House Of The Dragon Season 3 promises more dragons, more betrayal and considerably fewer sensible life choices (trailer).
If there is one lesson audiences should have learned from the first two seasons of House Of The Dragon, it is that giving nuclear weapons to a family with severe communication issues rarely ends well.
HBO has now released the first trailer for season three, and it appears the Targaryen civil war is about to move from “tense family disagreement” to “continent-wide catastrophe involving fire-breathing reptiles.”
In other words, business as usual in Westeros.
The new trailer wastes absolutely no time getting to the important matters. Dragons roar. Armies march. Castles brood. People stare meaningfully into the middle distance while orchestral music threatens to burst through your television and set fire to the curtains.
For anyone who somehow missed the previous seasons, House Of The Dragon takes place roughly 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones and chronicles the slow-motion collapse of House Targaryen. It’s a tale of succession disputes, wounded pride, political scheming and the occasional airborne flamethrower.
George R.R. Martin has often demonstrated a remarkable ability to turn what should be a straightforward inheritance discussion into a body count that would alarm medieval historians. The Dance of the Dragons remains one of his finest examples of this talent.
Season three appears set to deliver the conflict fans have been waiting for. The opening skirmishes and political manoeuvring of previous seasons seem to have given way to outright war. The Blacks and the Greens are no longer exchanging stern letters and passive-aggressive glances. They’re preparing to settle matters the traditional Targaryen way: by burning down large sections of the kingdom and then acting surprised by the consequences.
The trailer showcases plenty of familiar faces. Emma D’Arcy returns as Rhaenyra Targaryen, still carrying the burden of a crown that appears to come with a free subscription to tragedy. Opposing her is Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower, who long ago discovered that every attempt to keep the peace in Westeros tends to produce the exact opposite result.
Meanwhile, Matt Smith continues to stalk through the story as Daemon Targaryen, looking perpetually as though he’s just remembered an especially entertaining war crime.
Visually, the series continues to look spectacular. HBO clearly remains committed to spending the GDP of a modest kingdom on dragon effects. The beasts themselves look larger, angrier and considerably more interested in turning soldiers into charcoal than ever before.
One of the trailer’s most striking elements is its sense of inevitability. Unlike many fantasy epics where heroes might somehow save the day, House Of The Dragon operates under the same grim philosophy that powered Game Of Thrones in its prime: everyone has a plan until somebody’s dragon lands on it.
That tension gives the series much of its appeal. We know where the Targaryen dynasty eventually ends up. We know the Iron Throne survives. What we’re watching is the spectacularly messy process of a ruling family doing everything possible to weaken itself while sitting atop the most powerful creatures in the known world.
It’s Shakespeare with dragons. Or perhaps dragons with Shakespeare.
Either way, the trailer suggests season three will finally unleash the full scale of the Dance of the Dragons. Expect aerial battles, political betrayals, shifting alliances, devastating losses and enough family dysfunction to keep therapists employed for generations.
