Emma D’Arcy in “House of the Dragon.”Credit: Ollie Upton / HBO
Between Widow’s Bayand House of the Dragon, foreboding bells on TV are so hot right now
Bells are a constant presence in House of the DragonSeason 3, episode 3, which chronicles Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen’s (Emma D’Arcy) first days on the Iron Throne. The early phase of her rule is not marked by celebration, but by a string of crises. The treasury is depleted. The High Septon refuses to bless her ascendancy. Daemon (Matt Smith) wants her to kill her half-brother Daeron. Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) turns on her after she refuses to legitimize his bastard sons. Each setback is punctuated by the ring of a lone bell.
SEE ALSO:The nastiest moment from ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 3, episode 3 isn’t even in the book
However, the bell is also a musical callback to a key sequence in Game of Throneshistory: Daenerys Targaryen’s infamous burning of King’s Landing in Season 8, episode 5, fittingly titled “The Bells.” The episode hinges on the moment when King’s Landing surrenders to Daenerys by ringing the city’s bells. By this point, Daenerys’ time in Westeros has pushed her to the brink. She has lost two of her dragons and her closest friend, Missandei. She has weathered skepticism, scorn, and even betrayal from her close allies. Hearing the bells pushes her to the edge, and she chooses not to accept the city’s submission. Instead, she continues on her warpath and torches the city, its civilians, and eventually the Red Keep. It’s the defining moment in her descent into tyranny, marking her as a Mad Queen.
SEE ALSO:’House of the Dragon’: Where is Tumbleton, and why is it so important?
“The Bells” is a controversial turning point in Game of Thrones’ already controversial final season. Daenerys’ fall from grace feels unearned, especially since the two seasons she actually spends in Westeros are truncated to seven and six episodes. Still, the tie between Daenerys’ madness and the bells of King’s Landing is now seared in my brain, and it’s that association that House of the Dragonplays with in Season 3, episode 3
Mashable Top Stories
By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
By using bells, House of the Dragondraws a link between Rhaenyra’s strained mental state and Daenerys’ final snap, although the show is by no means equating the two just yet. In George R.R. Martin’s Fire and Blood, Rhaenyra doesn’t go fully “mad” in the way that the Mad King Aerys II or his daughter Daenerys do in Game of Thrones. However, she does grow more punitive and paranoid once she takes the Iron Throne. The bells in House of the Dragonhelp foreshadow this transformation, and they also hint that the show will be tackling Rhaenyra’s descent with more care than Game of Thronestook with Daenerys’. For starters, the lone, repeated bell sounds suggest a more gradual decline when compared to the overwhelming barrage of bells in Game of Thrones. Plus, House of the Dragon‘s bells aren’t diegetic like Game of Thrones‘ are. They’re part of the score, acting more like an internal monologue for Rhaenyra’s frustrations.
Two of the biggest complaints with Game of Thrones‘treatment of Daenerys’ downfall are that it happened too fast and we didn’t get to truly see her internal transformation until it was too late. And even then, it didn’t make much sense! (“The Bells” director Miguel Sapochnik said that Daenerys razing King’s Landing was triggered by dissatisfaction with her victory, but you wouldn’t know it from the episode.) House of the Dragoncounters that too-sudden shift with the promise of a more prolonged change in Rhaenyra, one rooted firmly in her perspective.
Episode 3’s deliberate use of bells is just the start of how House of the Dragonstylistically heralds Rhaenyra’s tragic arc. The entire episode effectively traps her in a haunted house. In her first scene, she proclaims “the air is thick with ghosts” in the Red Keep. Later, she’s haunted by visions of the late Jacaerys (Harry Collett), as well as Baela (Bethany Antonia) coming to tell her of Jace’s death. Episode 3 also plays with other haunted house tropes, from scurrying rats to darkened, claustrophobic hallways. It’s no wonder that the time when Rhaenyra feels most powerful in this episode comes outside the walls of the Red Keep, when she’s distributing food to King’s Landing’s poor.
Running through it all is Ramin Djawadi’s score, an anxiety-inducing flutter of discordant strings that would be right at home in a horror movie. They’re complemented perfectly by the bells, which sound the alarm that while Rhaenyra may now sit on the Iron Throne, her time there may well be running out
House of the DragonSeason 3 is now streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes premiering Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max
TopicsHBOHouse of the Dragon
Belen Edwards is an Entertainment Reporter at Mashable. She covers movies and TV with a focus on fantasy and science fiction, adaptations, animation, and more nerdy goodness. She is a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Television Critics Association, as well as a Tomatometer-approved critic
