I’m in a strange place with House of the Dragon, people.
Strange days have found us, as The Doors might say. And I’m not even talking about Harrenhal (sort of).
As the House of the Dragon Season 3 finale looms on Sunday, August 9th, I feel more relief versus excitement that this dreary chapter of HotD is coming to a close.
And my thought bubble heading into the season finale is: so where the [REDACTED] are we with this show?
The whole not being able to track what’s going on thing
Over the course of Season 3, I started to realize that there are storylines where I kind of know what’s going on, and others where I’ve more or less given up.
The smoking gun, so to speak, that indicates that my interest in the doings of Westeros during this time period is waning is that while I’m aware there are “blacks” and “greens” and some state of civil war going on, I don’t have a firm grasp on much beyond that.
Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) has a tentative grip on the Iron Throne – that’s clear enough – but who is allied with her and who’s against her isn’t. And what’s more, I don’t think I really care at this point.
And then meanwhile, there are dragons and their associated “riders,” some of which are on one side or the other. I honestly have no clue of which rider goes with which dragon, and which side any one of them, human or beast is on (save that Matt Smith is for his niece-wife, Rhaenyra).
Pit that dynamic, for example, against the culmination of action in the much “smaller” story of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ first season, which exquisitely draws you into the stakes for every character involved.
The storylines I’ve dumped overboard
There’s a distressing number of them at this point:
- Anything going on in The Vale. Tyrion, Bronn, and Littlefinger doings in The Vale circa Game of Thrones = super fun. But HotD Vale stuff = snoozefest
- The many dreary days and boring fever dream witchy nights at Harrenhal.
- That Ulf guy (Tom Bennett) with the dragon and the other one. One of them is about to betray Rhaenyra or something because he wanted to hang out at the pub and wasn’t allowed to? Maybe?
- Ser Criston Cole stuff. Honestly, his character was pretty interesting in the first season especially, and this is nothing against actor Fabien Frankel at all, who was fabulous on Task. But in HotD, he epitomized the Dreary Rambling Around the Riverlands, of which there was much. Of course (spoiler alert!), we don’t have to deal with SCC anymore (RIP).
The whole not really caring what’s going on when I’m able to track what’s going on thing
Potentially more distressing is that for the stuff where I am able to mostly track what’s going on, I’m finding that I’m caring less and less week to week.
More on this topic: House of the Dragon has become the dreary, mostly forgettable Game of Thrones prequel.
The eternity of time that went by between Season 2 and Season 3 thing
There are a number of reasons why Season 3 has gone off the rails, but the nearly two years that we had to wait between seasons is chief among them.
I’m enough of a fan of the franchise and found Season 1 promising enough that I actually re-watched it heading into Season 2. But S2’s slog and the enormous wait between S2 and S3 set things up to the extent that I felt unoriented and not emotionally tuned into much heading into the new season.
And, save for the excellent third episode, “Rhaenyra Triumphant” – which smartly stays with the Queen’s point of view as she struggles to figure out how to actually govern now that she’s claimed the Iron Throne – this season is mostly an extension of S2’s slog.
My man Dan Fogler hasn’t pulled a Daniel Ings (yet)
I love Dan Fogler. If you haven’t seen The Offer, go watch it.
But he has yet to be put into a position to deliver what Daniel Ings brought to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. At least not yet.
So what am I actually left caring about at this point?
I thought a lot about this question, and I think the answer at this point is mostly Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), with a side dish of Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney).
Not only is Olivia Cooke an outstanding actress, but we as the audience feel most oriented when we’re with her character. She’s trapped in the Red Keep, has a complex relationship with Rhaenyra (in short: frenemy meets captor), and is chiefly concerned with keeping her rather unusual daughter, Helaena (Phia Saban) safe.
Will I keep watching?
I’ll watch the Season 3 finale, and then consider my options. While I’m deeply invested in the Game of Thrones universe at this point and am absolutely obsessed with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, House of the Dragons has proved to be more disappointing than not on the whole.