House Of The Dragon Reclaims The Magic, Fire, And Blood Of Its First Season
The Thrones prequel gains a newfound confidence that brings it into its destiny.
Most of us tuned in to House of the Dragon because we wanted more of the same. That might be the most obvious statement in history: of course we’d want more of Game of Thrones, the high fantasy series that effectively ended all high fantasy series. The HBO juggernaut cruised on a cocktail of gleeful bloodshed, eerie magicks, and enough copulation to put one off watching anything with their family ever again. House of the Dragon was poised to go double-or-nothing: by virtue of being a prequel, it had something Thrones did not — a whole army of dragons, and more Targaryens than lone fan-favorite Daenerys (Emilia Clarke). That it promised to pitch the incestuous, ancient clan into an epic civil battle, the Dance of Dragons, only further stoked the hype, despite its subdued first season. But fans were patient. The battle, much like the winters of Westeros, was inevitable; we needed only wait for it.
Five years later, though, and House of the Dragon is still withholding the “more.” Its second season was the definition of a stall tactic — sure, there were battles, but none with any of the escalation or momentum that fans expected after so much table setting. Much like the dueling queens at its center, the series seemed loath to go to battle at all. It kept its most volatile (and entertaining) warriors locked in imaginary purgatories. It murdered the momentum of its emotional bombshells. And, most damningly, the credits rolled just as it was coming up to its most anticipated conflict, the Battle of the Gullet.
Rhaenyra makes another bold play for the throne.
All that leaves House of the Dragon to finally cut to the chase in its third, penultimate season — with the endgame in sight, there’s no better time to guide the series back towards the hard-and-fast action that fans have been holding out for. Season 3 starts strong with blistering bloodshed, but it also affirms that its quiet cliffhanger in Season 2 wasn’t a mistake. The Targaryen-focused spinoff recommits to its downtempo pacing, straying even farther from the formula of its mothership series. And unlike its last chapter, it does so confidently, stepping into its destiny and out of Thrones’ shadow.
It’s difficult to talk about all the ways that House of the Dragon stands its ground this season without brushing against the third rail that is its spoiler list. As the show dives into the Battle of the Gullet practically straightaway and majorly resets the board, it could all technically be off-limits. For now, let’s just say this: the series, co-created by Ryan Condal and Thrones author George R.R. Martin, has always been less interested in action than the consequences it reaps. That means that the battle, famed as it is for its bloodiness, doesn’t really revel in it. There’s a restless bent to its pacing that never touches House of the Dragon’s quieter scenes. In the moment, it’s compelling enough — thanks in great part to the brusquely charming Sharako Lohar (Abigail Thorne, finally getting the spotlight again), who fights on behalf of King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney). But the thrill of swords clashing and ships careening into enemy hulls comes second to the dread that each reckless decision inspires, and the grief it strikes in the survivors.
Warfare still plays second fiddle to palace intrigue in House of the Dragon, but the series finally has the confidence to pull that off.
The Battle of the Gullet winds up a speed bump on the road to more palace intrigue — Condal’s bread and butter — but you almost don’t miss the battlefield with the series wading back into the snake pit that is King’s Landing. For the first time in years, House of the Dragon feels truly unpredictable. Its second season moved with the knowledge that all its events were preordained, using an ancient prophecy to stir up a sense of kismet. The series got a little too cute with that concept when Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) stumbled into a bald-faced preview for Game of Thrones in one of the season’s many tedious dream sequences. But Season 3 recalibrates to its benefit: the sense that these characters are each sinking to their doom hangs like a fog over every scene. The small victories — like rightful queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) making major headway in her coup against the exiled Aegon — are hard to celebrate without fearing what comes after. It’s what makes this series one of the best feel-bad shows out there: it’s the trepidation of the Red Wedding or the destruction of Baelor’s sept, stretched out across a season arc.
For all its emphasis on boisterous, capital-E events, House of the Dragon just works better when it’s a bunch of people talking in a room — or one person (besides Daemon!) crashing out in a castle. One episode (of the four provided to critics for review) follows only Rhaenyra as she works to win back the favor of the people... and stave off her Lady Macbeth era. It’s strikingly mundane — she frets over matters of budget, knighthoods, and menstrual cramps — but it’s real, and far more compelling than Daemon’s newfound interest in the “Song of Ice and Fire” and what it can do for the Targaryen empire. I’d call it the best of the season if there wasn’t so much more to go, and if the rise of a new villain in Ormund Hightower (a fabulous James Norton) didn’t all but promise to bookend this season with another blockbuster battle.
For every brilliant character evolution, Season 3 still sinks under some regressive choices.
The problems that have plagued the series in the past haven’t totally gone away. Condal & co. still can’t quite balance this ensemble, or even give loose ends that should have long been cut — like the mopey Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) — a reason to clog up the narrative. It also takes something of a risk by smoothing out the rivalry between Rhaenyra and her childhood bestie, Queen Dowager Alicent (Olivia Cooke), which was once the lifeblood of the series. But hey, if it gives these brilliant actors a new dimension of this dynamic to play in, more power to them. In a realm (and royal court) defined by misogyny and pervy entitlement, these women should have never been enemies in the first place. House of the Dragon is only casually interested in that thread this season — it threatens us with blindsiding near-assaults perpetrated by bad men when a Bechdel-friendly exchange would do the trick — but it gets points for evolving in other ways.
With the third season underway and only one remaining, whatever flaws fans perceived within House of the Dragon might as well be features in its design. Those who tired of all the talking in Season 2 and crave wall-to-wall action will consider this chapter similarly slow. But it’s clearer now than ever: the show wants to be a chess match, not a battle epic. It might give more energy to its battle of wills than it does to those of attrition, but it’s more assured of that choice in Season 3, and that could make this the best chapter yet.
