WHAT A LET DOWN! House of the Dragon Finale Review.

[@mariadimitroulia645]

HOTD or should I say 'The Rhaenyra Show' is pure fan fiction at this point, or fan service to give modern audiences and former Daenerys fans a new badass warrior dragon queen. The show runner is constantly breaking the lore to push his own narrative, he thinks he can own the story and do better than the source material. Both Rhaenyra and Alicent are so different in the book, they are powerful women in a male dominatad world but no victims, they're willing participants in all the political decisions and scheming, that's how GRRM likes to write his characters, no one is blameless in his world, and Rhaenyra's character is as cruel as the rest of the players. The point of the book's story is that thirst for power can tear entire families apart, while in the show it's more about feminism and the evil patriarchy, very popular themes these days. Martin has been subtly critisizing the writers, he found aspects of the adaptation quite problematic, like Blood&Cheece for instance, he also recently quoted: 'Ignore canon and the world you've created comes apart like tissue paper.' The show is not even loosely based on the Fire&Blood book, and its unreliable narrators are far less biased than Condal the Rhaenyra simp.

[@ilovecapitalism1776]

Even D&D did a better job. I loved it to hate Cersei she was adapted perfect from S1-S6. I was even rooting for her in the high sparrow chapter

[@excalibro8365]

@@ilovecapitalism1776 As terrible as D&D was after they ran out of source material, I have to admit kinda want them back now lol.

[@ilovecapitalism1776]

@@excalibro8365their adaptation was good and it wasn’t their job to finish George’s story

[@omnio7662]

The craziest thing is that they are trying to impose on the audience the opinion that Alicent's action was good and correct.

[@m4nt1c0r3s]

Well it goes in line with modern writing, nothing is really good or evil, evil is actually misunderstood and often even if presented on screen as undeniebly evil is being explained as good or redeemable at the very least, what used to be good is now questionable because those virtues are now problematic for a certain crowd that wants to complain about anything traditional.

[@apelincoln1616]

Rhaela literally chasing a dragon on foot, with no food or water is so stupid. They could of at least had her claim Sheepstealer this episode. And that constant " I have to really take a sh1t " look on her face is getting old

[@mjbull5156]

Also, the tired "is it not great that girls abandon their responsibilities in order to chase their dreams" trope.

[@frankvandorp9732]

I liked that she didn't claim Sheepstealer this episode, now they can start season 3 with Nettles suddenly walking in from behind Sheepstealer and say to Rhaena "yeah, this is my dragon, I claimed her by feeding her sheep, who are you?"

[@spartanhawk7637]

Don't forget that she's in the highlands and should have absolutely frozen to death the first night she was out there.

[@trajanthegreat2928]

And the fact that none of the Vale soldiers came looking for her? She's just allowed to wander off with no one questioning.

[@EnsignRedshirtRicky]

She is practically Forest Gump running for an entire year. If she was eaten at the end, at least it would have been a good joke...

[@Nxptune12]

This whole season was just a massive set up with good moments sprinkled in

[@bobbybaratheon4647]

I was just waiting for a battle that never came lol. That scene with Rhaenyra and Alicent went on for WAY too long

[@spartanhawk7637]

@@bobbybaratheon4647 I just skipped the entire scene, neither character matters now that their heirs are in the picture and frankly are way more interesting.

[@bobbybaratheon4647]

@@spartanhawk7637 The scene served no purpose whatsoever. If there was another episode next Sunday I would've liked this episode more but it was a VERY Anti climatic season finale

[@Xero-rr2ol]

Its clear that it was meant to have 10 episodes but was cut during some time in production.

[@idawg7332]

even ignoring the lack of battles, this season was mixed at best: Alicent is totally butchered, helaena is basically season 7/8 bran, they've completely warped the story of the dance and just so many other issues.

[@gaiusoctavius9931]

Daemon finally turned into Jon snow 2.0 . He is muh queen now.

