While HBO’s Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon never quite lost the run of itself, there is no denying the fact that season 3, episode 2’s success came from focusing on its true central conflict for the first time in a long time. Viewers love sprawling fantasy epics with big, immersive fictional worlds. At least, this is what A24’s $100 million Elden Ring movie is betting on, what HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter reboot is betting on, and what both upcoming lve-action Dungeons and Dragons shows are betting on.
Perhaps most importantly, this was the risky assumption that HBO made when the cable network spent an unprecedented amount of money on Game of Thrones season 1 back in 2011. The budget of the original adaptation of author George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire saga seems quaint now, when its spinoff, House of the Dragon, cost north of $200 million for its first season alone. However, the only reason House of the Dragon could afford to spend so much is that both the spinoff and Game of Thrones were massive global successes.
That said, the ending of Game of Thrones proved that there was one major problem with the open-world fantasy storytelling of Martin’s epic series. Game of Thrones spent its entire eight-season story building up to a series of increasingly major showdowns between major characters, meaning viewers had to wait until the final season for a lot of the protagonists to meet, let alone duke it out. Luckily, the success of House Of The Dragon season 3, episode 2, proves the series has avoided this issue.
House Of The Dragon’s Season 3 Episode 2’s Success Comes From Centering The Dance
Currently, season 3, episode 2, “Queen’s Landing,” is tied with season 2, episode 4, “The Red Dragon and the Gold,” as the highest-rated episode in the series on IMDb. Not coincidentally, the plot of this outing sees Rhaenyra finally make a move against her actual enemies, Aegon and Aemond, rather than plotting against Alicent, Otto, Criston, and other minor antagonists of her story.
Since the show’s inception, House Of The Dragon has focused a lot on Rhaenyra and Alicent’s power struggle, but the real Dance of the Dragons that is central to the story of the series is between Rhaenyra and Aegon Targaryen. As such, it is thrilling to finally see Rhaenyra ascend to the Iron Throne at the end of the episode, putting pettier power struggles to an end in favor of full-blown warfare commanded by her.
While House of the Dragon’s promised increased action quotient was already showcased in the epic scope of the Battle of the Gullet, this revelation proves that Rhaenyra’s story isn’t set to return to the world of backhanded political machinations after this monumental event. Seeing Alicent and Rhaenyra struggle illustrated the true natures of both characters and provided compelling human drama amid the dragon wars of seasons 1 and 2.
Rhaenyra vs Aegon Is House Of The Dragon’s Real Story (Not Rhaenyra vs Alicent)
However, House of the Dragon couldn’t stay focused on interpersonal drama forever, especially when the second Game of Thrones spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, was specifically written to provide a more intimate, smaller-scale story set in the same fictional universe. For a series that boasted a budget as big as HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter show, House Of The Dragon practically made a dance of avoiding the Dance of the Dragons in season 2.
Now, as Rhaenyra and Aegon’s history-defining battle is finally set in stone, it is clear that the series isn’t backing down from the epic action it has always promised. With Alicent and Rhaenyra’s mind games, House of the Dragon has already proven it can recreate the unpredictable court politics of Game of Thrones, but now, it is also providing the massive-scale action to go along with this.
Source: IMDb
- Release Date
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August 21, 2022
- Network
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HBO
- Directors
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Clare Kilner, Geeta Patel
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Fabien Frankel
Ser Criston Cole
