House Of The Dragon Season 3’s Most Anticipated Death Is Blunt
Ollie Upton/HBO
Contains spoilers for “House of the Dragon” Season 3, Episode 2
The “House of the Dragon” Season 3 premiere started off with a major character death. Now, in the second episode, another familiar face departs the HBO fantasy series. Say goodbye to Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), who has entertained us with his conniving ways.
As Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) prepares to take the Iron Throne, her husband (and — because this whole universe is weird like this — uncle), Daemon (Matt Smith), appears with Otto. Following the events of previous seasons, and with an audience in attendance, Daemon urges Rhaenyra to behead Otto as a demonstration of her power and authority for anyone who dares to think about crossing her again.
Otto asks Rhaenyra for Daemon to do it, saying, “Spare me at least from being hacked at.” However, the new queen decides to do it herself. While the first swing isn’t clean, the second takes Otto’s head right off his shoulders. To make things even more awkward, Otto’s daughter, Alicent (Olivia Cooke), and his granddaughter, Helaena (Phia Saban), walk in as the blood pools on the floor around Otto’s decapitated corpse. It’s all a little anticlimactic, really.
The pacing of Otto Hightower’s death is off
Ollie Upton/HBO
While “House of the Dragon” and “Game of Thrones” have never been shy about pulling off quick character deaths, Otto Hightower’s final fate is rather abrupt, considering how much of an influence he had in previous seasons. Sure, there’s no need to drag out a man’s beheading, but he appears and dies at the tail end of the episode — almost like an “oh, by the way” moment.
The nature of his death is canon to the source material; however, this is more of a complaint of how it’s executed (pardon the pun). As mentioned elsewhere, there’s an explanation as to why “House of the Dragon” Season 3’s opening is weird: The budget cuts forced the big battles teased at the end of the previous season to end up in Season 3. Consequently, the pacing is off, and this has a knock-on effect in the second episode as well.
Rhaenyra taking the throne and Otto’s subsequent beheading should have either concluded the second season finale, or been included in the Season 3 premiere. It would have been a big dramatic cliffhanger, or a shocking opener, to showcase to viewers that Rhaenyra isn’t playing around anymore. Instead, Otto’s death is nothing more than a bullet point in this season’s events.