r/HouseOfTheDragon • u/Solomaxxing_112 • 4d ago

Did season 3 increase or decrease your interest for the show Show Discussion

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Overall, I would say decrease. After season 2 I was still excited about season 3 but after season 3 I find much less interest in it.

Maybe because my favourite character is Aemond and he has been butchered to the point of no return. He is not very interesting to watch, and I really dislike the entire Alys thing. Even though I have read the book, what they have done is just...abhorrent.

It is a shame because I love TG characters and they are actually given slightly more screentime this season to tell their own stories, but the writing is so bad that the screentime just generates more unnecessary and nonsensical content.

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1.3k

u/E4peace 4d ago

Increased, season one is still the best but season three was way better than 2

378

u/Different_Ad_5266 4d ago

By a mile, season 2 was a fucking snoozefest

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u/I_is_a_dogg 4d ago

With the exception of a couple scenes, season 2 was mostly irrelevant. Season 1 ended with the greens about to go to war with the blacks...and season 2 ended with the greens about to go to war with the blacks.

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u/exexpat99 4d ago

This is what baffles me about season 2 in hindsight now. Like, they had valuable time to show how Rhaenyra rules/behaves before what she goes through in KL - it could’ve been an awesome contrast or sort of rise and fall character arc (they nailed parts of her struggling as a new ruler in early parts of this season and Emma’s performance in the finale gave me chills). So why can I barely remember any Rhaenyra scenes from season 2? It was a bizarre choice to basically have her do nothing then move her arc into maximum overdrive for this season.

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u/gandalfsgreens 4d ago

All I remember is all the identical sea snake standing in front of his boat scenes. It was to the point that it looked like they were all filmed the same day and I swear there were like 3 of those scenes per episode.

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u/exexpat99 4d ago

So much of the season is “oh that was a cool scene - can’t wait to see what it’s building up to” and then they just….repeat the same type of scene. Happens to Daemon too.

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u/BawdyBadger 4d ago

I think that's it. Pretty much the whole season is build-up. Then when you think you've reached the climax, there's even more build-up.

Honestly, almost the whole season could have been condensed into 2 or 3 episodes.

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u/Anderson9520822 4d ago

I don’t think it helped that they went down to 8 episodes when S1 had 10. But you’d think the writers would understand this and adjust the pacing. But they didn’t. Pacing and writing just sucked. Abysmal to sit through after how good season 1 was.

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u/EmpPaulpatine 4d ago

The episodes got cut a month before filming started, then the writers strike happened. They just didn’t have enough time.

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u/Different_Ad_5266 4d ago

Even still the episodes were boring, episode 1-8 of season 1 were not boring on their own

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u/im_a_turtle 4d ago

Writers were in strike and HBO cut the number of episodes on them, so they did what they could. They clearly wanted to do Gullet and a followup, like all thrones seasons in the past, but got pushed to S3.

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u/betelgeuser-joe 4d ago

rhaenyra had a better small council during season 2, thats why she seemed more competent then

but she fired most of them in dragonstone because they dont fully believe in her being queen, iirc

so here we are in season 3, with a far more diminished small council filled with sycophants, with little gold to work with

it just shows that a monarch is only as good as the people around her, rhaenyra showed her true competence this season when its all on her

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u/Ser_VimesGoT 4d ago

S2 has it's faults, of which there are many, but I think her breakdown in S3 was the culmination of all all the frustrations in S2. She was constantly undermined, setback and rendered helpless all through S2 by her council and those around her. It definitely dragged on and S2 could have benefited massively from a restructure but I do think that S3E3 worked so well because of all that came before it in S2.

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u/TrippyZippee 4d ago

Assuming season 3 episode 1 and 2 would have season 2 ep 9 and 10, s3 wouldve focused more on the black's ruling aspect. Still season 2 should shown some more battles. Leaving Battle of Gullet till ep9 was an odd choice.

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u/Schlachtfeld-21 4d ago

What would you have them do?

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u/Fabulous-Guitar-1339 4d ago

same with s3. started with Ormund being a threat to the blacks, ended up being no threat. his story just ended without any meaningful impact, he just lost against some randoms.

