Warning: Spoilers forward for “Home of the Dragon” season three, episode 4, and the guide “Hearth & Blood.”
There are many Targaryens vying for energy in “Home of the Dragon,” however the silver-haired dragonlords should not the one threats in Westeros.
HBO’s tentpole “Sport of Thrones” prequel depicts the Dance of the Dragons, which finds Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) pitted in opposition to her half-brother, Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney), in a brutal conflict of succession.
Aegon II — alongside along with his three youthful siblings, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), Helaena (Phia Saban), and Daeron (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) — was born to the late King Viserys and Alicent Hightower. Naturally, his declare to the Iron Throne is supported by Home Hightower, a noble household from the Attain with a powerful connection to the Religion of the Seven.
“Home of the Dragon” has already featured a number of outstanding Hightowers, together with Alicent (Olivia Cooke), her father Otto (Rhys Ifans), and her brother Gwayne (Freddie Fox).
In season three, Alicent’s cousin Ormund (James Norton) is launched as one other key participant within the ongoing schism.
Ormund is the pinnacle of Home Hightower and instructions their spectacular military. In season three, episode three, “Rhaenyra Triumphant,” Ormund is ordered — beneath risk of three huge dragons — to give up and bend the knee to the realm’s new queen. He does, albeit deceptively.
Ormund and the Hightower military — strengthened by his ward, Daeron Targaryen, and the prince’s dragon, Tessarion — go on to grab management of Tumbleton, a market city close to King’s Touchdown. From his unassuming perch, Ormund continues devising schemes to overthrow Rhaenyra and cement his household’s affect.
Theo Whiteman/HBO
Within the fourth episode of season three, viewers be taught much more about Ormund as Rhaenyra scrounges for grime on her enemy.
In response to Alicent, Ormund “sees himself as a scholar” who “despises the ignorant and uncouth.” He research histories, collects tapestries, and has a powerful “sensitivity to odors.” In response to Gwayne, he is a “stiff-necked windbag” who at all times has a “canny plot” up his sleeve.
Throughout his hostile keep at Tumbleton, Ormund is revealed to have a devious army thoughts, a vicious mood, and, certainly, a secret plot: to crown the teenage Daeron as the subsequent king of Westeros, leap-frogging each of his older brothers.
Ormund raised Daeron after the prince was despatched to reside in Oldtown as an toddler. He believes Daeron is extra of a Hightower than a Targaryen — and that he is extra dependable than any of his siblings, who have been all raised in King’s Touchdown.
“You’re a good boy. You communicate kindly, and also you say your prayers. I’ve raised you within the gentle of the Seven, and the Father smiles upon you,” Ormund tells Daeron. “However there’s a taint in your blood. The Targaryens are a savage race, poor in mind, however wealthy in crafty. With darkish spells, they created abominations to subdue what was rightfully ours. We’re the superior males.”
“The gods have put you to divine objective, my boy,” he provides. “You’ll restore our historical order.”
Ormund is poised to throw a wrench in Rhaenyra’s reign, particularly if his story is devoted to the supply materials, George R. R. Martin’s “Hearth & Blood.” Hold studying to seek out out Ormund’s destiny within the guide.
Ormund’s takeover of Tumbleton proves consequential and lethal
Kevin Baker/HBO
At the same time as Rhaenyra claims the Iron Throne within the guide, Aegon II and Aemond (along with his huge dragon Vhagar) stay at giant, whereas the Hightowers proceed to withstand the queen within the Attain. As Martin writes, “No conflict may be counted as gained while foes stay unconquered.”
Prince Daeron the Daring, as Ormund kinds him, turns into often known as the best risk to Rhaenyra’s reign, advancing on King’s Touchdown with a military of 20,000 males.
Lord Corlys Velaryon, the Hand of the Queen, urges Rhaenyra to pardon the nice homes that also oppose her — together with Hightower, Lannister, and Baratheon — if they comply with swear fealty to her as an alternative. He additionally encourages her to ship her half-brothers to the Wall to reside out their days as Sworn Brothers of the Night time’s Watch. Rhaenyra’s husband, Prince Daemon, argues the other. He says that pardoning traitors and oathbreakers will solely encourage future rebellions.
Rhaenyra tends to agree with Daemon, although she decides to “steer a center course.” She agrees to supply pardons to Homes Baratheon and Lannister, however solely after Aegon’s line has been vanquished. Rhaenyra sends Daemon to seek out and kill Aemond, and two of her newly recruited dragonriders, Ulf White and Hugh Hammer, to kill Daeron.
In what got here to be often known as the Battle of Tumbleton, about 6,000 of Rhaenyra’s loyalists — together with the Northern troopers often known as the Winter Wolves — sack the city. Though Rhaenyra’s males are enormously outnumbered by the Hightower’s host, they assume that Ulf and Hugh are arriving quickly from King’s Touchdown to help with their dragons, Silverwing and Vermithor.
Ormund is killed within the chaos that ensues. Legend says he was slain by Lord Roderick Dustin, aka Roddy the Wreck, after the Northerner minimize by way of tons of of foes to seek out him.
Below regular circumstances, Ormund’s dying might have turned the tide in Rhaenyra’s favor. With out their commander, the Hightower’s host is scattered, their banners toppled.
As an alternative, Ulf and Hugh ignore Rhaenyra’s orders and wreak havoc with dragonflame.
The guide’s fictional historians disagree as to why Ulf and Hugh immediately determine to burn civilians and troopers alike — whether or not it is concern of going through Daeron (unlikely, as each Silverwing and Vermithor are older and greater than Tessarion), concern of going through Ormund’s giant military (unlikely for comparable causes), disenchantment with Rhaenyra (pretty possible), or straight-up greed (almost certainly). It appears Ulf and Hugh realized they might seize energy for themselves, and selected to show it with hearth and blood.
“As neither man may learn nor write, we will by no means know what drove the Two Betrayers (as historical past has named them) to do what they did,” the guide says, although regardless of the cause for Ulf and Hugh’s treason, the end result is identical: “Tumbleton, that affluent market city, was decreased to ash and embers.”
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