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Rats have infested House of the Dragon's Red Keep since Season 2, but one savvy sailor may have just solved the issue.

In Season 3, Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) finds the royal seat of power in King's Landing brimming with rodents. There are no ratcatchers left in the city — Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) had them all hanged in Season 2 after the terrible business with Blood and Cheese — so the rats are free to swarm the halls.

Until Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim) gives the queen an old mariner's trick: Bring in the cats.

SEE ALSO: 'House of the Dragon' just united three generations of House Velaryon in one shot

A naval war hero in his estranged father Lord Corlys Velaryon's (Steve Toussaint) fleet, Alyn knows a trick or two about keeping close quarters free of vermin. Attending the queen in his father's absence, Alyn and Rhaenyra have a heart-to-heart looking at King Viserys' Old Valyria model.

"Incessant!" Rhaenyra says, when she finds a horde of rats scurrying about the model. "Thanks to Aegon, all the ratcatchers are dead."

"Onboard ship, we kept cats," offers Alyn.

Outside of Westeros, ship's cats have been constant companions of sailors for hundreds of years, and have been the adorable subject of many authors and maritime museums. As National Museums Liverpool writes, "Until the Royal Navy banned cats and other pets on board ships in 1975, many sailors and seafarers welcomed their whiskered crew mates on long voyages, enlisting them to keep the relentless hordes of mice and rats at bay." The museum also says cats were symbols of bravery during World War II, and that "some were rewarded for their services on board and were even given their own uniforms!"

The respect.

Ship's cat Stripey aboard the H.M.S. Warspite, a ship used by Britain in WWI and WWII. Credit: Hulton-Deutsch Collection / CORBIS / Corbis via Getty Images Royal Navy ship's cat Convoy aboard H.M.S. Hermione in Gibraltar, Nov. 26, 1941. Credit: Lt. S J Beadell / Imperial War Museums via Getty Images

In George R. R. Martin's Fire and Blood, it's Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) who solves the Red Keep's rat problem, bringing no less than 100 cats into the building to sort that shit out. A centurion of felines! But seeing as he's, you know, off his head at present, it's up to Alyn to manage the situation. Perhaps this plan will include the progenitor of poor ill-fated Ser Pounce, the beloved cat of King Tommen Baratheon in Game of Thrones.

House of the Dragon Season 3 is now streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes premiering Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.

Featured Video For You 'House of the Dragon' cast unpack Season 3, episode 2's biggest moments

Very good boys are few and far between in Westeros, but they're often the internet's favourite characters.

House of the Dragon Season 3, episode 4 gifts us with two lengthy dogs of utter elegance, and their appareance in this dragon-dominated world is a welcome sight.

SEE ALSO: 'House of the Dragon' cast on Season 3's colossal Battle of the Gullet

In the episode, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) goes to squeeze funds out of the Vale to fill the empty coffers of King's Landing. Here, he must bargain with Lady Jeyne Arryn (Amanda Collin), Lady of the Eyrie, who appears on that gorgeous wooden throne above the perilous Moon Door, flanked by two hounds.

Thanks to House of the Dragon animal trainer Kim Gaskell, these pooches sit quietly during the meeting, the pair's silken coats matching Lady Arryn's cream cape. Considering the Vale seems like an absolute Wuthering Heights of boredom and loneliness and one elusive dragon, I'd say having two elegant hounds for company is what Lady Arryn deserves.

In Season 2, the internet praised another canine, the ratcatcher's dog, as "the only loyal character in the show."

House of the Dragon Season 3 is now streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes premiering Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.

Featured Video For You 'House of the Dragon' cast unpack Season 3, episode 2's biggest moments

Working from home in Westeros depends on whose castle you've just seized, and Ormund Hightower (James Norton) has landed himself the ultimate set-up.

House of the Dragon's latest home-invading lord not only pulled a switcheroo on Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) in Season 3, episode 3, but he's gone and taken over the town of Tumbleton by episode 4.

And it's here where we see the most covetable home decor in the Seven Kingdoms: the bath table to end all bath tables. Down the bench, Iron Throne.

SEE ALSO: 'House of the Dragon' just united three generations of House Velaryon in one shot

At the start of the episode, Ormund takes a highly Geralt of Rivia-style meeting with the actual owners of the house, a much disgruntled Lord and Lady Footly of Tumbleton (Adam Brown and Alexandra Moen). In the centre of a very busy room, he sits smugly in their deep soaking tub, a marvel of medieval cooperage and iron sanctuary hoops, with all his diabolical war homework covering his Hightower.

