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"Words are wind, butspoilersare not." The following post contains spoilers for "House of the Dragon" Season 3, Episode 5.
The reign of Rhaenyra of House Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy), First of her Name, has not gotten off to a great start. For starters, she lost her firstborn son Jace (Harry Collett) and his beautiful dragon in the "House of the Dragon" Season 3 premiere. Then, her half-brother and usurper, Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney), was nowhere to be found upon Rhaenyra taking control of King's Landing, despite his death being part of a del that Rhaenyra made with Aegon's mother, Alicent (Olivia Cooke), in exchange for the lives of Alicent and her daughter Helaena (Phia Saban).
Even after taking the throne, Rhaenyra discovered what Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) did back on "Game of Thrones": being Queen is tougher than it looks. So far, Rhaenyra's reign has been plagued by crisis after crisis, with King's Landing having a litany of problems that require her attention. There are grain shortages threatening to cause a famine, a severe lack of coin to toss to your witcher, a war that still hasn't ended, unfathomably rich lords and ladies that need to be dealt with, and, on top of everything else, a rat infestation.
As of Season 3, Episode 5, though, that last problem has apparently been solved thanks to a bunch of cats. Yes, throughout the episode, we see cats everywhere. Indeed, virtually every scene set in King's Landing has at least one random cat in the background. And while it might just seem like a funny gag at first glance, it's actually a rather important development — one that explains why King's Landing is overrun with cats by the time that "Game of Thrones" begins.
Read more: 5 Game Of Thrones Characters Who Should Have Never Died
The cat invasion of King's Landing begins in House of the Dragon
In case you need a refresher, Aegon II had every ratcatcher in King's Landing executed in "House of the Dragon" Season 2 after a couple of them murdered his son and heir, allowing rats to go wild across the city. And sure, this later had the unintended benefit of allowing Rhaenyra to serve a pretty nasty dinner to all the nobles in King's Landing, but it was still a huge problem. So, earlier in Season 3, Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim) suggested using an old sailor's trick by bringing in cats to hunt down the rats. It seems his plan worked.
Except, King's Landing now has a different problem. All those cats, freed of predators, are rapidly multiplying. It's a throwaway detail that's not hard to miss, but there are cats everywhere in Season 3, Episode 5, and they're only going to continue spreading. We know this since, centuries later in "Game of Thrones," the Red Keep is full of cats of all types and sizes. You might even remember in "Game of Thrones" Season 1 when Syrio Forel (Miltos Yerolemou) tasks Arya (Maisie Williams) with trying to catch a cat during her sword-dancing training.
We also know that Tommen Baratheon (Dean-Charles Chapman) has three kittens he is obsessed with on "Game of Thrones," as given to him by his wife, Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer). More so, there's a theory that a kitten who was named after Balerion the Dread and once belonged to the late Princess Rhaenys supposedly still lives in King's Landing, spelling doom for House Baratheon.
Basically, cats are integral to the many issues plaguing the decaying capital of the Seven Kingdoms. Now, we know how that came to be in the first place.
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Read the original article on SlashFilm.
