The jig was up when Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen looked away from the fire and seemingly set her sights on revenge. The second he got on that dragon, he was going to die. The show wants to give viewers what they want in order to restore their faith. There is a woman ready to ascend the Iron Throne who won't lose herself in the process.
The House of the Dragon needs to rebuild trust.
Stop reading if you haven't watched Sunday's finale episode and don't want to know what happens You haven't been paying attention if you haven't seen where this show wants to take you. Dragon is based on George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood, which is one of the benefits. The new fantasy thingamabob has a different set of rules than its predecessor, which ended before Martin could finish writing the books on which it was based. Ryan J. Condal could decide to remove them. He knows that there is no path to go down.
The first season of House of the Dragon ended with Rhaenyra learning that her father had died and her brother had taken the Iron Throne. She is a white haired woman who is determined to claim her place. She doesn't want to rule over a kingdom of ash and bone. She wants to unify everything. As the rest of her council calls for war, she is the only one who has shown restraint, according to her mother-in-law, Rhaenys. She is a person who has a character plan.
Audiences are supposed to see the similarities. The one to root for before her downfall is Game of thrones. Someone with a claim to the Iron Throne who wants to free people and take her place as the queen to rule them all. She decided to torch King's Landing rather than bring about a great Targaryen reign because she was determined to wear the crown. It was a big disappointment for those who had supported her.
The House of the Dragon believes it will be able to fix that. The new show is trying to show Rhaenrya's evolution from a level headed potential unifier of the realm to someone ready to choose violence. When Dany fell in love with Jon Snow, she realized she had a claim to the Iron Throne as well. After everything she'd gone through, her response felt out of place. One hopes Rhaenyra doesn't do the same things as House of the Dragon.
Hope is the fool's ally, but perhaps she won't. Her son died on dragonback at the end of the finale. She looked toward the camera and it was obvious that her thoughts of peace were over. Unlike Dany's capture of King's Landing, Rhaenyra's plan for revenge is something on the page, not the last part of the show. If House of the Dragon follows it, what will happen to her?