House of the Dragon is an account of the Targaryen Dynasty’s decline, and because it’s a prequel based on a pre-existing book, fans more or less know what lies ahead. It still makes for fascinating television, but slow pacing can be frustrating when you know what’s coming next, and the series hasn’t been immune to accusations of dragging on. Thankfully, that could finally change when Season 3 arrives.
During a promotional panel, showrunner Ryan Condal teased how Season 3 will differ from Season 2. “Season 2 is huge. Season 3 is huger, in many ways,” he said. “There are, by my quick count on stage, four major events from the book that we get to adapt and realize in three dimensions in this season.”
Showrunner Ryan Condal says Season 3 will be “huger.”
That’s quite an uptick from Season 2, which slowed down after opening with the assassination of Prince Jahaerys Targaryen in revenge for Season 1’s murder of Rhaenyra’s son Lucerys. We later saw the battle of Rook’s Rest and the demise of Rhaenys, and it looked like the rest of the season was building to the Battle of the Gullet, a monumental naval battle that was among the bloodiest of the entire conflict. But, infuriatingly, the season ended just as everyone was setting sail.
What Season 3’s four major events are doesn’t really matter, although we know the next set of episodes will almost certainly kick off with the Battle of the Gullet. What’s important is that, if this claim is true, House of the Dragon will finally stop teasing us with future drama and actually deliver a sufficient amount of it.
Tyland Lannister and Sharako Lohar ended Season 2 by heading to the Battle of the Gullet instead of actually fighting it.
Ryan Condal is working from a finished novel and apparently has an endgame for House of the Dragon in mind, so this series hopefully won’t flub the finale like Game of Thrones did. While taking some time to offer more detail — or add in a bunch of scenes of Daemon having spooky dreams — can be rewarding in its own way, chaos unfolds faster than you think. House of the Dragon needs to finally reflect that on-screen if it wants to be remembered as more than another waste of potential.
