Some gripes I have with Season 3 of House of the Dragon

I always give anything Game of Thrones oriented a lot of patience and leeway but I have to say that so far in season 3 I am seeing a lot more what I consider to be bad than good and this is disappointing. Maybe the appeal of anything GoT has kind of run its course and maybe they are spreading this franchise out a bit too much kind of like how Disney has done with the Star Wars universe. It's getting to the point where I am not as invested as I have been in the past and these weeks when a new episode is released, I don't really even rush to go and watch it.

Here are some of the issues I have with the season 3 so far.

src

So much going on, and also nothing going on

In season 3 we are starting to suffer from something that GoT kind of had on their own at times in the later seasons and that is that there are so many concurrent stories going on at different points in the map that it can be quite difficult to keep up with all of it.

Frequently we are shown another part of the world where something is going on and me and whoever I am watching it with have to pause to discuss just who they hell any of these people are. There are so many characters that I feel as though they made a mistake by trying to tell so many stories at the same time. I get confused with where we are and even who is on who's side after a while.

With so many things going on you would think this would just be non-stop action but unfortunately this lead me to my next point

It's mostly filler

src

I started feeling like most of the episodes is just talking filler so that they can fill up 55 minutes in 8 episodes without breaking the bank. But when I looked up this notion online it appears as though a lot of people feel this way and this is especially true in episode 5 where almost nothing advances in the story in an hour and since this season is only 8 episodes long, it feels as though at least a couple of major things should have happened but they didn't.

Rhaenyra Targaryen (pictured in both the above photos) is often portrayed as being naive and borderline incompetent when it comes to her new throne and that wasn't the case at all before she took it. They are attempting to paint a picture of "heavy is the head that wears the crown" but it just keeps going on and on and on without any real resolution. I get it ok, being the Queen isn't all that she had hoped it would be and there is a ton of headaches associated with it. I've not read the books so maybe this is a major part of the story. From my perspective though it kind of looks like a cop-out where they don't have to spend as much money on episodes as they would if there were actual battles going on.

I'm sure it actually costs a great deal for the dragon scenes but this brings me to my next point.

src

Remember when having a dragon was something extremely special and only a select few people had a chance of having one? Well, again this might be in the lore but as far as viewing is concerned, it seems as though everyone and their aunt Betty has a dragon.

src

One of the more recent additions is a very large dragon named "Sheepstealer" and this thing is a loose cannon whose rider cannot control it and it doesn't really seem to be on anyone's team. I suppose that is interesting but I also feel as though the introduction of this dragon, if it wasn't canon, was just kind of a quick way to make a big plot twist where someone special ends up losing a special child because someone else important brought her new dragon to a battle before it would listen to her.

There are two buffoon characters that have dragons as well and man, I don't even remember who they are but thus far their dragons haven't been of much consequence in any way. I don't even remember how they got them.

the bookend battles

By "bookend" I am referring to something that Game of Thrones did almost every season so it shouldn't be all that surprising. In season 3 of "House of the Dragon" we are treated to an absolutely epic (although very confusing) battle that gave us all the impression that this season was going to be a return to some really fantastic action and large scale battles that would be a real treat for the eyes.

.... and then almost nothing happens for the next 3 hours

src

The Battle of the Gullet was fan-friggin-tastic. It involved multiple dragons, massive navies, and some interesting plot twists as well as the ending of the lives of a couple of major characters that most people probably didn't see coming. Then, and I should have seen this coming, in ep 2-5 we are basically changing the name of the series to "House of the Dialogue" because all we are doing is talking, and talking, then talking a bit more, then Daemon stabs someone, then talks about it to someone who also talks about it and so on and so fort. It is evident that there is going to be a massive battle in episode 8 or perhaps they will do a switcharoo on us like they did in a couple of the GoT seasons and make that happen in episode 7 when we aren't expecting it.

---

A lot of this could be my own fault of course. I wrote an article about how the 2-year gap had me kind of fall out with the story and honestly didn't remember a great deal of it. Loss of audience can be expected at this point and when I pointed this out on Reddit I got absolutely murdered in the comments by massive fanbois. I am a fanboi ok? No more friendly fire!

I was reading that there have been budgetary problems over at HBO and perhaps producing shows that cost near $200 million a season isn't very profitable and this is why we are getting so much dialogue and even some scenes involving dragons that seem, dare I say, a bit fake looking.

I will still watch of course, but I have to say that my enthusiasm is waning. I don't really know what they can do to improve this and maybe they wont even try. I do think that they are starting to realize that these massively expensive series might not be the best investment, especially when you look at other shows that are bringing in just as many viewers but at a fraction of the cost.

Could gigantic fantasy series be something that gets cut off soonish? There's a lot of factors that indicate this could be something that happens soon!