The whole world stopped to watch Game of Thrones years ago, and even though the Stark family was many people’s favorite, some sympathized more with the Targaryens, especially because of the dragons. When the series began, there were only three petrified eggs, and by the end of it, one of the creatures born from them was burning King’s Landing to the ground. However, when you think about Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion today, the first thing that comes to mind isn’t a personality. Instead, you remember that Drogon is the biggest and most important, Rhaegal is the green one, and Viserion is the one who died and came back as a weapon for the Night King. And that seems a little unfair for three creatures that should have been among the most fascinating figures in Daenerys’ entire arc, doesn’t it? Well, House of the Dragon seems to have thought about exactly that question.
The original show had memorable dragons, but not necessarily dragons you cared about as characters. Drogon, for example, is immediately recognizable because his relationship with his rider is stronger than the other two dragons’, and he clearly has a more aggressive and independent personality. But this was simply something that was planned that way and never really explored beyond that. And that’s a shame, because GOT missed a huge opportunity, and one of the reasons its spin-off is more interesting is because of this detail.
In the original series, the conclusion you can draw from all of this is that the dragons are essentially extensions of Daenerys, functioning as plot devices. In HOTD, they are influenced by those relationships, of course, but they still remain creatures with their own behaviors. Caraxes, for example, is a perfect match for Daemon, but it’s not just as if he were “Daemon with wings.” The same can be said about Syrax, who has a deeply personal bond with Rhaenyra that goes far beyond a relationship of command. Each dragon, then, has something that goes beyond the function it serves in the overall story.
In theory, this might seem like a relatively small difference, but it completely changes the way the audience watches the show. When Caraxes appears, it’s not just a matter of recognizing that he’s Daemon’s dragon, but of having expectations about the creature itself, since Caraxes is restless, aggressive, and fierce, with a behavior that matches the impulsive and combative nature of his rider. And if the two of them are so similar, it’s only natural to expect Caraxes to be just as surprising. The same goes for Vhagar, for example, whose age, experience, and personality have been built up since Season 1 in a way that has always given her presence a specific sense of danger. You know, therefore, that you’re not just looking at another dragon.
And that’s where Sheepstealer is worth mentioning, because even in the few episodes of Season 3 so far, he has had enough of a spotlight to put the dragons from GOT to shame. Having gone without a rider for so long, the spin-off still doesn’t treat him as a wild creature that was waiting for the right character to come along and claim him. Sheepstealer has a history of his own and a personality of his own, having lived very differently from the dragons raised and used by the Targaryens. And when Rhaena finally manages to ride him, that doesn’t magically turn the animal into an obedient weapon. It’s no coincidence that, in the very first episode, Rhaena is unable to control him and he ends up killing people he wasn’t supposed to during the Battle of the Gullet. Likewise, in Episode 4, he and Caraxes already seem to make it pretty clear that they don’t exactly like each other. This is what it means to give dragons depth and make them far more interesting.
Plus, the choice to pair Rhaena with him (considering that his rider in Fire & Blood is Nettles) makes much more sense. Not because the original character doesn’t exist in the show, but because the situation involving Daemon’s daughter is being used to explore what it really means to claim a wild dragon. The creature doesn’t lose its identity when it gains a rider, it doesn’t become a plot device, and a layer of conflict is established that otherwise, as was the case with GOT, wouldn’t exist. The dragons become characters too, and anything they do because of their distinct personalities can end up affecting the entire story.
And this also gives fans a lot to debate HOTD, because beyond all the theories and conversations about the plot and the characters, there are also people who are genuinely deeply interested in the dragons. Do you remember that happening with GOT? Definitely not, right? If you look around online, there are all kinds of discussions about the creatures’ behaviors, temperaments, and relationships, with everyone trying to understand why one reacts a certain way, and so on. And that’s because the show actually gives them enough material for those conversations to exist. So, the audience becomes much more invested and engaged with the series.
Yes, GOT had gold in its hands when it came to the dragons, especially because they belonged to one of the most essential characters in the entire story. There was plenty of room to develop an interesting dynamic, especially since the three of them were born together and raised together. Drogon could have been the most aggressive and independent; Rhaegal could have had a more competitive or territorial personality; and Viserion could have been the gentlest or most curious. Those obviously aren’t the only possibilities, but the point is that all of them could have been built as individuals with consistent differences.
Of course, saying that isn’t the same as saying GOT gave the dragons no personality at all, because it did. Drogon is clearly different from the other two, after all, and the show’s production team itself worked with different interpretations for his sounds and behaviors compared to the others. Paula Fairfield, the series’ sound designer, even developed personal narratives for them during the creative process. The problem is that very little of that turned into a solid dramatic dynamic within the show itself. In practice, the three continued to be defined by whatever function the story needed them to perform, and that’s it: one was Daenerys’ main dragon, another represented a connection to the Targaryen family (and, later, to Jon Snow), and the other was used for one of the biggest twists of the final season.
And if we’re talking about wasted potential, Rhaegal and Viserion suffered even more because they never had enough time to become as memorable as Drogon. The strangest part is that it wouldn’t have taken much to fix this. GOT didn’t need entire episodes about the dragons “talking” to each other; it just needed to establish recurring behavioral patterns and allow those patterns to have consequences. The relationship between Daenerys and her dragons was basically one of affection and loyalty. So, if she needed to escape, Drogon carried her away; if she needed to win a battle, they attacked; if she needed to demonstrate her power, they were there. The narrative almost always began with a need from Daenerys and ended with a dragon fulfilling that need.
And you could try to justify this by saying that the original show wasn’t focused on Daenerys, and since HOTD revolves around the Targaryen family, it makes more sense now to make the creatures more relevant — especially because there are far more of them to do that with. However, the point isn’t quantity, but variety. Each dragon has its own combination of appearance, history, behavior, and relationship with its rider. The audience doesn’t just need to remember which one is which; they start to have an opinion about them. And that’s the point when a dragon stops being a narrative tool.
In the end, the spin-off understood something essential: the most interesting dragon isn’t necessarily the one that breathes the most fire or wins the biggest battle, but the one the audience recognizes even when it’s doing absolutely nothing. It’s about giving them room to show something more and, in doing so, become significant characters as well. If there are fans who remember their names and know each one’s behavior by heart, it’s because HOTD masterfully understood what it needed to do when telling a fantasy story like this. When the audience can tell creatures that don’t even speak apart, the show is clearly doing something right.
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