House of the Dragon S2 Ep 8 Review
I don’t know when it happened, but I do remember my reaction when I learned that season two of House of the Dragon would only be 8 episodes: disappointment. It felt like HBO hadn’t learned the lessons from the final two seasons of Game of Thrones. By shortening the season, they fail to give the show the time it needs for the plot to properly develop. The end result is the episodes trying to tell too many stories at once, damaging it as a whole with important moments not being given the time or focus they need! And despite making up for Blood and Cheese with Rook’s Rest and The Red Sowing, my worst fears came true. The finale is incredibly mid, capping off a season that, outside those and a few other key moments, fails to deliver on the show’s premise: dragons fighting dragons!
The Beginning of the Mid!
Did HBO learn nothing from the shortcomings of Game of Thrones‘ final seasons? The season finale to House of The Dragon seems to indicate that they didn’t because they made the same mistake. Rather than giving the various stories it has to juggle time to breathe, the finale seeks to cram as much in as possible to its own detriment. And that becomes especially egregious when it comes to three separate storylines that take up valuable time.
Firstly, we have Tyland Lannister trying to recruit the Triarchy for the Greens. Normally, I would like this because the setting and local attire remind me of pirates. However, while seeing the haughty Lannister mud-wrestle the Triarchy admiral was amusing, this bit of worldbuilding took up valuable screen time it couldn’t afford to waste. Thsts only made worse by the fact that all this does is confirm that the Triarchy will fight for the Greens in exchange for the Stepstones. That could’ve been explained through a bit of exposition.
Secondly, there’s Rhaena’s search for the mystery dragon. They shouldn’t have wasted time showing the progress. Instead, it makes more sense to have opened up on her finding the dragon, Sheepstealer, and the rest of her scenes showing her taming it. The episode doesn’t even have Sheepstealer appear until the final moments, far too late to make an impact. Considering he was the dragon I wanted to see most, this was dissappointing.
Lastly, we have the scene between Alyn of Hull and Corlys Velaryon. I loved seeing Alyn blow up at his father for only caring about him now that he needed a male heir. It’s rare for the Westerosi elite to get called out for how selfish they can be. However, I didn’t like how this happened in the season finale. Had we got more episodes, seeing the fallout to this and how it affects Corlys would be interesting. It’s apparent that what Alyn said, combined with his wife’s death, aged him a lot!
The Good Stuff
All these missteps made the finale a very mid one. And that doesn’t even get into the fact that we got little time with the other Dragonseeds. But there were still a few good moments.
The first involves Daemon’s Harrenhal arc finally coming to an end. Having had his ego knocked down by…whatever is messing with him, Daemon reunites with Rhaenyra and makes amends with her. Seeing him finally accept that he’s not fit for the Iron Throne is some major character development, but time will tell if this humility will stick. However, some fans are already upset about what it was that made Daemon change his mind: a vision of the future.
The weirwood trees give Daemon a vision of what will come centuries from now: most notably, the White Walkers and the rise of Danaerys. Thanks to that, Daemon gets the bigger picture. He finally understands why Rhaenyra and Viserys are so serious about ensuring their rule. I thought that it’s a cool call-forward to the events of Game of Thrones, but I know many fans won’t agree and call it mid. In addition, there’s also the matter of how Daemon could see the future.
The headcanon I’m going with is a fan theory that Brynden Rivers, Daemon and Rhaenyra’s descendant that everyone believes will become the Three-Eyed Raven, sent him a message from the future. The reason why is to ensure that events proceed as they do and lead to the White Walkers eventual defeat. It seems a little contrived, but I don’t care.
Alicent’s Bargain
The moment that I do care about is when Alicent sneaks onto Dragonstone to talk to Rhaenyra. After losing all her power and influence and doing some soul-searching, Alicent came to a single conclusion: she wants out. She wasted her whole life doing what others expected of her, and she’s done. She just wants to be free of it all, so she offers Rhaenyra a deal: she opens King’s Landing for her, and in exchange, she can take her kids and granddaughter and leave.
Rhaenyra, still salty about Alicent rebuffing her earlier, makes a counter offer: Aegon (and likely the rest of her sons) must die. It’s a very sadistic choice, and both of them know it. Alicent is being asked to betray two of her sons, something no mother should ever have to make! However, both of them know that it’s the only way. Now that Aegon took the Throne and Aemond also wants it, they wont stop until they’re dead. And, Alicent actually agrees.
For such a mid episode, this moment was a major highlight to me. The irony of how the two women’s positions are reversed isn’t lost on me, either. Speaking of which, the irony is that when Rhaenyra gets to King’s Landing, Aegon won’t be there. He and Larys fled to escape Aemond, who responded to being driven off by burning down an entire town.
Rhaenyra is right: they have to die. Aemond’s a war criminal and Aegon’s a usurper and rapist. Even the pity I feel for Aegon for what happened to him doesn’t change that fact.
Unfortunately, this is where the episode, and the season, choose to end things. No major deaths, no big battle; nothing. Hence why the episode is mid.
What a Mid Ending!
Truthfully, it feels like the entire season was mid. All that build up for the Dance of the Dragons, and outside a few moments, the season barely gave the fans what we wanted. Fans wanted to see the two sides tear each other to pieces. I wanted to munch popcorn and laugh at how pointless the whole thing was! Instead, the whole season is mostly just more talking and teasing us about what comes next. But that’s not what we wanted to see, and the whole thing leaves a bad taste in my mouth. And the fans know it. This post on Twitter stood out to me the most:
I don’t know what made HBO decide to do things the way they did, but they’re losing the faith they worked so hard to regain from viewers. What makes it worse is the fact that when the series decided to buckle down and follow through on its potential, it was awesome! This ending, though, wasn’t awesome! It was mid as they come!
We don’t know when the third season of House of the Dragon airs, but something has to change at HBO. They need to give the show whatever they need to give us more of Rook’s Rest and The Red Sowing. This is a show about a war between dragons. It needs to start acting like one!
At least next year, we get “The Adventures of Dunk and Egg.”