House Of The Dragon Won’t Suffer GOT Season 8’s Fate

Of all the fantasy shows released and scheduled to come out this year, House of The Dragon is the one I feel most confident about. Unlike the other shows, HOTD has 4 primary reasons behind why it will not fail in the same way Game of Thrones Season 8 floundered.

First reason: HBO is making the show. “So? They created GOT too. In reality, it is worse off for the show that HBO is leading production,” you may be thinking. Under normal circumstances, you would be right. But not for House of the Dragon.

HBO is lacking one major thing its streaming competitors (Disney+ and Netflix) both have: billion-dollar cinematic universes.

Disney owns both Marvel and Star Wars, while Netflix will be launching Witcher and Stranger Things universes shortly. These movie/TV show franchises have been gold mines for Disney and Netflix, but Disney more so.

Why? Well, the Marvel movies alone have earned over $22 billion for Disney. (Just image how much the Big Mouse is making from selling toys and merchandise.)

And, since its 2009 valuation at $4 billion, Disney has drastically increased Marvel’s value to be worth well over $50 billion today. (If you want to read more about Marvel and Disney’s financial partnership, here is a link to the Forbes article I found these statistics from.)

Now, I really don’t think any one of Netflix’s future universes can match what Disney has done with Marvel. In fact, I don’t think even Disney can match what they did with those first three Marvel movie phases with their planned future Star Wars and Marvel content.

But that doesn’t mean other companies shouldn’t create alternative cinematic universes. In fact, they should do quite the opposite and make more of them. These universes are cash cows that fans can’t get enough of (me included).

Game of Thrones was the most successful TV show of all time, earning HBO a profit of over $285 million per season. (Here’s a link to Decider’s research into the financial figures of GOT)

A successful Season 8 of Game of Thrones could have opened up a pathway for HBO to create a cinematic universe with George R.R. Martin’s fantasy series. Yet, we know how that turned out.

As soon as the final shot of Jon Snow, Ghost, Tormund Giantsbane, and the remaining Wildlings traveling beyond the Wall wrapped up, the once great series was officially dead. There would be no Lord of Light resurrection to save Game of Thrones from David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’ plot and character butchery.

Yet, as the Ironborn say, “What’s dead may never die. but rises again, harder and stronger.”

That is why we are getting House of The Dragon.

HBO needs HOTD to kickstart a Game of Thrones cinematic universe, which would of course require it to be successful. Thus, HBO will give anything to make that happen. The prospect of earning billions of dollars a year from one fictional IP is just too good for HBO to pass up on.

Anyway, the second reason why this won’t fail is because, unlike GOT, House of the Dragon’s source material is finished. That means there will not be a case of inexperienced, disinterested writers trying to end a literary/TV masterpiece all within six episodes.

George R.R. Martin released the first volume of his Fire And Blood book series back in 2018, which is where the House of the Dragons story comes from. Luckily for all GOT/HOTD fans, George R.R. Martin has the entire story completed within that first book.

So, the writers and show directors, Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, already know how the story ends before they filmed the first scene of the show.

As for the third reason, HBO now has the experience and the monetary motivation to make this the biggest show on television.

Even though Game of Thrones failed its audiences with a horrible Season 8 storyline, no one can doubt the visuals, special effects, cinematography, and acting masterclass the show produced in that final year.

Despite the show’s plotline getting worse each season, the spectacle only got better. From having to imagine how the early season’s battles transpired (such as the Battle of the Whispering Wood and the Battle of Oxcross), to seeing (somewhat, the screen was really dark) dragons battling each other over the walls of Winterfell in the final season showed how far the show had come.

The need for spectacle for the early seasons of House of The Dragon will be far more than the early seasons of Game of Thrones as full grown, living, volatile dragons will actually be shown this time around. Therefore, HOTD already has an edge over its predecessor as the HBO production crew now knows what works and what does not when filming the spectacular.

Okay, the fourth and final reason as to why HOTD will succeed where GOT Season 8 failed is actually rather simple. House of The Dragon is simply not like Game of Thrones.

“Uh, yeah, we know, James. That’s not a valid reason,” some of you may be saying. But, to the contrary, that is probably the best reason as to why the show will work.

Game of Thrones was an epic fantasy story, filled with heroes, villains, anti-heroes, anti-villains, ancient villains, world-ending catastrophes, prophecies, heroic last battles, etc. Plus, it featured George RR Martin’s brilliant political machinations woven throughout each and every one of his characters and plotlines to create one of the greatest fantasy stories of all time.

House of The Dragon really only has the politics and the dragons.

HOTD is a much simpler show in terms of plot. Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen, the leader of the “Blacks” faction, has been cheated out of her rightful inheritance (the Iron Throne) by her half-brother, King Aegon II Targaryen, and his mother, Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower, and their faction of “Greens”. Thus, a civil war for the Iron Throne ensues.

What makes this story different from any other civil war for inheritance is that dragons are alive and used by the members of House Targaryen and Velaryon to fight.

Boiling the plot down to three simple sentences makes it sound boring, I know. But what will make the show so good is Martin’s writing and character scheming. He is a true master at writing believable, interesting characters, which will be heavily featured and in show.

This show will be a wonderful dark fantasy/political thriller, providing a much-needed breath of fresh air from the putrid stagnation Game of Thrones Season 8 gave this franchise.

I’m positive that showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik will deliver a phenomenal show that will blow everyone away and finally remove the stain of Season 8 from this soon-to-be-again great franchise.

PS: That Jon Snow spinoff show better not be produced by HBO or else they will ruin all of the good will HOTD will bring them. I don’t care how much Kit Harrington wants to play Jon Snow again, just tell him the role is finished.

Images Source: Featured Image: (HBO) (House of the Dragon | Official Teaser Trailer | HBO Max – YouTube)

In Text Image 1: (HBO) (House of the Dragon | Official Teaser Trailer | HBO Max – YouTube)

In Text Image 2: (HBO) (House of the Dragon | Official Teaser Trailer | HBO Max – YouTube)

Other Sources: (Forbes) (From Avengers To Shang-Chi, What Marvel Studios Is Really Worth To Walt Disney (forbes.com))

(Decider) (How ‘Game of Thrones’ Generated $2.2 Billion Worth of Profit for HBO | Decider)