No build-up need: “Dragon” is in battle mode

Amid all the “Games of Thrones” extremes, all the sex and spectacle and such, a pattern emerged.
Viewers got used to “a slow build and then there’s an explosion — maybe midway through and then certainly near the end” of a season, said Ryan Condal, writer-producer of “House of the Dragon” (shown here) a “Thrones” prequel.
That’s what makes the third “House” season such a surprise: It starts (9 p.m. Sunday, June 21, on HBO and HBO Max) in full battle mode.
“I think it’s going to put people back on their heels,” Condal said, in a Zoom press conference. “It just comes out so heavy and unexpectedly.”
This is the Battle of the Gullet, with two kingdoms colliding. For actors, it was “terrifying, not knowing what you’re going to be doing or how you’re going to even do something so big,” said Abubakar Salim, who plays Alyn of Hull, a sailor.
And for the people behind the scenes? It “was really four years in engineering and planning,” Condal said.
Which is sort of why it shows up now.
In general, Condal said, “House of the Dragon” has stuck to its plan: There would be four seasons, each short but epic, and each two years apart. The Battle of Gullet would be near the mid-point.
That could have been at the end of the second season, he said. But “there were just challenges and the resources and how are we going tro do this?”
So the second season ended (after eight episodes, compared to 10 in the first) without it. This third season starts big; Condal insists it will remain at high-octane through much of its eight-episode run.
“We’re not spending our entire budget on the first episode, even though it might feel that way,” he said. “There is lots of escalation from here.”
That’s fine with many actors. “The hard scenes to do are the ones where you sit in the small council and you’re spinning a ball for three days,” said Fabien Frankel, who plays Ser Cristan Cole, a top warrior. “But the war scenes are just amazing, man. Especially when you get all the background artists in and you’ve got like hundreds of people screaming at the top of their lungs.”
The show feels especially big for the actors atop dragons, said Tom Glynn-Carney, who plays Aegon. “Lots of screens surround you …. It’s like this hydraulic crane, with wind machines attached to it and you get perspective on where you’re going and what you’re seeing and you’re passing clouds.”
For many characters, this wartime intensity persists. That’s true of Lord Corlys, known as the Sea Serpent. In the book, he’s behind the lines during the Battle of the Gullet; in this TV version, he’s leading the charge. “A lot of the season is tied up in his rage,” said Steve Toussaint, who plays him.
Still, there’s more to a season than rage and vengeance. There are kingdoms to lead and character to transform.
For much of the first two seasons, Rhaenyra has struggled with self-doubt, said Emma D’Arcy, who plays her; now she’s a queen in battle mode. “A character who we’ve seen in a sort of reactionary position for the majority of two seasons is finally positioned to act.”
There will be other tranformations ahead. First, however, there’s a war to fight.