House of the Dragon Featurette Reveals A Brand New Look at A Crucial Character
Never underestimate a grumpy old man.
House of the Dragon has always had one scaly leg up on Game of Thrones: the dragons. There were only three in all of Game of Thrones, but there are more dragons than you can shake a stick at in the prequel. Because of that, Targaryen dominance is pretty unquestioned — it’s hard to beat a dragon with an army, no matter how big it is.
But throughout the Dance of Dragons, we’ve seen how even the lowliest fighter can have a big influence on Westerosi history. In a new featurette for House of the Dragon Season 3, we get our first look at one of these fighters, a Northman who manages to defeat some key figures for the Blacks. Check out the featurette below:
Most of this featurette consists of the cast members hyping up the new season, but there are a few clips from Season 3, including one of a gruff, white-haired man wielding an axe. It’s very clear who this is: Roderick Dustin, aka Roddy the Ruin, as played by Tommy Flanagan. Roddy isn’t a major lord — in fact, he’s not even the most prominent lord in the North. He’s the lord of the Barrowlands, an area in the North but still south of Winterfell.
When Jaecerys Targaryen traveled to the North to get Cregan Stark’s support for his mother, Rhaenyra, a small advance party of Northerners was sent down south. This group, known as the Winter Wolves, is led by Roddy, and despite his old age, he’s still a major battlefield threat. Known for wielding a battle-axe — a weapon that also features on his house sigil — he fights in multiple battles in the Dance of Dragons.
Warning! Potential spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 3 ahead!
In Fire & Blood, the source material for House of the Dragon, Roddy the Ruin leads the Winter Wolves to the Twins, where he tells Lady Sabitha Frey he knows his mission will lead to his dying. But he doesn’t care: that’s what loyalty means to him. But he’s not completely resigned to that fate, and he’s definitely not going down without a fight.
Roderick is present when Ser Criston Cole pleads to surrender, but is denied.
In the Battle by the Lakeshore, the Winter Wolves charge at the Lannister army over and over, but that cost them many of their men. Later, a severely defeated Ser Criston Cole pleads to Roderick and his fellow commanders for mercy, but they refuse. Ser Criston prepares to fight in a last-ditch effort, but is mortally wounded by multiple arrows. Roderick sounds another charge, and thus begins what becomes known as the Butcher’s Ball, an absolutely brutal battle that leaves the Greens severely disabled. It was so bad that it got its name from Ser Garibald Frey saying, “Today was butchery, not battle.”
But just as Roderick said before, this victory run couldn’t last forever. In the First Battle of Tumbleton, Roderick leads the remaining Winter Wolves into battle against the Hightowers, and he ends up getting an arm sliced clean off. But even that isn’t enough to stop him — he manages to take out Ormund and Brynden Hightower before he succumbs to his injuries.
Roderick Dustin may not have a major title or a dragon, but he has the one thing that matters most in a story like this: gumption and a complete acceptance of dying in battle. With that combination, we may have had our first look at the new fan-favorite character of House of the Dragon.
