This article contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of “House of the Dragon.”
If you give a man a dragon, he’ll ask for a glass of ale to go with it. Also a knighthood and a castle and certainly social status that ensures he won’t be treated like scum.
For those “House of the Dragon” viewers who wondered about Rhaenyra Targaryen’s (Emma D’Arcy) decision to start handing out dragons to any illegitimate Targaryen, well, the bigger problem seems to be the benefits package.
For most of Season 3, many of those riders have come to realize that dragon riding is a whole lot of work with very little pay and they are still treated like second-class citizens. None more than Ulf (Tom Bennett), an Everyman drunkard and raconteur who bristled at all the rules and regs. Rhaenyra and Daemon (Matt Smith) treated Ulf so badly that he defected to the scheming Lord Ormund Hightower (James Norton), who wound up being just as abusive. So when, in the season finale, Ormund drags him from the privy to demand that Ulf and his dragon defend Ormund’s forces in Oldtown from Daemon’s army, Ulf does what he’s told and then opens fire on Ormund, too, leaving Old Town a smoking wreck.
Workers of the world unite?
Elsewhere, brothers Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) reunited at Harrenhal; Rhaenyra ordered the murder of the High Sept and publicly proclaimed herself the “prince who was promised” while poor old Helaena (Phia Saban) took herself and her unborn child out of political prison permanently.
And with that, Season 3 of HBO’s “House of the Dragon” concluded, leaving us pretty much back where we started, with Rhaenyra facing inevitable attack by her half-brothers, while at least one disaffected dragonseed is flying around, happy to kill them all.
The “Game of Thrones” prequel, adapted from George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood,”has been both panned and defended perhaps more than any other major television production in recent memory. Since premiering in 2022, reactions to the drama have been mixed, especially among “GOT” fans who waited three-plus years to watch a fresh cast of characters scheme and kill their way to the spiky throne.
Critics Lorraine Ali and Mary McNamara discuss where the show is headed for its fourth and final season, slated for 2028, and why “House of the Dragon” has had trouble gaining speed and altitude.
Lorraine Ali: Ulf. Ormund. Aemond. It didn’t matter who was on screen. I found myself struggling to stay invested, let alone awake, throughout much of Season 3. Things started to pick up with the resurrection of Aegon‘s dragon, Sunfyre, but that was at the close of Episode 7!
My main issue with “Dragon” is that its characters aren’t all that complex or fleshed out, and when folks don’t evolve, it doesn’t matter how fancy the tunic or how well they swing a sword — they’re boring. Take Rhaenyra. Remember that uncertain girl who married her uncle Daemon Targaryen those many years ago? It was disgusting, of course, but anyone who’s dipped a toe in the dating practices of the Seven Kingdoms knows incest is welcome if not encouraged.
More problematic is that she has showed little depth or growth over the series run. Her crippling impostor syndrome was a feature, not a bug — we were stuck there with her for at least two seasons. Even when she was ruling from the Red Keep, she was still asking everyone in her path — the dreamer, the whore and probably the cats when we weren’t looking — if she’s worthy of the crown. You’re wearing it, lady!
The constant mansplaining by Daemon about what it takes to be a strong ruler didn’t make a lick of difference, but it sure was annoying. It took the realization that Aegon was alive and riding again. The pacing of this show drives me crazy. If only “HOTD” had put as much effort into honing its characters’ internal battles as it did depicting bloody conflicts across Westeros. But as is, Rhaenyra’s sudden turn into a decisive leader with villainous potential only emerged in the last 30 minutes of the season.
I believe the show’s weak character development leads to plot confusion — i.e. making things hard to follow for those of us who haven’t read “Fire & Blood.” With no one interesting to root for, I lost track of “HOTD’s” labyrinth of houses, realms, battles and armies. The late Helaena and her cryptic needlepoint hardly helped clear things up. Now, I could give a Rook’s Rest about what the Rivermen were all about, or whatever the perpetually smirking Aemond is up to. And don’t get me started on Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin). I still have no idea why we had to spend so much time with her in that haunted castle.
Mary McNamara: Harrenhal has certainly gotten a load of screen time in “House of the Dragon,” though it had its moments in “Game of Thrones” — it’s where, among other things, Arya briefly becomes Tywin Lannister’s cup bearer and, more importantly, learns that Jaqen H’ghar owes her three deaths.