Look, I know there are some pretty good bath caddies out there, but there’s enough room here for his documents and correspondence, a quill and ink pot, a wine goblet, and several pomanders and Westeros-style aromatic diffusers. The House of the Dragon set decoration team has me paying attention. Honestly, plonk one of these in my living room and expect every meeting furthermore to be off camera.

Yes, you might be distracted by other elements of the scene, including the hilariously tiny towel Ormund uses to dry himself. But man, that bath table has me re-evaluating my budget.

House of the Dragon Season 3 is now streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes premiering Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.

Featured Video For You 'House of the Dragon' cast unpack Season 3, episode 2's biggest moments

Guys, I hate to say it, but I think House of the Dragon's Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) is going to be a bad queen.

No, it's not because of how she keeps alienating allies like Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), or how she springs to execute her detractors among the smallfolk of King's Landing. And no, it's not because of the crises she inherited, like a depleted treasury or a starving, restless city.

SEE ALSO: Dear 'House of the Dragon': Enough with the threats of sexual violence

Instead, it's because she dares disrespect the Targaryens' most fun tradition. Don't worry, it's not incest. It's the Small Council's marbles.

First seen in House of the Dragon's Season 1 premiere, these multi-colored balls serve as a way for the members of the Small Council to clock into work. Once you put your marble in your dish, you're punched in and ready to help rule the realm.

The marbles are an aesthetically pleasing world-building detail, but they're also versatile: In Season 1, Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) kills Lord Lyman Beesbury (Bill Paterson) by smashing his skull into his own marble. In Season 2, King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) fiddles with his own ball during a meeting, even letting his son Jaehaerys give it a spin. Forget their potential as a bureaucratic tool or murder weapon; these marbles just seem fun to play with.

Which brings me to my beef with Rhaenyra. In House of the Dragon Season 3, episode 4, she tells Grand Maester Orwyle (Kurt Egyiawan) that he is welcome to stay on her Small Council so long as he remains loyal. When he goes to clock in with his marble, she stops him, calling them "relics of a dead regime."

Respectfully, Rhaenyra, how dare you? The Small Council balls have been a delightful way for members to announce their presence. They allow every member to have some colorful flair, they sound great when they plunk into place, and they look so fun to play with. Would you deny your team the satisfaction of a little ball to fidget with? Ruling the realm is a stressful task, Rhaenyra! Maybe you'll find that playing with a big old marble is a much better way to decompress than taking your worries out on the smallfolk.

But what worries me most about Rhaenyra's statement isn't her clear hatred of a fun time. It's the fact that she declares the marbles a relic of a dead regime, meaning Aegon's. Yet the marbles were in place during her father Viserys' (Paddy Considine) reign, and likely during the reigns of many of the Targaryens who came before. Is she so blinded by hatred of Aegon that she would dismiss her father's relatively peaceful rule? Is she over prior Targaryen patriarchal regimes in general and hoping to have her own Daenerys Targaryen "break-the-wheel"-style moment? Or did she just forget the marbles even existed during her many years away from the Red Keep? (I know, who could forget them?) Whatever the reason, Rhaenyra's on thin ice post-marble gate. Let the Small Council play with their balls!

House of the Dragon Season 3 is now streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes premiering Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.

Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and his scaly steed were last seen storming Harrenhal in House of the Dragon, only for the drama king to take a blade to the kidney after attacking one Strong too many.

So the question is, where are they now?

SEE ALSO: 'House of the Dragon' Season 3, episode 3: Who's on Rhaenyra's Small Council? What happens at Harrenhal in episode 4?

Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) and Ser Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox) finally make it to Harrenhal in search of Aemond in episode 4, only to find the castle looking just as haunted and abandoned as ever.

They do, however, find the witch Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin), who eventually tells them that Aemond is long gone.

Featured Video For You 'House of the Dragon' cast on Season 3's colossal Battle of the Gullet

"He was here," Rivers says. "He seized the castle after Prince Daemon abandoned it. But when he learned that Rhaenyra took King's Landing, he and his dragon fled."

