‘House of the Dragon’ already looks to accomplish what ‘Game of Thrones’ ruined in its final season

House of the Dragon on HBO now has the opportunity to redeem Westeros in live-action and do what its predecessor failed to with its final season.

We all know how Game of Thrones completely fumbled the bag near the finish line by rushing through undercooked narrative threads and undermining character developments that were almost a decade in the making, and though we’ve had years to get over the fact, the idea that a disappointing conclusion once again cursed the most popular show on television remains a sour topic to bring up in geekdom to this day.

After this disastrous failure, many immediately looked towards other fantasy adaptations like Netflix’s The Witcher or Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings to fill the emotional void the Seven Kingdoms left in its wake, but time has shown other industry moguls that lightning isn’t going to strike twice.

Or at least that’s what I was beginning to think before House of the Dragon came along.

How House of the Dragon can redeem Game of Thrones

I’ve often wondered what made the original run of Game of Thrones so compelling for viewers. The story itself was always a subversion of fantasy tropes popularized by Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings in the ‘60s, but it’s not as if George R.R. Martin was the first person to do it. 

Many authors tried to follow in the footsteps of Tolkien after The Lord of the Rings exploded in popularity — and many succeeded, at least in the literary medium itself — but no adaptation in the entertainment industry had what it took to become mainstream until Peter Jackson came along and created his highly acclaimed Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Jackson’s success once again renewed interest in the genre, and what followed were a string of shallow, barely realized adaptations of different works that only worked to bolster Jackson’s reputation as the man who did the impossible.

And then, just as everyone was once again writing off The Lord of the Rings movies as a one-off success story, HBO released Game of Thrones in 2011.

Game of Thrones was dark and gritty. It was bold and unapologetic. It was realistic and incredibly well-made. It had amazing dialogue and even more amazing characters. It set up GRRM’s world in a way that immediately pulled everyone in, allowing them to think of Westeros as they once did Middle-earth. Perhaps it was a combination of all of these things, but regardless of the myriad of underlying reasons, Game of Thrones became a cultural sensation that not only revitalized speculative stories but also showbiz as a whole.

It’s only a testament to Game of Thrones’ powerhouse nature that the media is always looking for its worthy successor. Amazon just announced a new fantasy show? Well, could it be the Game of Thrones successor we’ve been waiting for? Apple is adapting a new genre story? Maybe this one will finally let us forget Game of Thrones.

Maybe a show like that will come along one day, but for now, we’ve got the next best thing. And the best part? It actually takes us back to Westeros.

When the first season of House of the Dragon came out in August 2022, I was a bit skeptical of its prospects. Don’t get me wrong; the show was brilliant. My review of the first half even hailed it a promising start to what could eventually be Game of Thrones’ latent salvation. But it wasn’t until I watched the second half with the rest of the audience that it clicked together — House of the Dragon WAS the successor to Game of Thrones.

Now, near the release of the second season, which will see the Blacks and the Greens going fully at it and beginning the bloody civil war known as the Dance of Dragons, I think this might be the perfect opportunity to rectify the mistakes made by Game of Thrones and deliver the Westerosi epic we’d been expecting back in 2018.

A high budget and higher expectations are what led D.B. Weiss and David Benioff awry with the last two seasons of Game of Thrones. Suddenly, the showrunners who had to rely on great storytelling and nuanced character moments were given a blank cheque and all the toys they could possibly wish for, and the result was great production and amazing action, but at the cost of almost everything that made the series popular in the first place.

Well, House of the Dragon already has those high production values. It doesn’t have to build up to an epic war, because the story basically centers around an epic war. And if anything, the first season has shown that the writers aren’t here for mere spectacle, but want to make sure that every character and plot element works as brilliantly as it can — even a minor book character like Viserys, whose portrayal and realization by Paddy Considine was one of the best things about season 1.

And just to add insult to injury, Rhaenyra’s character development works better than Daenerys despite the latter having had a seven-season headstart. House of the Dragon has a massive time jump in season 1, so the way we see Rhaenyra grow up to become an independent leader in her own right is inspiring. What’s more, her rage at Alicent is much more justified after the events of the season finale. 

A lot of people had already assumed that Dany was going to become the ultimate villain of GoT due to her glaring Messiah complex, but no one appreciated the way it unfolded in season 8. To many, it simply felt unearned. Sure, she’d just lost a close friend and was emotionally unstable, but for a character that has had to deal with the loss of family, friends, and allies all her life, Missandei’s death shouldn’t have been the point that drove her over the edge.

Rhaenyra, on the other hand, is grieving the loss of her father and son, so she has every reason to want blood. Besides, as A Song of Ice and Fire fans will tell you, Rhaenyra won’t turn into an antagonist outright, and House of the Dragon will continue to tread that fine, morally grey line between what’s right and what’s wrong.

In that sense, the fight between the two queens, Alicent and Rhaenyra, is exactly what fans wanted to see between Daenerys and Cersei. This is more nuanced, in fact, because both of these characters think that they’re doing the right thing, as opposed to Cersei, who was only out for herself.

If House of the Dragon plays its cards right in season 2, and continues to do so in the next two planned chapters, then it might end up redeeming Game of Thrones and give us the satisfying conclusion we were robbed of in 2019.