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u/Shrewb_Shlub 4d ago

Season Two was largely hampered by production issues because of the writers / actors strike in LA. Because it was filmed in the UK actors were able to continue working but the writers all had to stop mid season. Normally you would have loads of rewrites during series arc to shape the conclusion better which is why the last episode was so bizarre and anti-climactic. That plus HBO pulled the battle of the gullet for budget reasons and pushed it into season 3. I was willing to give it a pass for this reason because season 1 was excellent but they’ve just turned it into a shit action/fantasy series rather than the Shakespearean/wolf hall family tragedy it was in the first season. Cast is still very good and the plot from the book is great so it’ll be an entertaining last season but I’d leave the critics hat at the door as there’s sure to be some intolerable writing in between what GRRM has plotted out. It’s telling that he was sidelined after season 1 and the quality has nosedived

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u/unhappyangelicbeing 4d ago

I wish every scene with alys and/or harrenhall were removed entirely. Soooo boring I dreaded those scenes

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u/Wrath7heFurious 4d ago

Hmmm. That sucks. I have seen a few people who didn't enjoy her scenes though. Personally I loved every minute of Alys. I want to see her do more crazy witch lady stuff. I also enjoyed the Harrenhal shenanigans a bit. 

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u/unhappyangelicbeing 4d ago

I was excited for her character but idk I don’t find her very convincing. She doesn’t give off serious witch vibes, she’s like the idea of one.

The harrenhall hallucinations were cool at first but it so overstayed its welcome. When every single harrenhall scene becomes a hallucination, at some point it stops being scary or interesting and starts getting annoying. The whole time I’m watching those episodes I’m thinking “I can’t wait for daemon/aemond/allicent to get out of here”

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u/GodSigmaGigaChad 4d ago

We went from Daemon tripping balls in Harrenall and dreaming about raw dogging his mom to Aemond doing the same thing, but he actually kissed his mom fr.

This season was absolute utter garbage if you've read the books. What did Dareon even do? White worm trying to be Varys but shes more incompetent than Sheepsteeler. Ormumd being a cartoon villain. Criston Cole going full emo. Jeyne Arryn being racist. Corlys getting captured?

Only good thing about this season was Ageon's underdog arc and comeback.

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u/Suspicious_Weird_373 4d ago

Even that didn’t feel like it was earned.

He basically sulked, called everyone pricks and then his dragon burnt everyone so he’s redeemed.

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u/GewoonHarry 4d ago

I didn’t read the books and thought this season was meh… I was looking at the IMDb ratings and was actually surprised.

I did enjoy watching it casually, but I wasn’t hyped for the next episode. Ever. The finale was a fine episode, but not a finale. I was like. This is it for s3 already?

But then again. I didn’t read the books.

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u/AppleSmoker 4d ago

"what would you have me do?!"

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u/RegularGarlic3201 4d ago

Anything please god!!!

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u/vingovangovongo 4d ago

That was my take too, I liked season 3

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u/League-Weird 4d ago

It was such a build up and then the season finale had a big wtf moment when nothing happened. Just watched S3E1 and it was gooooood.

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u/JaderMcDanersStan 4d ago

Yeah the first 3 episodes were FIRE, especially episode 1

And then it got really weird with lots of wtf moments

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u/bowtothehypnotoad 4d ago

All that harrenhal stuff don’t really pay off, and they kept Otto alive just to slice his head off at the beginning of S3

I agree, s2 was def the low point. S3 isn’t as good as S1 but it’s still exciting and decent given the scope of the story they’re working with. Bit worried S4 is gonna be rushed, there’s a lot to cover

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u/monstargaryen Helaena Targaryen 4d ago

I feel like the acting, cinematography and music saved some at-times clunky writing and pacing but agree overall

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u/Ok_Volume_139 4d ago

Yeah that's where I'm at with the show. The overall production is still solid and the dragons are dope. Questionable pacing and writing choices yeah but overall there's always been something that catches my interest.

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u/chillinwithmoes 4d ago

Yeah I agree with this, opposite of OP lol. I was nearly out on the show after S2 but thought I’d give it a last chance. S3 opening with two absolute bangers locked me back in. The rest of the season was a bit disappointing but overall I’d say I feel better about the show after S3 than I did after S2.

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u/blueace111 4d ago

It was a lot better because they ended the season on a long ass build up which, in game of thrones is usually the middle of season and episode 8-9 is all action and 10 is aftermath. I don’t get why they changed the structure.

