Spoilers for the first two episodes of “House of the Dragon” Season 3 to follow.
At long last, “House of the Dragon” is back with a third season that’s bigger and darker than what’s come before. Season 3 hits the ground running with one of the “Game of Thrones” franchise’s most technically impressive episodes yet: a blockbuster naval battle full of spectacle. There are ships burning, dragons flying around, pirates clashing swords, a naval race through shallow waters, and a major (and heartbreaking) death. It’s everything you could want out of a big climactic episode.
Better yet, the first episode of Season 3 is followed by a somewhat quieter yet still monumental second episode that changes the status quo for the rest of the series. Yes, it’s exciting that “House of the Dragon” is kicking off its latest season in high fashion, but it’s equally pretty apparent that this wasn’t always the plan. Rather, the first two episodes of Season 3 were clearly meant to be included in Season 2 at some
Indeed, where “House of the Dragon” Season 1 spanned 10 episodes (like the majority of seasons of “Games of Thrones”), Season 2 was cut down to eight episodes. This was not a creative choice, either; instead, it was a mandate from HBO and, more specifically, Warner Bros. Discovery, which was very much in its cost-cutting era at the time that Season 2 was in development. Because of this, Season 2 kept building up to a climax that never happened, and its would-be climactic events were ultimately postponed to Season 3. As you can imagine, this has created several problems.
The remainder of House of the Dragon Season 3 can’t keep up with its first two episodes
The first issue with moving what’s essentially the final two chapters of “House of the Dragon” Season 2 to the start of Season 3 is that it doesn’t impact the pacing or format of the rest of the season. After the first two episodes, it’s business as usual on the show, as the following two episodes (which were made available to members of the press) are slower and more focused on table-setting and exploring the new status quo. That’s because, well, Episode 3 marks the true start of Season 3’s storyline, and it’s obvious that there was supposed to be an extensive time gap between that chapter and Episode 2.
Yes, “House of the Dragon” Season 3 gives us those exhilarating dragon battles we’d been waiting for, but after that? The momentum of its first two episodes seems to dissipate entirely. Not to mention, it’s hard not to wonder how this will affect the rest of Season 3 from a logistical standpoint. That is, will we still get a classic “Game of Thrones”-style penultimate episode featuring a blockbuster battle this season? Or did the majority of Season 3’s budget go to its premiere?
For that matter, will “House of the Dragon” Season 3 end up doing something similar to Season 2 i.e. build to a whole lot of nothing before concluding with a lackluster finale that leaves the really good stuff for Season 4? It’s a fair question at this stage.
House of the Dragon might be in big trouble going forward
That’s not the only issue that “House of the Dragon” Season 2 has created. As it were, Season 3 is also set to span eight episodes, with Season 4 now confirmed to be the show’s final installment. In other words, it will be that much harder for the series to cover all the major events in George R. R. Martin’s source material, “Fire & Blood,” before it wraps up. And as those who have read Martin’s book know all too well, there’s still plenty more in the way of big battles, murder, and conquest for the show to get through, with time rapidly running out.
That suggests one of two things is likely to happen. It’s possible we’re about to witness a true cliff notes season of TV that speed-runs through an entire war, most of which will probably happen off-screen. In that case, at least “House of the Dragon” would give us a complete story … although that partly depends on what you consider the true “end” of the narrative covered in Martin’s book. The other option is that the show will simply come to an abrupt end in Season 4, leaving it to viewers to either imagine what comes next or actually read “Fire & Blood” for themselves.
We know Martin has some serious issues with “House of the Dragon” and has all but disowned the show, and the longer the series goes on, the more difficult it is to disagree with him. For sure, it’s beginning to look more and more likely that the show will have to, in a word, Frankenstein its own conclusion due to lack of time, which would be quite heartbreaking.
“House of the Dragon” is currently streaming on HBO Max.
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