There are certain inevitabilities in this lifetime. Death, taxes and the England men’s football team disappointing at a major tournament. Add to that list, then, Sky’s blockbuster series House of the Dragon being compared unfavourably to its acclaimed progenitor, Game of Thrones. With the prequel back for a third season – and despite my genuine desire to say something new and interesting – that comparison once again looms large over a show that has never fully understood its own appeal.
The world of Westeros is facing civil war. In one camp are the “blacks” who support the claim of Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy). Counselled by her ruthless husband/uncle Daemon (Matt Smith), the blacks have amassed a fierce arsenal of dragons to reinforce their bid. “I must justify my father’s faith in me,” Rhaenyra muses, as she seizes the crown. “Rule as he would have wished.” Their adversaries are the “greens” who represent the Hightower branch of the Targaryen line: increasingly powerless matriarch Alicent (Olivia Cooke) and her sons Jacaerys (Harry Collett) and Aemond (Ewan Mitchell). Her eldest son, Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), has been badly injured and secreted out of the capital by spymaster Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) as Rhaenyra’s forces approached. “I am the king of nothing,” he notes, as they make their escape, “with raven s*** for a throne.” But even Rhaenyra – finally assuming her birthright – has concerns with that seat of power. Forces from the east and the west creep closer, Aemond has gone rogue with the biggest dragon in the land, and a slippery new enemy, Ormund Hightower (James Norton), has emerged.
