SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of “House of the Dragon,” now streaming on HBO Max.
HBO’s “House of the Dragon” ended its third season Sunday with a bang, then a whimper.
Following a slew of casualties (including James Norton’s Ormund Hightower) during a massive battle between the Blacks and the Greens at Tumbleton, Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban) jumps to her death off screen in King’s Landing.
While players on both sides of the battle for the Iron Throne are to blame for the carnage, Season 3 of the “Game of Thrones” prequel has put forward the quickly unraveling Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) as the one most responsible for the fire and blood. And “House of the Dragon” co-creator and showrunner Ryan Condal is prepared for Rhaenyra’s heel turn to be compared to that of her descendant Daenerys Targaryen (played by Emilia Clarke) in 2019’s “Game of Thrones” series finale.
“I think that’s wonderful if people draw parallels between this and the original series,” Condal said during a press conference Friday. “For sure, there’s going to be mirroring and echoes and reflections across the two series, and people will see things that are either intentional or subliminal. And I will just say that I think this is a one of those existential themes that goes across this entire universe, which is the draw of the Iron Throne — what it does to a person in its thrall, or the people that are trying to get to it.”
