House Of The Dragon Season 3 Finally Reveals Helaena Targaryen's Dragon Dreamfyre

The night is dark and full of spoilers for "House of the Dragon" Season 3, Episode 7.

"House of the Dragon" is fast approaching its conclusion, with Season 4 set to bring the series to an end. Even so, there's still a whole lot more story to cover, which makes one wonder if this show will ultimately stick the landing. The seventh and latest episode of Season 3 places several crucial pieces on the board, revealing the true colors of the dragon-riding Ulf the White (Tom Bennett) and raising questions about the Mistress of Whispers, Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno). At the same time, it feels like the episode goes in circles when it comes to Alice Hightower (Olivia Cooke) and her side quest to murder her own son, Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell).

But who cares about any of that, because the latest episode is all about the dragons! With only nine episodes left in the entire show, "House of the Dragon" spends a significant amount of time this week reminding you about the series' real stars, i.e. the adorable little flying nukes that will tragically go extinct because of the Dance of the Dragons. Season 3 has already given us some great dragon action (mostly in the opening episode via the Battle of the Gullet), but Episode 7 ramps things up by finally revealing a much-anticipated dragon that has inexplicably been absent until now: Dreamfyre.

Dreamfyre, you see, is a 100 year old, beautiful blue dragon with silvery horns that is bonded to Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban) and is by far the prettiest dragon we've ever seen in Westeros (making her previous absence that much more confounding). Unfortunately, she only appears for roughly 20 seconds and in a dream sequence, no less. But still, it counts!

"House of the Dragon" has made a lot of changes to its source material (to the point of causing a huge rift with co-creator George R. R. Martin), but its Dreamfyre problem is one of the most confusing for a series that's never been hesitant to feature dragons on-screen. On the show, Helaena is a gentle soul who's quite shy around humans yet seems to care a lot about animals ... except for her own dragon, apparently! Indeed, she's yet to be depicted flying on Dreamfyre, and in Season 2, we were even told that Helaena has "no taste for riding" — something that, frankly, goes against the very essence of her character on the series.

The fact that the first time Dreamfyre appears in a dream sequence — one where, rather than her flying, she's burning down protestors with Helaena — is telling. But will "House of the Dragon" actually fill us in on Helaena's history with her dragon? Probably not. As such, we're left to just wonder what the hell drove her to avoid seeing Dreamfyre, only to abruptly have a dream about her burning people alive.

But despite not being physically present (at least, not until this week), Dreamfyre has already played a big part on "House of the Dragon" Season 3. Previously, we learned that Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) somehow came in possession of old dragon eggs she claims were left behind by Dreamfyre centuries ago. This is not in the show's source material (Martin's book "Fire & Blood"), and it feels like too big a mystery to introduce this late in the story where there's little time left to actually explore it.

Beyond the Dreamfyre sequence, dragons don't have a good time on the latest episode of "House of the Dragon." Most notably, Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen herself (Emma D'Arcy) goes on the offensive to chase down the dragon Sheepstealer after hearing that it's got a rider, only to uncover the dark truth that her husband Daemon (Matt Smith) and his daughter Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) have been hiding from her. This leads to what's without a doubt the saddest dragon fight on the show, culminating with Sheepstealer being put down like a feral dog.

And for what crime? For accidentally helping a prince get killed? Sheepstealer knows nothing of the line of succession! Sure, he's a violent, uncontrollable menace, but he's basically an oversized puppy! He wasn't harming anyone in The Vale beyond that, just eating sheep!

If this illustrates anything, though, it's that "House of the Dragon" is all about the ways that House Targaryen misused their greatest asset: their magnificent dragons. They've committed crimes against not just humanity but nature itself, and this attack on Sheepstealer proves as much. Even worse, this will merely mark the start of a long stretch of violent attacks on dragons by other dragons (and their riders) on the show. Make no mistake, our favorite flying nukes are not going to get a happy ending on "House of the Dragon."

Speaking of which, this week's episode marks the triumphant return of another important dragon: Sunfyre! Unfortunately, the big guy — who is bonded to the exiled Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) — is in very rough shape and missing half his face. But at least he's alive!