Episode 3 of House of the Dragon delved further into the conflict at the Stepstones.
This conflict involving the Triarchy had been simmering away under the surface throughout all of Episode 1 of the hit epic fantasy series.
While King Viserys (Paddy Considine) seemed to hold little interest in the spat over a small stretch of land between Westeros and Essos, Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) was very worried about it.
So much so, in fact, that he went behind the king’s back and called on Prince Daemon (Matt Smith) to help him defeat the Triarchy, headed by a character called Crabfeeder (Daniel Scott-Smith).
Crabfeeder was a super creepy-looking character that seemed entirely intent on controlling the Stepstones and making it hard — and very expensive — for anyone trying to travel through the region.
Prince Daemon was successful in bringing down Crabfeeder so viewers will not get to see this character in upcoming episodes of House of the Dragon but there are a couple of interesting facts about him that might have gone by unnoticed.
Crabfeeder does have greyscale
Many viewers commented on the fact that Crabfeeder — whose real name in the show is Craghas Drahar — had what appeared to be greyscale on his body.
However, there was no direct mention of him being afflicted with it in House of the Dragon.
Now, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Daniel Scott-Smith has confirmed his character did suffer from the same ailment that both Shireen Baratheon (Kerry Ingram) and Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen) had in Game of Thrones.
“Craghas Drahar is seen as the bad guy, but for any bad character, there’s always got to be a journey of how they got to that point,” Scott-Smith said.
“We wanted to remember that there’s two sides to him. So we spoke about the idea of him being a prince, or that he calls himself a prince, so he came from some sort of higher House. We spoke about that and the gradual decline to where he is, how the greyscale might affect him physically, even mentally.”
In Game of Thrones, greyscale was discussed quite extensively so it is known that those afflicted with it become brutal savages by the end and that’s why they were sent away to the deserted city of Valyria.
Crabfeeder wore a Sons of the Harpy mask
In addition to Crabfeeder having greyscale, he also wore a mask on his face that some eagle-eyed fans may have noticed bore a striking resemblance to those worn by the Sons of the Harpy in Game of Thrones.
Once again, this is not an accident.
Scott-Smith notes that not only was the mask a nod to fans of Game of Thrones but that Crabfeeder may have been the very first person to wear this mask and that the Sons of the Harpy movement developed because of him.
“It was definitely a nod to [Game of Thrones], I guess, the fans, because it’s something familiar for them,” Scott-Smith said.
“And we spoke about the idea of him being the first person to wear this mask and it becoming iconic and, therefore, it’s built from that [for Game of Thrones]… Why is he wearing the mask? How does he feel about that? It’s a power statement, so he’s quite happy wearing it.
As pointed out by Inverse, the advent of the Crabfeeder as the creator of Sons of the Harpy could contradict what happened in Game of Thrones where it was believed this group was organized in response to Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke).
However, it was never clearly stated that Sons of the Harpy were formed immediately because of her or if they were an existing group.
Regardless, both groups seem intent on bringing down the Targaryens so, potentially, Sons of the Harpy could have used the Crabfeeder’s mask as an inspiration for the one used in Game of Thrones.
Of course, now that Crabfeeder is dead, it seems very unlikely that fans will find out more about this interesting character.
House of the Dragon airs every Sunday night at 9/8c on HBO Max.