After spending much of its third season moving pieces across Westeros, House of the Dragon finally lets its dragons loose in the Season 3 finale. The HBO prequel saves one of its biggest spectacles for the closing chapter, turning Tumbleton into a brutal battlefield where alliances collapse, loyalties are questioned and the cost of the Targaryen civil war becomes impossible to ignore.

Rhaenyra the new villain

Before the dragons take over, Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) makes some of her most alarming decisions yet. Her desperation to secure the Iron Throne has visibly changed her, and her confrontation with the High Septon shows just how far she is now willing to go. The queen who once hesitated before choosing violence appears increasingly convinced that the throne justifies almost anything. Her decision to remove Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) from her inner circle further isolates her, while Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) finds himself caught between those who want the war to continue and those looking for a way to stop the bloodshed.