House of the Dragon isn't always going to hit it out of the park when it comes to every episode. There are going to be some that need to take a step back every now and then in order to fill in some of the blanks and be far more character-driven than those that feature a ton of action. However, if things are done right, a character-centric episode doesn't need to be any less quality than the ones that came before it. When it comes to the third episode of this first season of House of the Dragon, it does indeed appear things are still being done very well.

It's well known that at some point in the HBO Max series, there is going to be a rather extreme time jump. It appears that maybe the showrunners are starting to lay that runway by having a smaller time jump in this episode of House of the Dragon. The story has leaped forward three years and that time jump accomplishes two things.

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The first is that it makes it very clear that the wedding between King Viserys Targaryen and Alicent Hightower has gone very well considering that he now has the son he'd been wanting for so long and there appears to be another bun in Alicent's oven. The couple also seems to actually like each other, which continues to be a very strong departure from the series that came before it. While House of the Dragon still deals with arranged marriages and some of those pairings not being sought after by both people involved, Viserys has obviously cared for both of his wives and is caring and loving because of that. The show that came before it made it very clear that these arranged marriages often went very poorly.

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Viserys, for the most part, continues to be the kind of king anyone who is watching the HBO Max series would want. He doesn't seem particularly mean and he seems to want the best for his kingdom. Of course, he is also still the king and that means he still has a bit of an ego, but he seems less like someone who will kill you simply for speaking the wrong word than what GoT fans are used to. Of course, the series setting Viserys up that way is a nice touch in this particular episode where we start to see what happens when even the best of men are starting to succumb to the stress of the job a little bit.

The show also does a very good job of showing that he really is a caring father who doesn't quite understand why his teenage daughter seems so sulky and angry all the time. The interactions between Considine and Milly Alcock are quite a bit different this week and that's definitely a good thing. For one thing, Alcock is finally able to add a bit of personality to her character. Since the series began, there's been a question as to whether Rhaenyra's character was written in a way that made her dry, or whether Alcock was just struggling to bring the character to life. This episode of House of the Dragon showed that Alcock is worth watching when she's given the right material.

This episode of House of the Dragon also takes advantage of everything that came before it when it came to Rhaenyra and Viserys. The first two episodes of the HBO Max series had the pair basically forming an uneasy peace. They talked to one another as people who didn't really know how to behave around each other. It appears that the years have allowed Alcock's character at least to feel a bit more at home in giving her father all sorts of grief. Not that he doesn't deserve some of it since he married her best friend (who it seemed she wanted more than friendship from) and fathered her usurper.

Speaking of usurpers, the other reason that the show apparently wanted to do the three-year time jump is to show the audience that Daemon Targaryen has been fighting a war of attrition against the Crabfeeder and his men. Of course, this particular plot line is the weakest of the entire series, because it was never really made clear what exactly the war is about, other than someone not being particularly happy that he's ruled by the Targaryens. It seems as if the war was created entirely for the series to have a little action, while most of the rest of the show continues to dwell in the politics of "who will eventually rule."

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Despite the war itself being a rather weak point in the show because it's simply not fleshed out well enough, it does allow Matt Smith to continue to show the duality of his character. Daemon is someone who enjoys the blood and death of the fight, but also wants to be considered a hero and a good person. The show has also made it pretty clear that his desire to be a hero isn't just about him wanting to be loved. There appears to be some plotting to go along with that desire.

There's another reason why the war scenes in this particular episode of House of the Dragon feel more than a little contrived and that continues to be the presence of the dragons. Both Game of Thrones and now its prequel have the same problem in that regard. Once dragons are brought into the mix, why is there really a need for another army at all? Why not just throw the flying flamethrowers into the mix, weaken the enemy beyond any sort of recovery and then send the ground troops in. There doesn't seem to really need to be a facing down of the opposition when someone has not one but two dragons at their disposal.

What this episode of House of the Dragon did best is to make sure that the audience knows that something is going to go down next week in a big way. It sure seems as though there's gonna be some rather big showdowns.

House of the Dragon airs Sundays on HBO and HBO Max

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