{"id":578,"date":"2026-06-24T14:46:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T14:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=578"},"modified":"2026-06-24T14:46:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T14:46:56","slug":"without-dragons-fantasy-wouldnt-have-worked-on-tv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationacrossamerica.com\/?p=578","title":{"rendered":"Without dragons, fantasy wouldn\u2019t have worked on TV"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before we do a \u201cHouse of the Dragon\u201d flyby to examine its place in high fantasy\u2019s conquest of TV and film, let\u2019s talk about Sheepstealer.<\/p>

Read more How right-wing media turns Trump\u2019s failures into conspiracies<\/a><\/p>\n

The \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d prequel boasts many dragons, most of them bound to the Targaryen royal bloodline. You could sing their names in a tune set to the intro melody of \u201cRudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer,\u201d if you wanted: \u201cThere\u2019s Caraxes and Syrax and Vhagar and Vermax\/ Sunfyre and Dreamfyre and a dead one called Arrax . . .\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Next to them, Sheepstealer boasts no glorious lineage or handsome metallic scales. He\u2019s just some mud-brown monstrosity roaming the Vale of Arryn and treating livestock like campfire marshmallows. As Season 3 opens, the wild dragon has yet to be officially introduced by name, although he makes his first appearance in the second season finale. That\u2019s when Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell), who abandoned a caravan meant to take her to safety, finds him after a long, desperate hunt \u2014 just a girl standing in front of an untamed drake, asking him to love her.<\/p>\n

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(Photograph by Theo Whiteman\/HBO)<\/span> Phoebe Campbell in \u201cHouse of the Dragon.\u201d<\/p><\/div>\n

Readers of George R.R. Martin\u2019s books may recognize that this diverges from the written version of Westeros lore. \u201cFire & Blood\u201d says that Sheepstealer was claimed by a \u201csmall brown girl\u201d called Nettles. The series assigns that role to the highborn daughter of Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), a young lady who wants to be a dragonrider more than anything, but has no dragon to her name. Worse, the one that might have passed down to her, her late mother\u2019s dragon Vhagar, was stolen by her cruel cousin Aemond (Ewan Mitchell).<\/p>\n

Lacking a dragon \u2014 and, in her mind, sufficient worth to her family \u2014 Rhaena is relegated to watching over her youngest half-brothers, Viserys and Aegon, while her sister Baela (Bethany Antonia) soars through the clouds on the back of her scaled steed Moondancer. Oof, right? If I were Rhaena, I\u2019d run for the hills too.<\/p>\n

What happens next may hit everyone who dreams of saddling a dragon squarely in the chest. Rhaena doesn\u2019t wait for her luck to change. She pursues what she wants, regardless of the danger. She is that queen who\u2019s ready to claim what\u2019s hers or die trying.<\/p>\n

Take another step back, though, and consider how recently dragon stories became mainstream imaginings in the first place, along with fantasy\u2019s ascent on our screens.<\/p>\n

The global popularity of \u201cA Song of Ice and Fire\u201d makes it easy to forget that not long ago, studios viewed stories like it as too niche to merit large investment.<\/p>\n

Warner Bros. Discovery and HBO blew tremendous resources on Season 3 of \u201cHouse of the Dragon\u201d simply to make sure one significant skirmish, the Battle of the Gullet, looks as terrifying as Martin spells out on the page. More terrifying, actually; the book\u2019s account is fairly straightforward, mentioning little about, say, sailors sliding around in their shipmates\u2019 blood and guts.<\/p>\n

A behind-the-scenes teaser trailer boasts of expending 25 tons of propane to create a realistic approximation of dragon fire and setting a new world record for setting stunt performers on fire in a single take. For the curious, the number to beat is 23 \u2013 but please, don\u2019t try that at home.<\/p>\n