Diksha Sundriyal
Rhaenyra storms King’s Landing in the second episode of HBO’s ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 3. The path for her return had already been paved by Alicent, with whom she made a deal in the Season 2 finale. While suspicion looms over her true intentions, Alicent does come through and fulfills the terms of her agreement as much as she can. By the end of the episode, Rhaenyra and Daemon have walked through the castle and taken the throne, but before she can sit on it, she needs to make sure that her competition is eliminated. She asks for Aegon, but since he is nowhere else to be found, someone else’s head is offered in his stead. And it turns out to be someone neither Rhaenyra nor Daemon had been expecting. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Otto Hightower Had Been in King’s Landing All Along
While the war for succession may be waging now, the seeds for it were sown long ago by Otto Hightower. When Aemma Arryn died in childbirth, Otto pushed his daughter, Alicent, to seduce Viserys and marry him. Had he not done that, Viserys would still have taken a wife, who would most likely have produced heirs, and the war for succession would likely still have happened. But that “what if” is of no concern to Rhaenyra, who has lost two sons in the war and now stands in front of the Iron Throne. The idea was to kill Aegon and establish herself as the true Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, but with her usurper brother having fled before her arrival in King’s Landing, she needs someone else to punish in his place.
Maester Orwyle offers up Lord Jasper Wylde, who was imprisoned a few hours ago. However, in the dungeons, Daemon finds an even sweeter reward waiting for him. It turns out that Otto Hightower has been secretly imprisoned there by Larys Strong. The last we saw of Otto was when Aegon removed him as the Hand of the King in the third episode of Season 2. This is when Criston Cole was promoted, leaving Otto with no purpose in King’s Landing. The plan was for him to return to Oldtown and secure the Reach, so when he left, everyone thought that’s where he was headed. Over the next few months, Alicent sent letters to her father, but he never wrote back. She mentions this to her brother, Gwayne, but he, too, has no idea where their father is.
Later, when Aemond takes over as the Prince Regent, he writes to Otto, asking him to come back and take his place at the council as the Hand. But even then, Otto doesn’t reply and never shows up, leaving Aemond to work with the hand he was dealt. What he, and anyone else loyal to the Greens, didn’t know is that Otto had been under their noses all along. It turns out that when Aegon dismissed him, he never really made it out of King’s Landing. Instead, he had been captured and thrown into a cell on Larys’ command. It is shocking to think he would do that, considering how he has supported the Greens since the beginning, but it isn’t entirely so. Larys has never been loyal to anyone but himself, and his plan behind Otto’s capture proves that.
Otto was Always Supposed to be Served Up to the Blacks
While he may have sided with the Greens, Larys Strong knew better than to assume that Aegon would win the war easily. While she might still be on Dragonstone, Rhaenyra still held many cards, and there could be a time when she or someone in her name returned to King’s Landing. He didn’t know how exactly it would happen, but he prepared for it just in case. As we see, before Rhaenyra takes the Iron Throne, she has to take Aegon’s head, as well as that of his loyalists. If it had happened under the circumstances when Larys was still around, he could have offered something else in place of his own head, much like Maester Orwyle does when Daemon threatens to kill him.
With the Blacks hating Otto Hightower more than they care about Larys, it would be a fair trade to let him live in exchange for giving them the man who conspired against them. It didn’t come to that for Larys, who escaped with Aegon before Rhaenyra could take back her rightful place. Even then, he made sure that a good word would be put in for him even if he wasn’t there. He instructed his men to hand over Otto to Daemon, who was the most likely person to lead the siege of King’s Landing and also the person who hated Otto even before Alicent was married to Viserys.
By making sure that Daemon knew Larys had left this gift for him, he made sure that if things didn’t turn out in favor of the Greens, he would have a way to get back in the good graces of the new ruler and get his place back in the court. Or, at least, not get hunted and killed for being a Green loyalist. Otto likely understood this reasoning, but it still left him unable to do anything. If no one knew he was captured, no one would come to his rescue. Eventually, when Daemon shows up outside his cell, he knows that this is his end. He is a little surprised by the state of affairs, having no idea that his own daughter had undone all the schemes he had worked so hard for all these years.
When Daemon tells Rhaenyra that Aegon is nowhere to be found, Otto knows he is going to pay for his sins. When he sees the doubt in Rhaenyra’s eyes and the unsteadiness in her hands, he asks her to let Daemon kill him in one fell swoop. But Daemon hands over the sword to Rhaenyra. As expected, she doesn’t do the job in the first strike. She ends up hitting him on his back, a fair distance away from his neck. He cries out in pain, which makes Rhaenyra realize what has happened, and pushes her to aim better this time. On the second try, she succeeds in beheading him, and Otto’s story comes to an end.
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