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House of the Dragon Season 3 is defying critics and doubters and bringing the Game of Thrones franchise back to some of its biggest heights. Every new episode of HotD seems to generate widespread online buzz and discussion, and the series as a whole is once again a cultural phenomenon, after Season 2 dropped the ball. House of the Dragon’s comeback is also part of a larger resurgence in Game of Thrones‘ popularity, as the freshman series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms also achieved both fame and acclaim when it aired earlier this year.
So now, industry analysts are taking a hard look at Game of Thrones to draw some conclusions about what’s working so well now, to help avoid stepping into the same pitfalls again, down the road. But it shouldn’t be all that confusing what the difference is that has made the new crop of Game of Thrones work so much better than previous attempts.
Game of Thrones Gets Better Whenever Its Focus Get Smaller
The original Game of Thrones series built its appeal through showing viewers different factions of Westeros all vying for the same throne. At first it was a manageable crowd of characters, in that the families were looked at as a whole; “The Starks” and “The Lannisters” were easy enough to remember as larger organizations. However, Game of Thrones quickly broke that mold in the first two seasons, sending individual characters within the families on their own arcs while introducing a much wider circle of characters who either supported Stark or Lannister members or had smaller arcs of their own. By the end of Season 2, there were so many players on the table that the show began to lull; then came Season 3 and its infamous “Red Wedding” event, which cleared out a lot of extraneous characters and wittled things back down to some remaining characters fans favored.
It seemed as though Game of Thrones would’ve learned a lesson from that early ebb and flow, but no; the show would dovetail between seasons focused on a smaller selection of characters and storylines (Seasons 4 and 6) and seasons that were overly stuffed with characters and story across too many fronts (Seasons 5 and 7). The end was a final season that didn’t earn the grand finale for the characters fans wanted to win, while characters that weren’t as popular got pushed center stage (sorry, Ayra…). Game of Thrones has gone down with the not-so-proud legacy of being one of the worst shows to ever “land the plane” in its back half.
House of the Dragon proved to be even harder to access, precisely because the show is about Targaryens who have very similar-sounding names, if not echoes of names we’ve heard before (like there being four “Aegons” and counting…). The first two seasons required viewers to study charts and family trees more closely than ever before, and it was confusing to keep track of who and what to care about – or who would be important down the line. By Season 2, when a new generation of Targaryens was also stepping into the fray, the show was all but inaccessible to casual fans.
But that’s the big turn with House of the Dragon Season 3 and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 1: Both shows have tightened their focus onto just a couple of truly “primary” characters, and have let the shows clearly orient them. HotD Season 3 has finally rejoined the first half of Season 1 in making Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) the centerpiece of the series (and her relationship with Alicent), rather than a part of a balanced ensemble. That shift (plus D’Arcy’s phenomenal performance) has given viewers a firm core to grasp onto and helps orient the importance (or not) of the other characters around her. Similarly, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was focused on just two characters: Sir Duncan (Peter Claffey) and Egg (Deter Sol Ansell) and their relationship, in the midst of the world of GoT. The building of that bond is what propelled the show and made it resonate, more than the question of which house won a tournament, or what political drama the Targaryens were going through.
George R.R. Martin may have created a sprawling fantasy world in Westeros, filled with complex and interesting characters; but it’s becoming clearer by the week that it’s a world best enjoyed in small (but dedicated) character studies. So whatever projects the franchise launches going forward, it’s best to keep tight reins on who holds the spotlight, and why.
Game of Thrones content can be streamed on HBO Max.
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