Later, Cole and Hightower are sitting in poor old Ser Simon Strong's dining hall when a soldier gives them an update: "We've scoured the area, Lord Hand. There is sign of a large dragon nest, but it has been abandoned. Prince Aemond may indeed have fled."

So the question is, where's Aemond? Has he really fled? Is something else going on? And is he even still alive after the injury he sustained back in episode 2?

Where are Aemond and Vhagar?

The good news for Aemond fans? He definitely isn't dead, because there's footage of him in the "weeks ahead" trailer HBO dropped after episode 1 (jump to 54 seconds in) — footage that we haven't seen yet.

What's even more intriguing? The shot in the trailer sees Aemond speaking about Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) taking over King's Landing to someone offscreen. But he's sitting in Harrenhal's dining hall eating a meal when he says it. We double-checked this by cross-referencing the shot of Aemond with the shot of Cole sitting in the exact same seat in episode four (the chair is broken, so you can tell it's the same one).

The conclusion? Alys Rivers is most likely hiding Aemond in the castle while he recovers from his injury. Vhagar may even be hiding, too — we know from the Rook's Rest battle in back in Season 2 that she is capable of laying low in the woods, despite her size.

Aemond may be AWOL for now, but we'll likely be seeing him again very soon.

House of the Dragon Season 3 is now streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes premiering Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.

House of the Dragon Season 3 is here, and you know what that means: It's time to take a climb into the very tangled branches of the Targaryen family tree.

Over the first two seasons of House of the Dragon, some of these branches have been pruned. (RIP to the many Targs who've perished in this bloody show.) However, Season 2 also added its fair share of new offshoots, further complicating the knotted web between Houses Targaryen, Velaryon, and Hightower. Season 3 has complicated it even further, with new deaths and the face reveal of one Daeron Targaryen. If you're looking for a refresher on that web as you head into the second half of Season 3, we've got you covered.

SEE ALSO: 'House of the Dragon' review: Season 3 atones for the sins of Season 2

Below, you'll find the Targaryen family tree as it stands as of House of the Dragon Season 3, episode 4, as well as a rundown of the characters and how they connect.

Credit: Ian Moore / Mashable Which Targaryens have died since Season 2?

There were two key deaths in the Targaryen family in Season 2: one on the Greens' side and one on the Blacks'.

Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen's (Emma D'Arcy) camp lost Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best), also known as the Queen Who Never Was. Meanwhile, King Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) and Queen Helaena (Phia Saban) lost their young son Jaehaerys when gold cloak Blood (Sam C. Wilson) and rat catcher Cheese (Mark Stobbart) assassinated him on Prince Daemon's (Matt Smith) orders.

There are still plenty of Targaryens left standing, though. Here's who to watch out for in Season 3.

Featured Video For You 'House of the Dragon': Everything you need to know in 2 minutes The Targaryen family tree: Rhaenyra, Daemon, and their children Matt Smith, Phoebe Campbell, Emma D'Arcy, Harry Collett, and Bethany Antonia in "House of the Dragon." Credit: Composite: Mashable / Images: HBO

Rhaenyra heads up the Team Black branch of the Targaryen family tree, with her husband/uncle Daemon by her side. (It was touch and go for a minute in Season 2, but after a life-changing study abroad trip to Harrenhal, complete with witches and visions, Daemon is finally ready to accept Rhaenyra as his queen.)

Their two young sons, Aegon and Viserys, are on their way to Pentos for protection after a brief pit stop in the Vale. However, Rhaenyra and Daemon's children from their prior marriages are still in Westeros and locked in on Rhaenyra's fight for the throne.

SEE ALSO: The ickiest moment from 'House of the Dragon's Season 3 premiere isn't even in the book

Rhaenyra's son Jacaerys (Harry Collett) and Daemon's daughter Baela (Bethany Antonia) are both dragonriders. Daemon's other daughter, Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell), doesn't have a dragon, which is why she was sent off as Aegon and Viserys' guardian. However, when they went to Pentos, she remained behind in the Vale, hoping to tame its wild dragon Sheepstealer. As of Season 3, she's successfully claimed Sheepstealer, but at a cost: He went rogue during the Battle of the Gullet, and his interference helped lead to Jace's tragic death. Now, Rhaenyra wants Sheepstealer's rider's head, and only Daemon and Lady Jeyne Arryn (Amanda Collin) know the truth of her identity.

