The long-awaited Season 2 finale of ‘House of the Dragon’ has left fans with mixed feelings—some frustrated, others disappointed, and many eagerly awaiting what’s to come in Season 3, slated to arrive in two years. As the final episode unfolded, it became clear that while there were moments of intrigue and foreshadowing, the overall impact fell short of the lofty expectations set by earlier episodes.
Before carrying on with reading, this is a spoiler alert if you haven’t watched episode 8 yet. You better skip this and come back later.
70-minute-long episode with almost no events, why?
Hotd fans have eagerly awaited the weekly episode for two good months. Yet every new episode leaves us feeling.. meh.. Like, it’s not bad but it could’ve been better. After episode 7 aired last Monday, high expectations were made for the season finale. However, today’s episode served more as a trailer for the anticipated third season. Dameon’s foreshadowing of the future and seeing glimpses of the long night and the rebirth of dragons was cool, but did it add any new information to the audience? The answer is simply no. It rather left GOT’s fans who believe Jon Snow to be the Prince that Was Promised sinking in confusion.
One standout moment was the revelation about Queen Helaena, portrayed not just as a dreamer but as a three-eyed raven, adding depth to her character beyond the events depicted in the book ‘Fire and Blood’.
As far as we recall, Alicent Hightower wasn’t so kind-hearted in the books
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The divergence from George R.R. Martin’s original narrative was another point of contention among viewers. In ‘Fire and Blood’, Daemon was depicted as a feared figure, yet the show opted to focus heavily on his hallucinations at Harrenhal for much of the season. Similarly, Aemond never betrayed his own brother and definitely didn’t burn him on purpose, as well as the Queen Dowager, who wasn’t known to possess such a kind heart as shown on the show. In the season finale, we see Alicent going to Rhaenyra at Dragonstone begging her forgiveness and making her an un-passable offer to retake King’s Landing. Well, Book Alicent would never do such thing knowing for certain she’ll be putting her children’s lives at risk.
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So, are you telling me we’re gonna have to wait two years to know who holds Otto Hightower prisoner?
While the whole episode may have served as a long trailer of season 3, the last 2-3 minutes were like a vague teaser. Hello? This is not working out. We last saw Ser Otto Hightower back in episode 4 when he got dismissed and ripped out of his position by his grandson and king Aegon II. We never heard of him after. Sure the showmakers had more than enough screen time to show us what happened to him, instead, they chose to give us a glimpse of him inside one of the dungeons at the end of the episode.
Overall, this season was poorly written and executed, save for episodes 4 and 7
The Game of Thrones spinoff was highly anticipated this year. Yet as we reached the credits of the season finale, it felt very underwhelming. Unlike GOT, we didn’t get to see powerful conversations and monologues as we’re used to in the original ASOIAF series. Although we loved the battle of Rook’s Rest (and still weep over Rhaenys), we were expecting more. We were expecting to see how Daemon won the Riverlands over and instead we saw him roasted by the young Lord Tully. The team-black audience were expecting to see the cunning, diplomatic, and powerful Queen Rhaenyra but that never happened. All we got to see of Rhaenyra this season was her confusion and lack of power without Daemon at her side, save for episode 7 finale when she was surrounded by her dragons.
