It wasn’t too long ago when Game of Thrones was HBO’s biggest hit on the small screen. With each episode, actual conversations and those on social media will be filled to the brim about what happened to the show’s characters. Unfortunately, GOT’s final season didn’t live up to expectations, causing a lot of fans to sour on the series. Nevertheless, Thrones’ loss can be House of the Dragon’s opportunity to become HBO’s newest sensation.

With House of the Dragon set to premiere later this year on HBO, the prequel series can come out on top when going head-to-head against Game of Thrones. Here are some pretty good reasons why that can happen.

House of the Dragon comes with a clean slate

Without a doubt, Game of Thrones made such an impact when it first premiered in 2011. From that point on, the HBO series would go on to dominate the ratings war and live on to become such a force in today’s pop culture. But as great as those early seasons were, there came a point when GOT’s success set the bar too high, even for the series itself.

As Thrones completed its fifth season, the source material George Martin wrote was running out. Since the famed author hasn’t released Winds of Winter yet, it meant David Benioff and D.B. Weiss would have to wing it and try to finish the series on their own. And while it took three more seasons to reach that ending, the overall quality of the show itself greatly suffered.

This is where House of the Dragon can succeed over the challenges that crippled Thrones. For starters, Martin has laid out the whole plot of the upcoming series in his books, with Fire and Blood being the primary source. In it, House Targaryen is entangled in a violent civil war that will forever change the landscape of Westeros in the decades to come.

Since the whole story has been laid out in the books, HBO can create a clear roadmap from start to finish. And not only that, they can focus on coming up with the best story they can, one that can even rival Game of Thrones’ first four seasons. If they take full advantage of this clean slate, there’ll be no argument about which of the two series is better.

House of the Dragon can expand Martin’s mythology

Speaking of the source material, the Targaryen Civil War was just a part of Martin’s Fire and Blood. This means that the related content is focused on the bigger picture of what happened and not the fleshed-out version fans got from the A Song of Ice and Fire books.

With this in mind, HBO has the chance to capture lightning in a bottle again. The show’s format allows its creators to dive deep into this part of Westeros’ history, use the parts of the book that will be compelling, and leave those that won’t work out.

The end result, as most fans would have it, is a story that will explain how House Targaryen went from dragon-riding, kingdom-conquering warriors to Viserys and Daenerys living in exile in the Free Cities of Essos. If HBO nails that drama and suspense Game of Thrones is known for by expanding Martin’s story in Fire and Blood, there’ll be no way House of the Dragon won’t succeed.

HBO has learned from what went wrong with Game of Thrones

Along with a clean slate and a complete roadmap from the source material, HBO can use what it has learned from Game of Thrones to make House of the Dragon better.

For one, the network should remember that fans would like to have their loyalty rewarded by respecting their intellect. There were a lot of plotholes GOT left hanging and those that could have made the whole story better. HBO would do well to be more concise with how they tell their story so they can deliver one that won’t have any inconsistencies in it. If they can pull this one off, expect a lot of conversations to revolve around House of the Dragon later this year.

And since there’s no more reason to come up with stuff that isn’t in the books, HBO can finally deliver a well-crafted series from start to end. This will help excite fans, especially those who know how events will play out. And once that hype kicks in, expect it to snowball until everything is all about House of the Dragon. If this becomes a reality, that would only mean HBO is successful in learning what it did wrong with GOT to elevate their upcoming series to new heights.

Of course, it won’t be far before HBO’s newest series goes on air. Fans can look forward to August 21 this year for the premiere of House of the Dragon.

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