Warning: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 3.
To be a Targaryen alive during House of the Dragon is, for the most part, to have a nuclear arsenal at your beck and call. Sometimes, all you need is the threat of dragons to keep things at bay, which is part of why characters like Rhaenys (Eve Best) and Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) are so reluctant to let them loose: They know unleashing their dragons as full-on weapons of war is like opening a can of worms, so they’re trying to prolong it as long as possible.
Rhaenyra and Alicent’s (Olivia Cooke) reunion at the end of Episode 3 paved the way for the inevitability of the destruction that war brings. But perhaps so did a confrontation between brothers on the same side—and a full-frontal nude scene that is as consequential as it was shocking.
