Updated

Updated · Mashable · Jul 20

Daemon Targaryen Finds 9 Slain Gold Cloaks as Ormund Hightower Bankrolls "Feast for Traitors"

Updated

Updated · Mashable · Jul 20

Daemon Targaryen Finds 9 Slain Gold Cloaks as Ormund Hightower Bankrolls "Feast for Traitors"

Q: If dragons cannot guarantee loyalty, what forgotten pillar of power could save Rhaenyra's crumbling reign?

Rhaenyra’s best chance is not another display of dragon power, but rebuilding political legitimacy: the consent of the governed, backed by functioning institutions, reliable allies, and visible competence. The crisis in King’s Landing shows why. Dragons can terrify enemies, but they cannot feed a starving capital, pay the gold cloaks, or repair broken promises to major houses. Rhaenyra’s rule is collapsing at the points where durable power is usually built: the smallfolk are hungry and in revolt, the City Watch is unpaid and penetrated, the Faith refuses to bless her rule, the maesters are compromised, and key nobles such as the Freys feel cheated rather than bound to her cause. That is the “forgotten pillar” Daemon’s warning pointed to: loyalty must be earned through governance, not assumed through bloodline or enforced through fear. The broader lesson, echoed by the Targaryens’ long history, is that overwhelming force can win battles but cannot by itself create a stable political order. Even Aegon’s dragons could not force Dorne into submission when faced with determined resistance, local support, and unconventional tactics. For Rhaenyra, the practical remedy is clear. She would need to restore food and pay in the capital, secure the gold cloaks, reconcile with alienated lords, and seek some accommodation with the Faith and other institutions that confer legitimacy. Without that wider coalition, dragons remain a weapon, not a government.

2 articles · Updated · Mashable · Jul 20

Nine dead Gold Cloaks — including Ser Luthor Largent — are revealed in Season 3, episode 5 posed around a table, with their entrails spread out and "a feast for traitors" written in blood.
Ormund Hightower is identified as the financier behind the killings, using the tableau as psychological warfare while advancing his show-created push to crown Daeron Targaryen.
Daemon and Luthor kill one suspect who claims he acted alone, but the later discovery of the staged massacre shows the murders were part of a wider operation.
The sequence is largely a show invention: Fire and Blood features corpse-feast imagery during Criston Cole's march, but not a Gold Cloak killing spree or Ormund's role in it.
That change also shifts the atrocity from pro-Rhaenyra forces in the book to Team Green in the series, sharpening Ormund's sadistic portrayal while softening some Black-aligned opponents.