House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 6 is a big one for fans of House Hightower. Not only does Ser Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox) finally arrive in Tumbleton, but he manages to come to Prince Daeron Targaryen’s (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) when Lord Ormund Hightower (James Norton) is otherwise incapacitated.
When DECIDER recently caught up with House of the Dragon star James Norton, he even teased that Gwayne brings out Ormund’s “true authentic self” in a way we haven’t seen before on the HBO hit.
**Spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 6, now streaming on HBO Max**
One of the wildest moments in last night’s House of the Dragon comes when Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) almost succeeds in eliminating her main rivals, Ormund Hightower and her younger brother, Daeron. Knowing that the smartest solution to the Tumbleton problem is to send assassins to kill Ormund and his inner circle, Rhaenyra cleverly borrows the belts and tunics of a Baratheon envoy who have come to King’s Landing. She outfits the sellswords as these Baratheons, and Ormund is so desperate for support, so bothered by the dirty men’s stench, he almost falls for the trick.
Luckily, though, Gwayne knows guerrilla battle tactics and has a list of all the best face cards in Westeros. He recognizes that these killers are lying about who they are.
After this, Ormund softens a bit, in private, with Gwayne in a scene that sees the master strategist finally open up to his cousin.
“In a way, you don’t really get to see Ormund’s true authentic self until you see him interacting with Gwayne, I think. Well, actually both of them in a way,” Norton said. “I think in a way, Gwayne is the one who brings out the most authentic versions of both of them.”
“You know, he’s Daeron’s uncle, and there is a truth and authenticity to that conversation, that relationship where you see how disingenuous and how much of a sort of performance Daeron is putting on with Ormund. But similarly with Ormund, their history is —” Norton began to chuckle.
“The reason I laughed is because Freddie and I are old friends and we had a lot of fun — and it was important as well as fun —but it was also fun, imagining Ormund and Gwayne as kids, and what went on what went down, and I think a lot went down. I think that they were friends, I don’t know, we nodded to sort of a very complicated history, we nodded to it in a couple of moments.”
We’ve heard from Alicent (Olivia Cooke) that as children Gwayne thought Ormund was cruel, and we’ve heard from Gwayne himself how he had to let Ormund beat him at games to prevent catastrophe. Now, as adults, there is still a rivalry, but it’s about Daeron.
“Gwayne’s relationship with Ormund is in itself a very complex, rich place to delve, and we did, and it allowed me a way into my history, imagining where they interacted,” Norton said.
House of the Dragon returns next Sunday, August 2 at 9 PM ET on HBO and HBO Max.