Warning! Spoilers for House of the Dragon season 3, episode 5, ahead!Rhaenyra is in pretty hot water as of House of the Dragon season 3, episode 5, and her mistakes are set to have consequences that last hundreds of years. This installment in the Game of Thrones prequel series follows the Targaryen queen as she continues to lose her grip on her crown. There is no money, Gold Cloaks are turning up dead, and Aemond and Vhagar are still missing. Rhaenyra is, as she says, “awash in dilemmas and deficiencies,” and this House of the Dragon episode sees her faced with yet another one.
At one point in this episode, Rhaenyra is at odds with Sabitha Frey, the wife of Lord Forrest Frey. Previously in House of the Dragon, Jace made a deal with the Freys, promising them Harrenhal if they provided the Black forces with safe passage across the Twins. Sabitha and her husband kept up their end of the deal, and Ser Roderick Dustin and his Winter Wolves made it safely over the Green Fork of the Trident. The trouble is that Jace is now dead, and Rhaenyra has promised Harrenhal to whoever kills Aemond Targaryen.
It’s clear in House of the Dragon season 3, episode 5, that Sabitha is none too pleased about Rhaenyra’s broken promises. While she has been offered a seat on the Queen’s Council, this isn’t good enough. Sabitha expects the crown to pay its debts, and resents that Harrenhal could instead end up in the hands of some hedge knight who successfully tracks Aemond down. Rhaenyra doesn’t pay this Lady of the Twins much attention, however, casually stating that Sabitha is welcome to hunt Aemond and Vhagar herself. Then, when Sabitha gets a bit too aggressive, Rhaenyra pins her down with a look.
Sabitha reluctantly drops the whole thing and accepts her seat at Rhaenyra’s council, but this resentment didn’t simply vanish. What makes this especially interesting is the fact that Rhaenyra Targaryen’s broken promise to Sabitha Frey is quite similar to Rob Stark’s betrayal of Walder Frey in Game of Thrones. In both cases, the Freys allowed a royal army to cross the Twins, and, in both cases, the Freys didn’t receive what they were promised.
House Of The Dragon Completely Changes The Context Of The Red Wedding
The Red Wedding was one of the most shocking moments of Game of Thrones, but House of the Dragon just added another layer of context. It all started when Lord Walder Frey agreed to give Rob Stark passage across the Twins, but only if the King of the North agreed to marry his daughter. Rob accepted the deal and was handed a significant advantage for the war ahead. However, Rob ended up falling in love with someone else (Talisa in the show, Jeyne in the books), and, rather than stick to his promise to marry the Frey girl, he ran off and got married.
Old Walder Frey didn’t take this betrayal well. So, he teamed up with the Lannisters and Boltons to have Rob, his family, and soldiers all slaughtered at a Frey wedding. Of course, there are few Game of Thrones characters less sympathetic than Walder Frey, but the fact that this man’s ancestors had been placed in a very similar situation a couple hundred years prior is rather significant.
Ironically, Sabitha Frey allowed the Winter Wolves to cross the Twins in House of the Dragon, while her descendant will be spurned centuries later for allowing more Northmen to cross.
The Twins are strategically very valuable, and the Freys take full advantage of that fact. They are far from charitable, and expect payment from those using their rather singular bridge. It’s interesting to consider just how many times between these two events that the various Houses of Westeros made promises to the Freys in exchange for passage, but never followed through. Rhaenyra just made a subtle enemy in House of the Dragon, and while she won’t be the one to face the consequences, future would-be rulers will.
- Release Date
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June 21, 2026
- Network
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HBO
- Episodes
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8
This story originally appeared on Screenrant
