“Three months of nonstop nightmares”: ‘House of the Dragon’ Course Corrects After ‘Game of Thrones’ Season 8 By Justifying 1 Character Arc

House of the Dragon does a lot of things right by its predecessor, Game of Thrones. For one, it keeps true to the tone of Westerosi political conflict and family drama. The focus on the reigning family also delivers an advanced crash course into one of the most politically volatile eras in the Targaryen dynasty’s fight for succession.

House of the Dragon serves as both, a Game of Thrones prequel and spin-off. This places the HBO series in a comfortable space as the showrunners can borrow elements from its predecessor that made Game of Thrones work so well among audiences of all demography while rejecting or reworking the mistakes that invoked harsh criticism.

However, such a thing is always easier said than done.

House of the Dragon Learns from the Mistakes of Its Past

Game of Thrones is a perfectly designed saga of the world of Westeros and the ways of the Seven Kingdoms. A better adaptation could not have existed if not for the genius duo, Dan Weiss and David Benioff. But after Season 6, the live-action series ran out of George R.R. Martin’s novels, and without the textual fulcrum of A Song of Ice and Fire, Seasons 7 and 8 had to fly solo without lore references to fall back on.

The gruesome massacre that was Game of Thrones Season 8 is still remembered as one of the greatest downfalls in television history. Game of Thrones was the best there was until it wasn’t anymore. House of the Dragon learned from that mistake by avoiding the tiniest aspect of its story building that made its predecessor suffer such a terrible mark on its reputation.

In Season 8, the arc of Daenerys Targaryen suffered a blow after Missandei’s death in Episode 4 at the hands of Cersei became the last straw in her battle against injustice. The just queen then turned into a tyrant, a shadow of her father Aerys, the Mad King, and burned down half a million innocent people of King’s Landing before being put to an end by Jon Snow.

However, the whiplash of the Season 8 arc – that took the audience from a full-blown dragon vs. White Walkers’ battle in the North to Daenerys’ demise in front of the Iron Throne – was a resounding failure that still echoes among the fans today. Disapproval, anger, resentment, and disappointment surge high whenever the once-beloved HBO series is invoked.

In House of the Dragon, showrunner Ryan Condal and the writers of Season 2 escaped a similar fate by giving Matt Smith’s Daemon Targaryen enough leeway to turn back from his diabolical mad rampage to a subservient and loyal husband, ready and willing to die at the command of his wife and queen.

Daemon’s arrival at Harrenhal in Episode 3, his slow descent into fever dreams and insanity, facing the horrific consequences of his past actions, and realizing the weight of his present decisions pushed him to a state where the once-defiant Rogue Prince succumbed to asking for much-needed help.

Daemon’s willingness to find a path out of his inner darkness and escape the demons that haunted him makes his acceptance of the final weirdwood dream all the more believable.

It took Daemon like three months of nonstop nightmares and hallucinations to respect a woman

— egirl tashi duncan (@xoxogossipgita) August 5, 2024

He had to be mired in petty squabbles amongst the bannermen of House Sesame in Harrenhal for a while to get to a point where he'd be willing to take outside answers as to what he could do that mattered.

— uberbikegeek🌻 (uberbikegeek@kolektiva.social) (@uberbikegeek) August 5, 2024

“6 episodes of filler” my lord… if he changed his mind in the first episode you would’ve cried saying it was rushed 😭 😂

— Bob 🇦🇺🇵🇸 (@bobMUFC2) August 5, 2024

Nah. She sent him to tree at the right time. The conversations he had with his brother was heavy.

— Simply Gesy (@gesy411) August 5, 2024

House of the Dragon may not have yet learned to stick its landing — as common consensus dictates referring to the Season 2 finale. But the HBO series does learn to take care of the smaller aspects of its story building. As such, one of the strongest characters of the live-action prequel gets a satisfying redemptive arc after his initial betrayal instead of a rushed closure in the season finale.

House of the Dragon Proves It’s Up to the Challenge

Crafting a series from lore as heavy and nightmarish in its depth as Fire & Blood is already a boldly insane task as it is. George R.R. Martin’s vast scope of Westerosi mythology told in the form of a historian’s biography from a third person’s point of view, including first-person accounts from in-universe characters, makes the novel highly biased and the lore told from the perspective of an unreliable narrator.

House of the Dragon doesn’t use that as a crutch, however. The HBO series follows in the footsteps of its parental show with as much steam and gusto as it can possibly muster. Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik’s collaborative efforts do not go in vain as it brings to the forefront a Targaryen dynasty that clings to its old and gilded Valyrian honor while facing a rapidly changing political world where dragons are in short supply and power is a fickle thing that can change almost overnight.

After two whole seasons of ruthless politicking, midnight assassinations, and in-house rivalries, House of the Dragon proves it’s up to the challenge when it comes to succeeding Game of Thrones as a worthy spin-off. The HBO series fills its plots with substance as much as it impartially inflicts violence, shock, gore, and dragon-fuelled Lovecraftian horror upon the audience.

House of the Dragon is streaming on Max.