House of the Dragon

Theo Whiteman/HBO

While House of the Dragon has been at least somewhat unsteady through its first few seasons, at least compared to early Game of Thrones and the recent Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, season 3 appears to be different.

Dozens of reviews are in, and season 3 of House of the Dragon currently has a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, a single negative review away from a 100%, which it had for a spell.

That is a record for the highest Rotten Tomatoes score of any House of the Dragon season, but it also ties the record for all of the Game of Thrones universe, ranked alongside the best of Thrones’ seasons. Here’s the full list:

• House of the Dragon season 3 – 97% critic score
• Game of Thrones season 2 – 97% critic score
• Game of Thrones season 4 – 97% critic score
• Game of Thrones season 3 – 96% critic score
• A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms – 94% critic score
• Game of Thrones season 6 – 94% critic score
• Game of Thrones season 5 – 93% critic score
• Game of Thrones season 7 – 93% critic score
• Game of Thrones season 1 – 90% critic score
• House of the Dragon season 1 – 90% critic score
• House of the Dragon season 2 – 84% critic score
• Game of Thrones season 9 – 55% critic score

Man, that final season. Actual psychic damage and one that marred seven other good to amazing seasons before it. But as you can see, House of the Dragon makes up two of the bottom four shows with its first two seasons, but now this new one is tied for first. Quite the change, not that any of these scores besides Thrones season 8 are bad, necessarily.

One thing that hurt season 2 of House of the Dragon was its abrupt ending which cut out a climactic fight, Battle of the Gullet, which is said to be one of the biggest in Thrones universe history. Now, that will open season 3, and that and the next few episodes are what critics are raving about. No one appears to have seen the whole season yet, however, which is not unusual for this universe (Thrones eventually stopped giving out screeners at all due to leaks, though big episodes leaked anyway, usually due to their own production partners).

Right now, House of the Dragon is alternating with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, where the latter will be a yearly show for the indefinite future. There is only one more season of House of the Dragon left after this, which will conclude this Targaryen era. At any given time there are a number of other Game of Thrones spinoff series in the works, but it’s a little hard to keep track of what’s likely to make it to release, what isn’t, and what’s already been scrapped. Aegon’s Conquest seems like the most likely option right now with an alleged 2027 release, yet another Targaryen tale. The status of a potential Jon Snow show remains nebulous, even after previous reports it was passed on entirely.

For now, we’ll enjoy this new season of House of the Dragon which airs this Sunday, June 21, on HBO Max.

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