House of the Dragon Season 3 (2026) Review 

Ever since Game of Thrones ended, HBO have been looking for a new powerhouse in this universe and we are now into the third season of House of the Dragon and today saw the season finale and here is my review. The premise of the season sees after the events of season 2, Rhaenyra is mustering her forces together with the aim to take Kings Landing, finding new and old enemies knocking at her door. 

Main Character 

Emma D'Arcy is back as Rhaenyra and I thought she was great this season. It is a very different role for her then in the previous seasons. She has to really deal with more of the political side of the game and she becomes a bit more cold and calculated as the show goes on and I liked that about her character. 

Matt Smith plays Daemon again and he is my favourite character once again. He is no longer side lined like he was in Season 2 and he is back to his awesome and brutal self. He has a good character arc and it shows some new sides to the character and Smith just totally nails it. 

Supporting Characters

The newest character is Ormond Hightower and he is played by James Norton, with him being one of the best characters in the season. He is so smarmy but charismatic and it is hard to take your eyes off of this guy when he is on screen. 

Tom Glynn-Carney plays Ageon and though he was in a bad way at the end of last season he is still given a really interesting story here. It really seems him at the lowest of the low but I just think by the end it really is worthwhile and puts him in a really good position. 

Olivia Cooke plays Alicent again and she has way more scenes with Rhaenyra, which for me is when the character is at its best. She is solid in her role and though her story isn't the most glamorous it works and she gives it her all. 

I wanted to give a shout out to Fabien Frankel as Criston Cole. He has been a hated character over the last 3 seasons and I genuinely think this is due to his quality as an actor. He gives such a confident but unnerving performance this season and I really felt this was the most interesting he has ever been. 

I just wanted to say credit to every actor and actress for their performances this season and I still think the acting is the best part of the show. 

Story

The story is a bit of a mixed bag. It has much higher stakes then the previous season and I felt like they progressed the character development quite a lot and got the audience to a much better position then it was in last season. But, I still think the season wasn't as big as it could have done and there are just so many characters and arcs that it once again struggles to balance them. 

Script

The script is much better for this season. I think the dialogue is much more effective and really fits the characters. There were big moments and big character development that maybe wasn't present last season and that is good to see. 

Style

The show still has a a huge budget and it is really effective in the action scenes. They are brutal and really effective. However, the pacing isn't always great and I found certain parts of the show to be pretty slow and paced poorly. 

Overall

Overall, House of The Dragon Season 3 is a Great Season of Television. It gets back to the quality of the first season and does deliver for the most part. My hope is that they can improve more and really give us an even better season. 

Rating - 8/10