I get what you are saying and on tv the mystery about who is the dragon could have worked. but the execution was very poor. I don't even really want to waste time talking about it lol. I completly agree that this season (even the second) were much better than the first. I just can't say if it is because of rafe or despite him lol. I think even ignoring the woke agenda and the awfull finale of the first season, the writers just didn't understand the story. wot is a universe filled with strong and powerfull women. it needs some strong male proganists to balance all that female power. however they went out of their way to make things as unbalanced as possible.

I think that is the core problem of the show. First, the first season was very very bad. rafe tried to fundamentaly change the story and focused too much on nyn and eg to the point that rand became a side character whose only characteristic was dating eg. However, things improved a lot on the second season. I thought I would drop this show somewhere during that season but I think the only really big flaw I remember now is that rand should have done something eye catching when he killed villain at the end of the season and not just stad him. Then this season is by far the more grounded one that has really focused on rand as the main character. And we can see in the break up scene of this ep how much the show has improved. It really feels like the writers didn't have the experience or knowledge needed in the first season. if that season had the same quality as the third season has had so far I think this would be a much more popular show