Everyone's on the hunt in this week's 'House of the Dragon'

Sep. 6—[Note: Contains spoilers for the "Game of Thrones" series through episode 3 of "House of the Dragon"]

Everyone is on the hunt in the third episode of HBO's "House of the Dragon," a show that has already spawned a sexually-inspired acronym which is unprintable here.

King Viserys is on the hunt to celebrate the birth of his first son, a development that seems to be making everyone happy except his daughter and named heir, Rhaenyra.

She's understandably angry — that son belongs not just to her father, but to her former best friend. And you certainly have to emphasize "former," considering the icy reception Rhaenyra gives Alicent at the beginning of the episode.

Her uncle Daemon is down south with fellow spurned-second-son Corlys Velaryon, hunting the man with the worst skin in the Stepstones, the Crab-Feeder. We'll get to the semi-ridiculous way that storyline resolves shortly.

And everyone is on the hunt to try and determine who, exactly, is going to be the next ruler of the Seven Kingdoms.

Otto Hightower is feeling suitably smug, being grandfather to Aegon II, who most people simply presume is going to be the next king. After all, he's Viserys' first male son — this being a primogeniture society and all, there really shouldn't be a question. This is what King Viserys spent the entire first episode pursuing.

Rhaenyra doesn't need to be told this. Rhaenys Velaryon laid it out pretty well for her in the second episode, and Rhaenyra sarcastically chalked it up to her aunt's own shortcomings.

But when Lord Jason Lannister starts talking about how well he'd treat his "lady-wife" if she were to return with him to Casterly Rock, Rhaenyra can see the writing on the wall.

It was no surprise, then, to see her gallop off in anger, nor was it much of a surprise to see her hunky choice for the King's Guard, Ser Criston Cole, take off after her.

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More "House of the Dragon" stories:

—Episode 2 review: A good man makes a real bad decision on 'House of the Dragon'

—Episode 1 review: 'House of the Dragon' gets back to the backstabbing we loved in 'Thrones'

—TV Talk: HBO recaptures 'Game of Thrones' political dynamics in 'House of the Dragon'

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I particularly liked the contrast between father and daughter when it came to the actual act of hunting/killing in this episode: Viserys has 100 men chasing a white hart — an albino stag — for days until they end up cornering the wrong deer. And then, the king can't even properly place a killing blow when he's told where to aim. Meanwhile, his daughter and heir managed to hold off a wild boar until help arrived, and didn't miss once when it came to putting the beast down.

The sight of her walking back into camp past her dad, bloodied and serious with Ser Criston hauling the boar behind, was pretty great.

And who's to say if that is what finally made the king re-commit to Rhaenyra when she finally confronts him about her place in the line of succession?

"You have no more use for me," she tells Viserys. And even in a primogeniture society, that's got to hurt a father's feelings pretty deeply.

But just as he assures Rhaenyra that she is his heir, he's making a decision that is guaranteed to sow discontent and endanger his reign. That's clear from the conversation Otto Hightower has with his older brother, Lord Hobert Hightower, at the start of the episode — Hobert makes it plain: there are a whole lot of lords who aren't down with the crown if it's going to be placed on Rhaenyra's head.

He's so bold he even basically says this to the king's face later in the episode as the royals arrive in the hunting camp, openly supporting a different royal claim.

This would've been a great opportunity for Viserys to quietly lay the smack down, have someone take Hobert aside and let him know what time it is. That would've been a strong-king move.

Viserys has shown time and again, though, that he is not a strong king. He's a people-pleaser, and he's under the impression that when he says something, that's the end of the conversation.

That's clearly not the case.

But now let's take a moment and address the first sequence in this show that made me flash back to some of the worst moments of the latter "Game of Thrones" seasons.

The Velaryons send a letter to the king, telling him that the war against the Crab-Feeder isn't going well at all. He's a wily dude, with a system of caves where he and his men can hide. It's a cool strategy, because it negates the use of dragons. The dragons can't fit into the caves, and the tunnels must go deep enough to keep everyone safe from dragon-fire.

The king writes back to say he's sending help... and this apparently makes Daemon so mad that he single-handedly chops his way through the Crab-Feeder's army, draws them all out into the open, isn't killed by a hail of arrows and then kills the Crab-Feeder with two of those arrows buried in his chest.

If Daemon and the Velaryons were already losing this war, and the reason is because the army they're up against is doing hit-and-runs and then hiding in a vast cave system, it's hard to understand why this strategy would work. Why wouldn't the Crab-Feeder and his guys just... stay in the cave? They know there are still dragons around, and any sort of open combat puts them at a severe disadvantage.

It doesn't make a lot of sense. Everyone's decisions seem to be calculated to create the biggest possible spectacle — dragons lighting up the opposing army while Daemon gets his hero moment — and that gives it a very "Game-of-Thrones"-season-eight vibe.

I just didn't like the logic of it. But it does put us in a great spot for next week, politics-wise. Daemon and the Velaryons have secured the kingdom's crucial eastern trade routes when the king refused to risk open war. That's going to win them a lot of fans anywhere near the Stepstones.

The king has given Rhaenyra permission to seek out her own husband, and while I'd like to discuss where that's headed, I'll hold off for now.

It's sometimes difficult to write about this show, because readers of "Fire & Blood" know all the broad strokes of this story. But I suspect a good portion of viewers are coming into this with no notion of the vast backstory in the "Thrones" universe. And I certainly don't want to spoil things for them.

But Rhaenyra's own dad is telling her to go out and get married, "to shore up your own line of succession."

That's not the encouraging advice of a strong king who's confident in his choice of heir.

Rhaenyra asks Ser Criston if he believes she is the rightful heir. He says he has no choice but to believe so.

That's not exactly encouraging either.

"House of the Dragon" airs Sunday nights on HBO Max.

Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick by email at pvarine@triblive.com or via Twitter .