HOUSE OF THE DRAGON S3 had some thrilling scenes and A LOT of dragons, but overall was a slight disappointment. I loved GAME OF THRONES when it came out. The creators fumbled the ending, sure, but there was still a lot to love about that final season. It wowed me. It broke my heart. It thrilled, excited, and mystified me, and maybe thatâs exactly the problem. Iâve come to expect that from this world, and HOUSE OF THE DRAGON rarely delivers it anymore.
HOUSE OF THE DRAGON suffers from âthe curse of the prequel.â When you already know what happens in the grand scheme of House Targaryen, it gets a lot harder to invest in them along the way. For Star Wars fans out there, I also had this problem with ROGUE ONE, but then I loved ANDOR so much that it made ROGUE ONE better for me. King Aegon IIâs story had a big twist in S2, plus the fates of Rhaenyraâs children, and whatever Daemon is up to at any given moment: None of it lands as shocking when youâve already lived through GAME OF THRONES. It all just feels like familiar territory, and itâs hard to get excited each week.
Queen Rhaenyra and Corlys âThe Sea Snakeâ Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) remain the strongest characters in the show, but for very different reasons. I donât know Corlysâs fate the way I know hers. That uncertainty is doing a lot of work to keep me invested. I genuinely love Emma DâArcyâs performance as Rhaenyra and wish the show would keep her as the main focus instead of drifting off with 50 other characters whose names are so similar that itâs genuinely hard to keep track of whoâs who. For example: Jaehaerys & Jaehaerys & Jaehaera & Jacaerys or Alyn & Alfred & Alicent & Alys & Alyssa & Alysanne & Allun just to start.
That is the big issue: There are simply too many characters. With Aegon and Aemond sidelined for most of the season, everything outside Rhaenyraâs own storyline felt scattered. I havenât read the books, so I donât know how much of this was already streamlined for the show, but I have to imagine some of these characters or their houses could be combined, or cut entirely, for a tighter story. And donât get me started on Rhaena Targaryen. Her story could be interesting, if only there were time for it.
From where they started in S2, to where they were at the end of this season, the dragonseeds turned out to be a big letdown. Hugh Hammer, Ulf the White, and Addam of Hull were introduced last season in such an exciting, dramatic way, and this season squandered nearly all of that potential. Hugh, who left his wife and her family to answer Rhaenyraâs call, had real potential but mostly just sulked around instead. Addam, one of Corlysâs bastard sons (and full brother to Alyn of Hull), has plenty of promise too, but he and Alyn both still seem to be living in their fatherâs shadow rather than getting meaty stories of their own. And with all of that being said, we donât really NEED more character stories. But if youâre going to introduce them, at least give them something to do.
Ulf is my one exception as far as the dragonseeds go. The culmination of his S3 story at the Battle of Tumbleton drives the entire finale, and his arc got him there logically: everything weâve seen of him leading up to that moment explains exactly his choices in the finale. And yet again, it didnât land as shocking to me, when weâve seen far crazier things happen in GAME OF THRONES. Plus Ulf was never likable to begin with, so I didnât find myself rooting for him or against him. He was just mostly annoying, and easily the least interesting of the three dragonseeds until this finale.
HOUSE OF THE DRAGON is confirmed for four seasons, so next season will be the last, and if you know anything about Targaryen history, or if you were paying close attention during GAME OF THRONES, you already know roughly how this ends. What I want out of the final season is focus: Rhaenyra as queen for the Blacks, against whichever Green ends up on the throne; whether thatâs Aegon or Aemond or another family member. I donât need a lot of time spent on the Tullys, the Arryns, the Lannisters, the Starks, or the rest of the noble houses. I want the show to stay centered on House Targaryen, Black vs. Green, and the long throughline to the events of GAME OF THRONES that will take place a couple hundred years later. In S1, I didnât think there were enough dragons for a show called HOUSE OF THE DRAGON. Now weâve got so many dragons and yet so little focus on the âhouseâ in the title.
HOUSE OF THE DRAGON S3 is streaming in its entirety on HBO Max and airing on HBO.