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'House of the Dragon' on HBO: Did 10-year time jump ruin the viewing experience? Fans feel it's causing 'problems' for the show

The latest episode of 'HOTD' took a 10-year time jump to introduce us to the new cast, but it seems fans were little annoyed with that

Everyone was a little skeptical when HBO announced that a new ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel, titled ‘House of the Dragon’, will be soon making its way to the network to tell the story of House Targaryen. The series went on to receive a thunderous response from the viewers as well as the critics and raked in record-breaking viewing numbers. Although fans are completely hooked to the series and can’t wait to see what happens next, the massive time jumps are turning out to be a little frustrating.

In the latest episode, titled ‘The Princess and the Queen’, the show took a time jump of 10 years and introduced us to the older versions of several characters, including Princess Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) and Lady Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke). The episode also made viewers realize that Alicent has had three children while Rhaenyra just gave birth to her third child, a boy named Joffrey. Meanwhile, Daemon has married Lady Laena Velaryon and is now living with his family in Pentos. But one of the biggest talking points of the show was the identity of the father of Rhaenyra’s children.

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Alicent and all the other people believed that Ser Harwin Strong is the father of Rhaenyra’s three children because they were really close to each other.

Netizens were utterly confused and annoyed with this massive time jump and believed that these time jumps have now started to cause problems for the show. Meanwhile, some of them believed that they are rushing the story. One of the fans wrote, “What’s with these time jumps? We needed more time with Harwin Strong and Laena Targaryen”. Another fan noted, “Anyone else a little frustrated with all the time jumps in #HouseOfTheDragon? Feels like they’re rushing the story and leaving so many details out”. Another social media user wrote, “Unfortunately I'm starting to feel like the time skips are causing problems for the show. It feels like we could be getting so much more from these characters before the status quo changes or they're killed off. It especially hurt with Laena and Harwin this episode”.

“Feels like House of the dragon is slowly sliding down to the realms of mediocrity..didn’t feel this episode. Might be because of the time jump but it didn’t have that hook,” tweeted another fan. “Not crazy about this new House of the Dragon episode. This time jump feels like it was written by a completely separate team. It’s a step-down,” tweeted another social media user. “The time jump in the house of the dragon is really annoying,” wrote another one.

A lot of people believed that makers could have taken a small time jump where it would have been easy for them to get hold of the story. On the other hand, two important storylines – Harwin’s relationship with Rhaenyra and Daemon’s marriage to Laena – were never really explored on the show and it’s hard for the public to understand how they became such important figures in each other’s lives.

Fortunately, Episode 7 might not feature a big time jump, but there will be a time jump nevertheless. There’s plenty of extraordinary drama in ‘House of the Dragon’, but these time jumps might just be ruining their viewing experience.

‘House of the Dragon’ returns to HBO and HBO Max with a new episode every Sunday at 9 pm EST.