House Of The Dragon Season 3 Risks Repeating Daenerys’ Controversial Arc

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Warning: This contains spoilers for both Fire & Blood and House of the Dragon! Season 3 of House of the Dragon is coming, and the choices showrunner Ryan Condal makes with the character of Rhaenyra Targaryen (played by Emma D’Arcy) could lead to a repeat of the downfall seen with another Targaryen queen. The show has been renewed through 2028, meaning the entire story of the Dance of the Dragons will be told on screen.

Those who enjoyed Fire & Blood will be pleased to know there’s much more story to come. The season 2 finale, featuring armies and dragons amassing throughout Westeros, isn’t a misleading setup – major events are on the horizon. We’ll see Rhaenyra face increasingly tough choices, and the show needs to be careful not to have her storyline mirror Daenerys’ path from Game of Thrones too closely.

Rhaenyra Will Be In A Dark Place In House Of The Dragon Season 3

Wow, season 2 ended with Rhaenyra in a seriously strong position! She’s got three confirmed dragon riders supporting her, and it looks like Rhaena might get one too. Plus, the Riverlands and the North are heading to King’s Landing, and to top it all off, Aegon II actually ran – leaving the Iron Throne empty. It’s a total game-changer!

She’s within reach of becoming queen, but she explains to Alicent that getting there will require violence. To secure her reign and protect her family, she must eliminate any rivals, like Aegon II. If any potential challengers remain alive, she and her children will never be safe.

Season 3 will likely show Rhaenyra taking King’s Landing and becoming queen, but her position won’t be safe. The biggest threats to her rule are outside the city, creating a tense and fearful atmosphere for her reign, as depicted in the book Fire & Blood.

Rhaenyra is facing a very difficult period. The loss of loved ones in the story causes her to become increasingly unpredictable and vengeful. She starts to exhibit the same volatile and reckless tendencies as Daemon, which jeopardizes her ability to rule and pushes her toward fear and instability.

House Of The Dragon Is Hinting At Rhaenyra Being More Of A Warrior In Season 3

Image via HBO

Photos from HBO Max’s presentation in São Paulo appeared to show Rhaenyra with a sword, seemingly in a fighting pose, but they’ve since been removed from the internet. It’s not unusual to see Rhaenyra with a sword, but the way she was holding it in the pictures suggests she’s actively fighting.

Rhaenyra is known for many qualities, but being a warrior isn’t one of them. She generally favors negotiation over force, even when riding her dragon. This is actually a key reason why some of her lords underestimate her – they don’t believe she can strategize like a military leader.

The Rhaenyra Targaryen we see in House of the Dragon is portrayed as a more capable and compassionate leader than the Rhaenyra described in the book Fire & Blood. The book version has more instances of cruelty, while the show’s Rhaenyra is generally kinder. While it wouldn’t be surprising to see her fight with a sword, the show would need a compelling reason to explain why she chooses to take up a weapon.

There’s a chance House of the Dragon will develop Rhaenyra as a more traditionally strong, warrior-like character, which could be beneficial given how many of her supporters are starting to die. However, the showrunner will need to handle this shift carefully to avoid repeating the issues David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had with Daenerys Targaryen’s storyline.

Rhaenyra’s “Evil Queen” Arc Must Be Handled Carefully To Avoid GOT’s Daenerys Problem

As a huge fan of fantasy, I still cringe thinking about how Daenerys Targaryen’s turn in Game of Thrones played out – it just didn’t work, and it really hurt the show. With House of the Dragon, I’m starting to worry Rhaenyra might head down a similar path, becoming more and more ruthless. I really hope the showrunner, Ryan Condal, is paying attention to what went wrong with Daenerys, because repeating those mistakes would be a disaster.

Daenerys’s descent into villainy in Game of Thrones didn’t come completely as a surprise, but the show didn’t develop it sufficiently. At the start of the final season, she was putting herself and her dragons—whom she views as her children—in danger to protect Westeros and people she barely knew.

Daenerys experiences significant losses – Jorah dies, one of her dragons falls in the North, and she endures hardship and grief in Essos – yet she remains fundamentally good. It’s only after losing another dragon and witnessing the execution of Missandei that she begins to appear as if she might become the ruthless “Mad Queen” everyone fears.

Okay, so this character turning to the dark side just because of loss? It feels a little thin, honestly. I mean, we’re talking about the world George R.R. Martin built – people are constantly dying! Friends, family, it’s a bloodbath. So, for me to really buy her descent into villainy, the showrunners, Condal especially, need to give us a lot more to work with. It can’t just be grief; there needs to be something deeper driving her choices, something that makes her ‘breaking bad’ truly compelling.

You know, I’m really impressed with how they’ve set up Rhaenyra’s character so far. It genuinely feels like she thinks she’s doing what’s best for Westeros, and it’s not just about grabbing the throne. The show’s done a great job of showing us she actually has the potential to be a really strong and effective ruler, which is cool to see.

If people around Rhaenyra start to doubt or betray her, she might see it as a betrayal of Westeros itself. This could explain her increasingly ruthless behavior in House of the Dragon – she might believe it’s the only way to protect the kingdom, leading to even more heartbreaking events than those in Game of Thrones.

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2025-12-03 02:00