‘House of the Dragon’ episode three: What does the White Hart symbolize?

There are major spoilers for House of the Dragon ahead.

Even though House of the Dragon has released only three episodes so far, the latest episode can undoubtedly be considered the most compelling and visually consuming of the series. Much of the episode’s runtime is dedicated to a royal hunt celebrating the birth of King Viserys’ (Paddy Considine) son Aegon. Yes, the king has finally achieved what he had always longed for — a son and a male heir to the throne.

The second episode ended with Viserys public announcing his betrothal to Alicent Hightower, daughter of the King’s Hand, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans). The recent episode picks up three years after the shocking ending of the previous episode.

At the very beginning, viewers catch a glimpse of Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) waging an open war against the Triarchy’s leader Craghas Drahar (popularly known as the Crabfeeder), who is infamous for subjecting the sailors and the pirates to gruesome deaths on the Islands of Stepstones.  

This is followed by a distressed Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) and the king’s council members and advisors arguing about Aegon’s rightful claim to the throne. Later, it is shown that this was also one of the major causes of Rhaenyra’s anxieties about being replaced as the appointed heir to the throne.

Related to these discussions is the repeated mention of a white hart in the Kingswood, which Otto Hightower hinted is a sign of the gods’ decision to place Aegon on the throne. As a result, the royal huntsmen frantically start searching for the stag to no avail. Finally, Viserys was forced to kill a brown stag instead as a part of the ritual.

What is the white hart’s significance to the story, and is it meant to foreshadow any upcoming event? Let’s dive in.

What is the significance of the white hart to the story?

On the morning of the celebration and the royal hunt, Rhaenyra and Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) were wandering in the woods only to find a white hart advancing towards them. Both Rhaenyra and the stag look at each other in awe before she finally urges Criston Cole to let it go instead of killing it.

However, Rhaenyra’s spotting of the white hart is a confirmation that her selection as the appointed heir by Viserys Targaryen was indeed the right choice and that she, not Aegon, is the rightful heir to the throne.

The white stag holds the utmost significance in the world of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. Before the dragons, which came to be associated with royalty with the advent of the Targaryens in Westeros, white harts represented majesty, power, nobility, strength and grace.

It’s interesting to note how Rhaenyra made absolutely no effort to track down the hart — instead, it was the animal that found her. There’s a parallel here to Rhaenyra’s passive journey to the throne, as she was simply selected for the part by her father (regardless of her being a woman), without any major obstacles… yet.

However, if we follow this parallel, her decision to leave the animal unharmed raises questions about her journey to become the rightful monarch. Perhaps her passive reaction to the animal’s appearance can be interpreted as a sign of possible obstacles ahead.

Later in the episode, Otto Hightower is told by a visitor during the celebration that Aegon is the rightful monarch. It is true that the members of the king’s council did not embrace the idea of a female heir, which led them to urge the king to remarry. The cold, calculating and manipulative Hand of the King is no exception to the plot of placing his grandson at the helm of the state’s ultimate affairs. We have already seen him communicating with his daughter, the queen, about this subject.

If the words of Game of Throne’s greatest villain Joffrey are to be considered here, then Rhaenyra will likely face the brutal fate of imprisonment and getting eaten by her brother Aegon’s dragon. It’s hard to say what’s to come next, but it’s fun to speculate while we wait for episode four to hit the screen.

House of the Dragon is currently streaming on HBO.