3 things House of the Dragon needs to do to show it has learned lessons from Game of Thrones

There are a lot of lessons any show can learn from Game of Thrones. House of the Dragon is a prequel series to the show, which makes learning lessons all the more important. After all, the shows share fan bases.

Below, we take a look at three of the most important lessons that House of the Dragon will need to take from Game of Thrones if it wants to avoid making similar mistakes.

Lighten up the battle scenes in House of the Dragon

There are some major battles still to come in House of the Dragon. After all, this is civil war between rival factions of the Targaryen dynasty, and civil wars that involve dragons becomes deadly and dangerous. We need the battles to be intense, and we need to see what's happening in them.

One of the biggest complaints about the climatic battle between humanity and the White Walkers in the Game of Thrones episode “The Long Night,” was that it was too dark. Personally, I didn’t have a problem with this. I felt like I was in the battle with everyone, fighting through the dark. But other fans felt differently and wanted to be able to see who was doing what.

House of the Dragon already showed that it had learned the lesson with the season 1 finale. We could clearly see the fight in the air between Aemond on Vhagar and Luke on Arrax. The battle conditions were difficult with the stormy weather at Storm’s End. This could have led to similar problems as “The Long Night,” but the show brightened everything up to make it easy to see as Vhagar swooped in and chomped the smaller dragon to bits. We still felt the intensity of the battle as everyone struggles to see in the storm, but it wasn’t so dark that we couldn't see what's going on.

One of the best things about the moment was seeing the clear differences between the sizes of Vhagar and Arrax. House of the Dragon needs to keep doing this in the battles to come, especially at Rook’s Rest, which will be a major set piece partway through the season.

Give real reasons for characters to go a little mad

In the words of Norman Bates, we all go a little mad sometimes. There’s usually a very good reason for it, and Game of Thrones failed to give one when some of its main characters went off the deep end. There wasn’t enough of a buildup to Daenerys Targaryen turning against the people of King’s Landing and burning the whole place to the ground as the bells sounded in the final season. Sure, we could tell that she was upset at losing her friend and her dragon, but we still needed more.

This is something we need to see better in House of the Dragon. If you're familiar with George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood, you know that Daenerys and her father were not the first two Targaryens to go mad. There were others before them, and some of them go mad during the Dance of the Dragons, the war at the center of the prequel show. They are left inconsolable after the events of war.

Helaena and Rhaenyra Targaryen are two that stand out. We need to be shown how they get where they go. Without buildup, their actions may come across as nonsensical.

Have empathy for characters on both sides of the war

Game of Thrones made it clear that certain characters were just pure evil or nearly so. House of the Dragon needs to bring some empathy to characters on both sides of Dance of the Dragons war, both those who support Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen's claim to the Iron Throne (the Blacks) and those who support the claim of her half-brother King Aegon (the Greens).

The show has already shown that it is willing to learn lessons from Game of Thrones in this area. Cersei Lannister had a lot of layers as a character, but in the end she becomes a spiteful, vindictive, lonely woman. Nobody really wanted to see her succeed as Daenerys destroyed King’s Landing. House of the Dragon needs to avoid that kind of situation.

We need to see why Aegon is viewed as the rightful heir by the people. We need to see Rhaenyra win the hearts of some but struggle to win over others. It’s important to show how Alicent Hightower changes as the war goes on. That doesn't mean we have to like these characters all of the time, but we need to understand them and feel like their growth is realistic.

This all comes down to the writing and the portrayals of the characters. Give us a reason to be unsure which side we should support.

House of the Dragon can learn from itself

In general, House of the Dragon could let us spend more time with the characters so we sympathize with them when their lives are turned upside down. It missed the mark on this a few times in season 1. We didn't see a lot of what happened between Alicent and Rhaenyra to turn them into bitter enemies. The deaths of Luke and Arrax weren’t quite as impactful as they could have been since we didn’t really get time to know them.

There is hope that the show has learned from this, especially, as there shouldn’t be any time jumps in the new season, which premieres on HBO and Max on Sunday, June 16. With a long stretch of unbroken time ahead, hopefully the show takes the time to explore its characters in full.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.