The Targaryen family tree: Alicent Hightower and her children Tom Glynn-Carney, Olivia Cooke, Phia Saban, and Ewan Mitchell in "House of the Dragon." Credit: Composite: Mashable / Images: HBO

Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) remains the matriarch of Team Green, although she's growing increasingly regretful about her role in the war for succession. (So regretful, in fact, that she's offered to surrender the Iron Throne to Rhaenyra.) She had four children with the late King Viserys (Paddy Considine).

The eldest, Aegon, remains King of Westeros. His younger brother Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) attempted to kill him in a dragon dogfight at the Battle of Rook's Rest, and once Aegon recovered from his worst injuries, he fled King's Landing with the help of Larys Strong (Matthew Needham). Now Aemond is Prince Regent, and Alicent is trying her best to get herself and her daughter Helaena out of harm's way.

Alicent's youngest son Daeron (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) makes his official House of the Dragon debut in Season 3, episode 4, although he's been hiding in plain sight since the Season 3 premiere. He's a ward of House Hightower and squire to Lord Ormund Hightower (James Norton), who's engineering his own plot — involving a fake Daeron — to place him on the throne.

SEE ALSO: 'House of the Dragon' may be hiding Daeron Targaryen in plain sight The Hightower family tree: Otto, Gwayne, and Ormund James Norton, Olivia Cooke, Rhys Ifans, and Freddie Fox in "House of the Dragon." Credit: Composite: Mashable / Images: HBO

In addition to Alicent, the rest of House Hightower continues to be a major player in House of the Dragon. Her father, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), former hand of the King, was the first Green loyalist to be executed under Rhaenyra's reign. Elsewhere, Alicent's brother Gwayne (Freddie Fox) has been traipsing around the Seven Kingdoms with Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), a nightmare we wouldn't wish on even our worst enemies.

House of the Dragon Season 3 also introduces a new member of the Hightower family: Lord Ormund, head of House Hightower. His late father Hobert (Steffan Rhodri) was Otto's oldest brother, making Ormund Alicent and Gwayne's cousin.

SEE ALSO: 'House of the Dragon' Season 3, episode 1: Who is Ormund Hightower? The Velaryon family tree: Corlys and his sons Alyn and Addam Steve Toussaint, Abubakar Salim, and Clinton Liberty in "House of the Dragon." Credit: Composite: Mashable / Images: HBO

Rhaenyra's Hand is Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), also known as the Sea Snake due to his naval prowess. Over the course of House of the Dragon, he's lost his wife Rhaenys, as well as their children Laena (Nanna Blondell) and Laenor (John Macmillan).

However, Season 2 revealed that Laena and Laenor weren't Corlys' only descendants. He also has two bastard sons, Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim) and Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty). Their mother Marilda, unseen in the show, was a shipwright. House of the Dragon primarily refers to Marilda in the past tense, implying she is dead, hence why she's greyed out in our family tree. However, by this point in Fire and Blood, she is still alive.

While Corlys didn't truly acknowledge Alyn and Addam prior to Season 2, the pair are now a much more prominent part of his life — and the show. Alyn is a notable sailor in Corlys' fleet, and Addam became a dragonrider. Thanks to his Valyrian blood, he now rides Seasmoke, Laenor's old dragon.

The dragonseeds: Addam, Ulf the White, and Hugh Hammer Kieran Bew, Tom Bennett, and Clinton Liberty in "House of the Dragon." Credit: Composite: Mashable / Images: HBO

Addam isn't the only new dragonrider to join Rhaenyra's ranks in Season 2. Smallfolk Ulf the White (Tom Bennett) and Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew) also claimed dragons. Ulf rides Silverwing, the dragon of Rhaenyra's grandmother Alysanne, while Hugh rides Vermithor, the dragon of Rhaenyra's grandfather Jaehaerys. The pair, like Addam, are bastards of Valyrian blood, earning them the nickname of "dragonseeds." While they haven't been legitimized as Targaryens, they will certainly have a large role to play in the battles to come.

House of the Dragon Season 3 premieres June 21 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max, with a new episode every Sunday.

UPDATE: Jul. 12, 2026, 10:00 p.m. EDT This article has been updated to reflect the events of the first four episodes of Season 3.

UPDATE: Jun. 26, 2026, 4:02 p.m. EDT A previous version of the family tree did not show Rhaenys, Hobert, or Marilda as deceased the way they are in the show. It has since been updated.