[@lukeluke333lukeluke]

That’s my fear and think they ruined his character in this episode… such a shame.

[@saelind73]

I was surprised they actually didn't make him say that. lol

[@themanwiththeplan7777]

The writers dont need a raise they need minimum wage

[@Vo1kfang]

I think it was the writer's strike that negatively affected this season. It was filmed during the strike so they couldn't do what they typically do and tweak stuff during filming. Also I believe this season ended up being parsed from 10 episodes to 8, though I'm not sure for what reason this was done.

[@ph4kiew]

​@@Vo1kfangThat explained the poor quality in writing we saw in episode 6. Didn't think it'll be even worse in episode 8 when they completely massacred Alicent's character.

[@realBatman-89]

​@@Vo1kfangwriters said scripts were finished before the strike🤷

[@Vo1kfang]

@realBatman-89 They did but they said as they were filming they'd continue to edit the script which they couldn't do this season because of the writer's strike. I don't know how big of an effect that has on the finished product. I'm not sure at what point it was decided to make it 8 episodes instead of 10 but those combined probably contribute to pacing problems. For example they could've cut the episodes so instead of showing every character for a little bit every episode, to show some of the characters for more time in some of the episodes.

[@THETYMEKK12]

@@Vo1kfang Exactly!

[@durrangodsgrief6503]

alicent forced aegon on this path and then sells him out to be killed do you know how evil that is

[@sacrebleuthedeadlypokeofzo8566]

Alicent represents "internalized misogyny" so she HAS to be evil. She's a strawman for the writers, nothing more.

[@m4nt1c0r3s]

I think she honestly believed that Viserys was talking about her Aegon and not the conqueror, that and Rhynearas lying to her about the chastity thing made her really go against her even if she questioned it for a moment. Now she is just realizing the consequences of her actions and wants out of it.

[@ottersirotten4290]

@@m4nt1c0r3s She just thrown all her Sons and Grandsons under the Bus. Stop pretending its good writing

[@rosswilson8917]

The writers really butchered Alicent's character.

[@jennyhacking1289]

it peaked at episode 4, I was hoping for something to warrant the slow burn, and was disappointed. it shows that they have sacrificed the ending, in order to satisfy the desire to have 4 seasons.

[@musicalaviator]

The curse of sequel bait

[@frankvandorp9732]

They didn't even have to do that. It isn't if there was one big event happening right now they had to sacrifice by moving it to the next season. There are 3 or 4 of those events happening and could just have picked the first, and still have loads of epic material for season 3.

[@Xero-rr2ol]

There is plenty of material. It just seems like budget cuts and having the last 2 episodes cut later into writing.

[@Nubin2000]

We should had 10 episodes instead and massive dragons fight in the finale!

[@Covers-and-Commentary]

they have enough for 4 seasons they dont need to do this.

[@allureofgravity]

So disappointed. I can’t believe I even gave this world another try on tv after the GOT series.

[@HungryPanda3287]

Are you gonna watch season 3 and 4 when they come out?

[@skyrimisforthenords8312]

The show is just getting kinda meh. I liked it alot last season and it times this season but theres stretches that are just boring, and i dont mean the plotting in gardens, i like scenes like that. It seems like every scene this episode was removing complexity from characters and alicent was my favorite character, now she makes no sense to me and meeting and dragonstone was nonsense. Ill probably watch next season but im not excited anymore. Just kinda something to watch

[@fortythreenorth2518]

It is no GOT 1-4 that is for sure. Not even close.

[@spartanoreo5075]

Did Aemond just burn a random place for no reason? Daemons sped up and up front attitude change after the tree prophecy thing was kind off disappointing, I also hate the relevancy the prophecy is getting. Alicent is barely recognizable and has been torn apart narrative wise for being the autors puppet of why the greens suck(making her a hypocrite, almost making her confess her evilness). Nettles is cut.

