House Of The Dragon Season 3, Episode 7 Finally Explains Ormund Hightower's Big Plan
by Jeremy Mathai · /FilmDracarys! This article contains spoilers for "House of the Dragon" Season 3 Episode 7.
If there's any main criticism fans have had with "House of the Dragon" throughout nearly three full seasons, it would have to be its pervasive feeling of "Hurry up and wait." Season 1 nimbly put the pieces in place for the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons — only for Season 2 to continually delay any actual outbreak of war for as long as humanly possible. Even when it gave viewers the spectacle they had been waiting for, arguably the two biggest events the entire season had been building towards ended up getting lopped off right at the end. That left Season 3 to pick up the slack, and it certainly has so far, but some might say we've been reliving the same old trend for a third time in a row.
That's where Ormund Hightower (James Norton) and his somewhat frustrating storyline come in. Ever since Episode 3's twist regarding the Daeron Targaryen impostor, his army has set up shop in Tumbleton ... and then done nothing. Sure, there's Ormund's secret resistance being waged in King's Landing against Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) and his own designs to install Daeron (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) as king. But, otherwise, what exactly is his plan here? It isn't spoiling anything to say that readers of the book know this is building up to a major confrontation between the Greens and the Blacks. But Ormund doesn't exactly have a copy of "Fire & Blood" sitting around for him to follow. So what gives?
Episode 7 finally shines some light on that. In the closing moments, we see that Ormund has turned the dragonrider Ulf (Tom Bennett) against Rhaenyra. That seems to have been the goal all along.
House of the Dragon Season 3 reveals that Ulf and Corlys Velaryon are big pieces of Ormund's plan
Better the dragonrider you know than the dragonrider you don't, I suppose. All throughout Season 3, we've had no choice but to watch Rhaenyra blunder her way into making her biggest mistake yet – underestimating lowborn peasants like Ulf the White (along with the rest of the denizens of King's Landing) at her own peril. Now, those dragons have come home to roost and it's teeing up what's certain to be a bloody season finale. We just needed a little patience to see all the various chess moves (er, make that cyvasse, as readers of George R.R. Martin know well) fall into place.
While everyone from Queen Rhaenyra and her Small Council to even Daeron and Gwayne (Freddie Fox) have privately expressed confusion over what the heck Ormund is up to, we now know the truth. Originally, he and the Hightower army had been banking on the arrival of the Prince Regent Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) and his monstrous dragon Vhagar. But, thanks to things going slightly sideways over at Harrenhal along with the suicide wish of one Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), Ormund has had to improvise. That's apparently resulted in a three-pronged attack: causing disorder in the streets of King's Landing to distract and weaken Rhaenyra, goading her into attacking the market town of Tumbleton and burning her own captive people alive, and kidnapping Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) and using his titles and lordship as a bargaining chip to dangle in front of Ulf and win him over to their side.
That's not bad for a Plan B. Now, we wait and see if Rhaenyra takes the bait. The "House of the Dragon" season finale airs next Sunday on HBO.