All of which was, as you say, way more fun to watch than pretty much anything that has happened there in “House of the Dragon.”
I myself am grateful for the appearance of Lord Ormund if only because Norton is clearly having a blast and his olfactory sensitivity and devotion to aromatherapy add some much needed humor. But he didn’t even begin to solve the larger problem: “House of the Dragon” is an epic that forgot to create any sort of hero.
For a long while it seemed Rhaenyra was the obvious candidate. With her succession overturned by monarchical sexism and the misinterpretation of her father’s last words, she refused to give up her claim as queen and her hopes for a kinder, gentler Westeros. Since claiming the Iron Throne, however, she has been a whinging, imperious mess. Never in my life have I been less sympathetic to a woman who gets her period right before a big meeting!
The news that Aegon lives seems to have put a bit of steel in her spine, but I don’t think that speech about being the “prince who was promised” will give her the support she needs, especially since she just killed the city’s religious leader.
But then she was doomed from the start. Despite the very best efforts of writers, cast and crew, Rhaenyra, her evil half-brothers and all their fellow citizens were never Martin’s main characters. The book on which “House of the Dragon” is based, “Fire & Blood,” which provides the deeply complicated backstory to “Game of Thrones, is written as a historical text.
Turning bits of a historic timeline into engaging narrative is always a heavy lift (see also: “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power”) mainly because it’s mostly about events rather than character. Certain things have to happen in “House of the Dragon” for it to align with “Game of Thrones,” including the end of the age of dragons, which means Rhaenyra must fail, big time.
But not every hero has to be victorious, or even heroic; they just have to be human enough for the audience to root for them, and it’s tough to root for Rhaenyra, or, frankly, any of the show’s characters. Ulf’s decision to go rogue was certainly satisfying to anyone who has felt underappreciated by their boss, but he’s hardly Frodo saving Middle-earth.
Is there any character you see rising to the task?
Ali: As it stands, I’m throwing in for Aegon. Sure, he’s obnoxious, immature, but he’s also now determined. He’s experienced plenty of hard knocks since being disfigured in battle by his power-hungry brother, via Vhagar’s dragon fire. The fugitive Aegon experienced what it was like to be a boot-licking commoner. His job hauling buckets of sewage from the latrines was no fun. He will not being doing that again, thus his renewed resolve to reclaim his throne.
He heads into Season 4 with more gravitas and personality than anyone else. And now that Ormund’s gone after being killed in the most unceremonious of ways, Aegon’s our best hope for some snarky humor a la Tyrion Lannister. Sunday’s reunion with his murderous brother was the most fun I’ve had with this series. Aegon’s wicked, well-timed sarcasm stole the scene.
Mary, given your familiarity with the work of Martin and “GOT,” what, if anything, can be done to make us care about where “House of the Dragon” goes in its final season?
McNamara: Martin said he based this period in time on the English civil war known as the Anarchy — King Henry I named his daughter, Matilda, his heir to the throne but when he died, his nephew Stephen claimed it and the country split for 15 bloody years. I know it’s too late, but could someone make a series about that? No dragons, of course, but plenty of political conniving, clashing swords and last-minute escapes.
No? Well, as far as “House of the Dragon” goes, the only character I care about is Alicent (Olivia Cooke). She is the most clear-eyed character and also the most human. She is warm and also ruthless (she loves her sons but recognizes them as psychopaths), and she’s constantly trying to make the best of a bad situation. If Westeros were a meritocracy, she would be queen, or at least be given Highgarden, where she could marry a Tyrell and give birth to Diana Rigg, whose Olenna Tyrell she so much resembles.
I could also get behind some kind of reclamation for Daemon, who experienced some parental softening this season. Not sure about Aegon (there are so many freaking Aegons in Westeros lore); even if the writers choose a path less gruesome than the one laid out in “Game of Thrones,” he seems beyond redemption.
I’m afraid that the next season is going to be even more full of bloody battles and grief. “The Dance of the Dragons” does not end well for many of those involved, especially dragons. But with any luck, the real hero of “House of the Dragon” will finally emerge.
Ali: More power to them. Tell me what happens. With any luck, I’ll be busy watching Season 2 of “Widow’s Bay.”
The post ‘House of the Dragon’ has a major problem: It forgot to create a hero to root for appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