[@sacrebleuthedeadlypokeofzo8566]

Alicent is little more than a strawman representing the hatred the writers feel for traditional/conservative women, which she seems to represent. She's religious and plays along with "the patriarchy", therefore she is naturally an evil hypocrite to the writers, and why she is written suckily by them and is the ersatz villain of the story. Conversely, Rhaenyra, who represents liberal/progressive women, is put up on a Girl Boss pedestal as the ersatz hero because she's a tomboy who kisses girls -- YASS KWEEN! It's lame writing in childishly black-and-white simplicity...the opposite of how George R.R. Martin actually writes.

[@ChaosLierLen]

They did a really bad job of explaining it, but the location of Aemond's tantrum makes sense. Blackwater Bay has two peninsulas around it. He attacked Sharp Point, which is at the tip of the peninsula southeast of Driftmark, which itself is southeast of Rook's Rest. The waters in between Driftmark & Sharp Point, known as The Gullet, are the main path ships take going into Blackwater Bay for King's Landing. It's an important step in breaking the blockade.

[@bimblaq]

Son for a son, when Jaehaerys was killed already.. Alicent agreeing to killing one of her sons despite this makes no sense🤦🏻‍♀️ Not to mention why Aegon not Aemond

[@stefanvas6984]

Ah, what a son he is... Not all mothers love all their children equally.

[@blinkusfishus2052]

It's funny how they have a line about Alicent looking like a monster in the history books, when she in fact looks much better in the history books. 😂

[@stevendaba6121]

Dosen't even make sense because at that point Aegon had no power he hadn't hurt any of her sons. Aemond would sense because he killed her son and was prince regent. And was burning cities!

[@amirhossein1382h]

Rhaenyra killing Aegon makes sense, she has to kill the usurper. What doesn't make sense is Alicent agreeing to having Aegon killed when it was her who put Aegon on the throne.​@@stevendaba6121

[@supersolomob422]

Aegon over Aemond because Aegon is still king, and Aemond will be with Cole in the Riverlands so he cannot take his heritage. But it doesn’t matter anyways, because Aegon left with Larys to Essos.

[@TheLittleCan]

The destruction of aemonds character. The waste of time that was daemons wet dreams. The reluctance of big bad rhaenyra (can't show bad woman). The tredding of water/spinning of wheels. Then the let down of this last episode made none of it worth it. The sister alone, being some weird raven type character, and spoiling the story, showing GOTs bs to daemon nearly broke me.

[@Fuchsfeuer]

HBO has just fallen or has proven that they are pursuing an agenda. HotD is the story between two women who prove that women are just as bad or worse than rulers because they simply react more emotionally and because of the two women the biggest and worst war in Westeros broke out and the Tagaryens were weakened so much, that they almost died out and ultimately ensured that they were no longer on the throne. Of course you can't tell a story like that today. Especially don't spend millions of dollars to bring a story like that to the screen.

[@levilevi9621]

They didn’t destroy aemonds character. Alicent on the other hand…

[@scopecentral000]

The moment I saw the raven I was like, "oh fuck"

[@Smooth_Lime_Nine]

Which sister? Like Alicent’s daughter? If so she’s been having dragon dreams from the start. She seems to get more present/ less aloof as the events she’s seen start to line up as well. So plz say not that character because she’s solid in my opinion

[@gingeranagram2467]

Aemond ruined? I think you're confused. Also - Daemon's ENTIRE story this season has been building to thus. Episode still sucked tho😢

[@Marlboro-lights1]

“The book is the book, the show the show, they will tell you as if they’re saying something profound” that’s George’s own words. I’m tired of these people who have obviously never read the material, constantly talking about “duhh but duh book is like a history book or something duhh” yes, that’s true, a history book written by a man who finished the history book. Those are the events that happened. A horney dwarf named mushroom is who you’re relying on when in the book it’s blatantly clear that mushrooms fantasy is almost complete lies. It doesn’t matter how the book was structured if that structure was completely dismantled, to create some insane fan fiction nonsense. There are countless issues with this episode and season in general. Also why couldn’t Rae Rae be fat like she in the books? The realms Turkish delight and conqueror would be way better than this garbage.

