakly comic gag that doubles as a metaphor for one of the most prevalent themes in George R.R. Martin’s work: the nobles don’t care about the smallfolk, and that’s bad.

Both George R.R. Martin and the HBO adaptations of his work have gotten a lot of criticism about the amount of graphic violence, sometimes sexual, that appears in these fantasy stories. A common refrain is that since House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones are all made up, it should be possible to imagine a fantasy world where women aren’t sexually assaulted and innocents aren’t tortured. But the thesis of George R.R. Martin’s work is actually that in a fantasy story comprised of lords, ladies, kings, queens, and dragonriders, the smallfolk will always suffer for the whims of their rulers. The brutality is the point. No Iron Throne or glittering crown is worth the bloodshed that comes from the Game of Thrones.

The poor bastard Caraxes casually crushes to death doesn’t understand this. He touts House Velaryon and essentially swoons over his prince. And in the end, he is literally trampled underfoot. His death is a moment of tragic folly that epitomizes so much of what George R.R. Martin is trying to say with his epic tomes.