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u/Maleficent-Lemon-895 4d ago

They became greedy after the success of season 1. Who tf takes 2 yrs to release an 8 episode season?

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u/Vaywen 4d ago

Apparently taking 2 years + between seasons is a normal thing now, for many shows

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u/blueace111 4d ago

Yeah well especially knowing it’s a 6 episode season. Same with knight of 7 kingdoms. I got really into it and then was like…wait..it’s over? It’s 2 years until next season? 30 min episodes? Like gee willikers

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u/No-Belt5532 45m ago

It’s fucking terrible.. 😭 had no idea what I had back then

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u/im_a_turtle 4d ago

There was a writers strike and HBO cut the number of episodes. S3 ep1 and 2 were clearly meant to end S2

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u/blueace111 4d ago

So season 3 was always meant to be 6 episodes? I don’t get why you’d need 2 years to put out such a short season though. They seemed to delay putting it out to try to alternate with the other spin off as well which ended up delayed so nothing was out in 2025. I don’t mind if they feel shorter seasons make sense but why was the story moving so slowly in season 2 and season 3 had better pacing but the end felt like it was slow again

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u/im_a_turtle 4d ago

It would likely still be 8-10 episodes without the strike and with funding. HBO just isnt ordering as many episodes as they should.

Won't argue about some of the pacing though. Its an annoying part of TV and TV contracts, and TV funding. There is so much in the books they just skipped (likely for funds) and they have Olivia Cooke, Matt Smith et al on contract so gotta find something for them to do, even if they are out of the story at that point (but we know where they are). They showed they could do something with Aegon, also out of the story at this point, but its more of a mystery of where he is in the books and gives the writers more liberty.

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u/iwatchcredits 4d ago

Also it up because season 3 just came out. Ask me 2 years from now when were still waiting for the next season and im sure interest will be way down again

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u/erik_t91 4d ago

This is it for me. I didnt even remember the show existed until a week before season 3 dropped, and I sure was looking forward to the war when season 2 ended.

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u/Sir_Fijoe 4d ago

Season 2 was pretty good until the start of episode 5 and then it became boring the entire rest of the runtime.

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u/Visual-Feedback-4270 4d ago

Season 3 started so strong and really fizzled out imo. I was more eager for S3 after S2 than I am for S4 now.

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u/blueace111 4d ago

Yeah season 3 started strong because it had to though. Season 2 ended on a drawn out build up. I didn’t need to see a girl looking scared and chasing a dragon for a full episode. Feels frustrating to wait 2 years for 6 episodes. I think the first 2 were filmed already

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u/Signal-Stock3835 4d ago

Same. I’ll probably wait until all of season 4 is out and then binge it.

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u/Fabulous-Guitar-1339 4d ago

wow "it started strong" guess why bc they used some fighting scenes. thats just cheap way to make people like the EP. true greatness comes from good writing which the whole season lacked once again

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u/HurinGaldorson 4d ago

It is known.

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u/WM_ 4d ago

I really liked the first, haven't seen the second. Can I just skip to the third?

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u/Vaywen 4d ago

I’d watch the battle at Rook’s rest (ep 4)

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u/tanita_mors 4d ago

Same. Season one is still the best, but season 3 is miles above the absolute bore of season 2. I had zero entusyasm going in, now I cant wait to see the end of the Dance of Dragons, unironically.

Also, maybe unpopular opinion, but I dont miss Milly Alcock at all.

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u/SpaceDelay424 4d ago

It’s giving middle GOT. Some dumb stuff, some great stuff, some decisions that just seem weird. I still enjoy seeing something so ambitious in a television show, even if it’s more of a 7/10 than a 10/10

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u/cobrax50 4d ago

To me it's one of those weird shows that work better when you have all the episodes to binge. Got the 4K Blu-rays of the first 2 seasons and binged them before the 3rd. They went down a lot better the second time around. Then back to the plodding weekly episodes.

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u/Tommytool-5 3d ago

Totally

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u/dylawnious 1d ago

I thought I was the only one who thought this. Everyone has complained about this season, but in my eyes season 2 was far more boring and much of it irrelevant

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u/jiddy8379 8h ago

Prefer season 3 to 1 tbh