[@NYCfrankie]

As someone who has been reading asoiaf since my senior year of HS 05/06 i have so many problems with this show this isn't the dance of the dragons it's bad fan fiction its also so obvious that the writers are pushing that the blacks are the good guys and justified while in the books Rhaenyra is just a evil as anyone on the greens

[@Cwronaga216]

Don't forget that The books are not a canon series of events. They are told from the historical recollections of 3 unreliable narrators who only know what they saw themselves or heard from others with their own embellishments and biases.

[@NYCfrankie]

@Cwronaga216 yes i already know that but alicent going to Dragonstone was to far also them killing sunfyre is unforgivable it presents some major problems later on Helena not going mad is odd but then they say she doesn't like to ride dreamfyre when in the book it clearly states before going mad she loved riding i also just dont like that their pushing the blacks are the good guys also i really dont like the what they did with daemon by showing him the future it basically takes away his free will he will probably now do things out of character because he had a vision its dumb

[@blinkusfishus2052]

@@Cwronaga216 bugger off with this cope, The book is very specific about what moments 'the sources differ'. The writers are clearly just doing what they like. Why would any history book mistake so many basic things? They just made up Nettles? they just got Alicents age wrong? the got how many children Aegon had wrong?

[@whitecisgender4911]

@@Cwronaga216 How can an unreliable narrator confuse Neetle with princess Raena? Did unreliable narration somehow forgot that Lohar is a female now? It's like claiming that Jesus was an avid gymnast because it firsthand accounts never disproved it.

[@Xero-rr2ol]

@@NYCfrankie Sunfyre might not be dead

[@mac2312]

The writers staff this season needs to be fired. They are not following the book, they are making shit up that doesnt make the ambiguity of Fire and Blood more compelling, they are making it BORING

[@InkyMuste]

We really waited two years for this shit lmao.

[@mixelplik]

And you will wait 2-3 years more for episodes 9 and 10 of Season 2!

[@InkyMuste]

@@mixelplik Yeah I don't think I will. The show has degraded to the point where I'm honestly just done.

[@dragerdet]

It was due to the writers strike for only 8 episodes.

[@kennethw.6603]

The big issue here is Hollywood greed, which is stretching out a story that could have been told in 2 seasons instead of 4.

[@awaken8439]

Rhaenyra is such a horrible character im tired of all the fan girls glazing her 😂

[@sarkastodon30]

Totally tired of her whining.

[@THETYMEKK12]

She is an amazing, complex character with a lot of flaws and good traits also, just not the one everybody was expecting though. We still have 2 seasons to go - her buildup is gradual, she will get really fierce soon, I promise, I see what they're doing. The "hated" prophecy actually really helps with that. There is nothing more terryfying than waging war believing in some holy purpose.

[@glennross85]

​@THETYMEKK12 are we watching the same show? 😂

[@oxenford539]

i thought the entire point of s1 was to set up for the conflict in s2. but s2 was also just setup? also daemon's entire plot was pointless.

[@HungryPanda3287]

What part of daemons plot is pointless? I like how he had the flashbacks and you can tell he feels bad about some of the things he has done.

[@oxenford539]

@@HungryPanda3287 could have just made him loyal to begin with. his arc was literally him thinking he might do something and then deciding not to... resulting in nothing changing. he went on a series-long boring sidequest for no story impact.

[@fconstraints]

I've been defending the show all season long, but this episode is indefensible. They spent all season treading water, and I largely enjoyed it because of the writing and acting. There's no way they can properly tell the Dance in 4 seasons at this pace without cutting a bunch of stuff. Rhaenyra has spent all season proving she's unfit to be queen. Enjoy having blue balls for the next 2 years. I suspect a lot of folks won't be returning for season 3.

