The dragons and back. But nobody seems to care much. “I don’t remember who anyone is or what they did,” writes one fan on the HBO subreddit, where the new House of the Dragon trailer is being mocked and met with frustration from fans. It’s completely understandable, of course. Season 2 of the show was released in 2024, two years ago. A lot has happened in the world since then, and given how slow and lackluster the second chapter was, not everyone is excited to return to HBO’s world of dragons and thrones again.
There’s a moment early in the new trailer for House of the Dragon Season 3 where Daemon Targaryen tells Rhaenyra, “You now have power no man has ever wielded.” The line is supposed to hype up fans of the show and set up the June 21 return, but, unfortunately, it lands with nothing more than a shrug online.
The Dance of the Dragons continues in the new footage, and things are finally boiling over. We see armies march, dragons circling the skies, and the usual players in a fight for the throne. Alicent Hightower warns someone offscreen (probably Aemond) that ruling will push them into choices they wouldn’t have considered before ruling the throne. Meanwhile, Aegon II Targaryen is off in Braavos, plotting revenge. “I’m going to kill my brother… or die in the attempt,” he vows.
Everything has built up to this moment. So it should feel like the show is finally delivering on its promises of a full-on war. Except, it might be a little too late. Fans wanted more from Season 2, and I fear many of them have already given up on the HBO fantasy series.
On Reddit, the reactions to the new trailer are pretty sad, to say the least. One comment calls Season 2 “an epic slog and utterly forgettable.” And if that’s not brutal enough, another Redditor has dubbed it “House of slog.”
And honestly, the long gap between seasons definitely hasn’t helped. Two or three years of waiting between major story beats is super risky for a show this heavy. And when viewers are actually struggling to remember who’s who, a war storyline has to work twice as hard to pull Game of Thrones fans back in for another 8 hours.
There’s a moment in the trailer where Rhaenyra says, “There will be no doubt who the gods have chosen to rule”. And for a second, it actually feels like the showrunners believe it again. But now HBO needs the audience to believe it, too.
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