House Of The Dragon Season 3 Is Repeating A Daemon Plotline Fans Hated

Spoilers ahead for "House of the Dragon" Season 3, Episode 5, "Unbowed and Unbent."

"House of the Dragon" Season 3 has been a non-stop train of big action, changes to the status quo, and lore drops for Westeros. It started with what was clearly meant to be the last two episodes of Season 2, giving us a massive naval battle full of spectacle and dragon action (albeit one that ended in tragedy), Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) taking the Iron Throne, and buildup to about three other battles.

Since then, Season 3 has focused on two major issues: Rhaenyra discovering that being a Queen kind of sucks (an idea that "Game of Thrones" explored before it), and the Greens trying to retake the throne. The former encompasses many subplots, including a rather gruesome string of murders in King's Landing, obnoxious lords and ladies, a lack of food and coin, and much more. Meanwhile, the latter has been split into three story threads: Ormund Hightower (James Norton) using Daeron Targaryen (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) to reclaim the throne, Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) trying to get vengeance on his brother Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) for attempting to kill him, and Aemond being lost at Harrenhal.

So far, nearly every one of these storylines is moving at a swift pace, setting the stage for some major confrontations at the end of Season 3. Even the one involving Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) being imprisoned in the Red Keep with her daughter Helaena (Phia Saban) is doing some interesting things when it comes to the latter's unexpected pregnancy. Unfortunately, there's one subplot that's dragging quite a bit.

The culprit? Aemond at Harrenhal, a storyline that already feels long and boring. Worse yet, it's simply a repeat of a much-derided Season 2 storyline concerning Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith).

One of the biggest criticisms of "House of the Dragon" Season 2 was that it slowed down significantly and spent way too much time with Daemon at Harrenhal. This particular storyline had Daemon looking for an army and dealing with the complicated politics of the Riverlands. In truth, however, that was a small part of it. Instead, much of this subplot involved Daemon having weird visions and an otherwise creepy time in a haunted mansion. And while certain /Film writers quite liked the Curse of Harrenhal story at the time, fans in general disliked watching Daemon in a glorified "'Silent Hill' playthrough" the entire season, as one person put it in a Reddit thread.

Not that the storyline doesn't do anything for the show at large. Indeed, Daemon is truly changed by his time at Harrenhal, having confronted the ghosts of his past and experienced a crucial revelation about his role in this story. The problem was how it affected the pacing of an already messy season — one that ended without a proper climax, mind you.

Now, Season 3 is repeating that mistake. Remember that "House of the Dragon" is set to end with Season 4, which will only span eight episodes. That means the show has 11 episodes left overall at this point, yet it's spending several of those on a subplot we've essentially already seen? Yes, this is part of the series' ongoing efforts to present Aemond as a reflection of Daemon (complete with his creepy mommy issues), but there's not enough compelling new material here to justify slowing down the pacing like this.

So, Aemond, please hurry up and get back to being a cool live-action anime character.