[@Joe-de2oc]

I enjoyed the episode. I wonder who besides the harshest critics have been let down

[@fconstraints]

@@Joe-de2oc I'm hardly a "harshest critic" of the show. I've been extremely forgiving of it up until this point.

[@baron6588]

It all depends on the episodd count, if they get 10 episodes, people will come back no shot, but if its still 8, there might be problems.

[@bigwigcthulu6902]

HBO copyright struck Nerdrotic's livestream from last night too

[@ravenheartwraith]

yeah I went to watch it this morning and it was gone!

[@mildlyfrostedbegels]

They also struck Alt Schwift X's livestream. You can no longer watch it

[@TheDream6842]

Why? Did they shit on the ending? Lmao

[@makazolem]

​@@TheDream6842 essentially yes , HBO started doing the same end of GoT

[@Captain_Insano_nomercy]

​@@TheDream6842yeppppp lol rightfully so

[@darksister81]

The figurative Alicent walk of shame was so disgusting. She was one of my favorite characters and they done her so wrong.And it felt like is all done to please twitter fandom, what backfire. Such a underwhelming finale.

[@KGBZukhov]

Really went from person who actively orchestrated events to protect her children to having accidently misunderstood Viserys, and now aims to sacrifice three of her kids, likely her Father, and Cole to save her last child and a grand child.

[@darksister81]

@@KGBZukhov Exactly. It was a slow destruction. What a shame.

[@Bannermann]

Aemond was ruined, credit to Ewan Mitchel for doing the best he can with what he is given, but this episode singlehandedly took away all my interest in this show, which at the times of Season 1, I wouldn’t have thought possible.

[@THETYMEKK12]

Aemond was ruined of all people? Wow - that's a new one hahahaah

[@Bannermann]

@@THETYMEKK12 He is obviously not the only one, but this episode specifically made him worse, I think the Season as a whole ruined Alicent and Big Rhae Rhae the most of all characters.

[@agonsfitness7308]

He went from an incredibly savvy and wose beyond his years character to a simple Maegor 2.0 character. ​@@THETYMEKK12

[@purgatoriprytania5382]

The Philosophy Tube cameo torpedoed any vestige of respect I had for the show. Only two seasons in, and it's already descended into farce.

[@namenloss730]

"the finale is set up for huge expectations, what should we do??? Oh i know, spend 20% of the episode on a trans pirate that can't act making sh't jokes! also have a city burned off screen, otto imprisoned off screen, have alicent's brother discover info off screen, and lets have all the threads open to finish on multiple cliff hangers! brilliant"

[@witchking2063]

@@namenloss730 Ah but you see, its not bad writing if there is no writing. Ha outplayed you were.

[@BlackQback]

At least we found out that Triarchy are a bunch of woke Barbary pirates.

[@dragerdet]

It's how essos people dress in the books

[@donkeysaurusrex7881]

They went downhill really fast once they lost the Crabman, who disappointingly wasn’t half crab or anything cool like that.

[@hawkeyemihawkgettingmoneylord]

I've been defending this show all season some of you guys have probably seen me in the comments. But this is wear I agree with the backlash a finale with no climax is unacceptable and quite honestly this stains the whole season. When shows like the Acyolte knows you have to have a climax in the finale but this show doesn't it looks very bad. I mean come on they couldn't at least finish the sheepstealer plot line? 8/10 season

[@joshuagraham_mof]

It is literally 8/10 because HBO cut the last two episodes. It was supposed to have 10 episodes like the first season. I believe writer’s strike or budget are at the root of a problem. Therefore two episodes that were supposed to be in this season are pushed back to season 3.

[@hawkeyemihawkgettingmoneylord]

​@@joshuagraham_mofyes if it had 2 more episodes I would rate it 10/10 possibly. But the season feels very incomplete.

