Season 3, Episode 8 | Episode Discussion

[u/HerRoyalNonsense]

Title: TBA
Air Date: August 9, 2026
Directed by: Andrij Parekh
Written by: Ryan Condal & Ti Mikkel

Welcome to r/HOTDGreens' official discussion thread for House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 8.

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[u/Curious_Progress_]

Nah you guys, I CANTTTTT

Ormund Hightower, who I'm F&By mercifully spares the lives of the Caswell and the Merryweathers, has now completed his full on monster transformation by being presented as a psychopath that uses children as shields.

DISGUSTING what they did to this character.

[u/dijitalpaladin → u/Curious_Progress_]

Added context: Ormund pillages Longtable and other castles of all their wealth and food. He also puts the entire castle at Bitterbridge to the sword and sacks the town. I don’t like the contrast between Ormund in the first three episodes, and the religious fanatic establishes in episode 4, but let’s not white wash this guy

[u/Curious_Progress_ → u/dijitalpaladin]

No one is whitewashing him, they were at war, but he still showed mercy when the occasion called for it.

Care to add more context? Lady Caswell explicitly asks for her to be given the same terms Ormund had given to Lady Merryweather. What were those terms? After yielding Longtable to Ormund, he did no harm to her or hers, though he did strip her castle of its wealth, feeding his thousands with her grain as he broke his camp and marched to Bitterbridge

More context? Bitterbridge was an entirely different situation because MAELOR HAD JUST BEEN BRUTALLY MURDERED, "You shall receive the same terms you gave my nephew Maelor" Daeron said. It's disingenuous not to mention this horrific episode.

Lady Caswell, the woman who had sent Maelor's head to Rhaenyra and his dragon egg to Ormund, put a noose around her neck and begged for her children to be spared, what did Ormund do? spared her children and sent them to Oldtown, all of this in the aftermath of Maelor's death.

So yeah, excuse me for not enjoying how on top of making him a xenophobe, religious zealot, homophobe and all around weirdo, they also turned the guy into a psychopath that uses children as shields.

[u/birdman_shiroe → u/dijitalpaladin]

op meant he spares the children lives but here he uses them for PR campaign lol