[@frankvandorp9732]

I'm kind of hoping they left the sheepstealer plot open ended, just in case the fans revolted against cutting Nettles. Now they can still backtrack and include her after all. Maybe they can start season 3 with Rhaena approaching Sheepstealer, and then Nettles walks in from behind the dragon and explain she's been riding Sheepstealer for a while now.

[@Smooth_Lime_Nine]

@@frankvandorp9732this is a popular prediction from the looks of these comments.

[@fconstraints]

Same dude. Same.

[@kylemma33]

I look forward to hearing Daemon say muh queen a million times next season, jon 2.0

[@Eva01-jy2qu7pu9r]

House of the Dragon countinues the tradition of bad endings? No surprise there lol.

[@ratiuvictor9533]

The most boring ending of a season ever. Nothing realy happened. I woke at 4 to watch it before work but i wish I would have slept another hour instead seeing this.

[@TFB3BibsyG]

Same for me, stayed up until 4am just for this... fuck me man

[@sackbeatgaming7751]

Episodes 9 and 10 were cut well into the writing or maybe even into the production process because HBO wasn't giving them the final two episodes (probably budget) forcing the writers to rewrite episode 8 to be a lacklustre ending instead of it being the build-up to a great ending. There were a bunch of articles like one to one and a half years ago when S3 of HotD was greenlighted that stated that S2 was cut down to 8 episodes and some stuff had to be rewritten. It is a bummer, but I see loads of people online calling out the writers for being incompetent or greedy and just filling this season to keep us watching, when this is clearly not what they wanted either.

[@NDenizen]

They still did a terrible job, and proper pacing would have avoided this problem

[@Smooth_Lime_Nine]

@@NDenizenreally? Do you really think it was terrible or are you just having fun with your vocabulary? I’m not trying to call you out btw just wondering if your bar is really set that high for television shows and if so could you recommend me some medieval/ fantasy shows as this is a real favourite genre for me and I struggle to find anything worth watching. Again this is meant respectfully and as a genuine search for some really good binge-able TV

[@matthings4133]

Went in to the comments to write this, but you beat me to it. This is what great showmakers always fare into, reluctant, untrusting production companies because there are too many bad showmakers.

[@whitecisgender4911]

@@Smooth_Lime_NineReally? Are we calling Sara "put a chick in it and make her gay" Hess, writing skills good? At this point the entire writer room is probably a bunch of competing fanfic writers competing for their self-insert to prevail.

[@digge2210]

Man i hate HBO, they're the same who gave the "OK" with final seasons of GOT, they're automs

[@MarkusBartus]

Can someone explain how sudenly everybody, the whole realm knows that Alicent and Criston Cole are sleeping together? Did just writers kind of forgot to write the scene of this scandalous revelation?

[@lennynull-funf-zehn5416]

Because her brother knew? pretty sure he found that out from the way she way looking at him and then the cloth she gave him...

[@MarkusBartus]

@@lennynull-funf-zehn5416 cmon, its not just him, how Rhaenyra know that and tells that to Alicent and she does not look like she is shocked that Rhaenyra knows.

[@hmm_1228]

Yeah...that's confusing. Everything keeps happening off-screen.

[@TorchOnTarget]

The same way people do in real life. It's abundantly obvious just from their interactions. The people around them not knowing would have to have the social awareness of a doorknob. How would you figure the Kings guard didn't know? The whole floor with Alicent and the kids have 0 guard detail except for him in the one episode just partially making it obvious. Then it is loose lips from there.

[@GoldenMechaTiger]

@@MarkusBartus rhaenyra knows because she literally told her to her face.

[@janezkette3901]

No Nettles, no Maelar, no Lord Kermit Tully.... Imagine they get rid of Bloody Ben (Benjicot Blackwood) too.

[@topazphoenix6301]

Would you be interested in doing some castle review videos for the castles in House of the Dragon?

[@blinkusfishus2052]

I'd be interested in watching them...

[@gckari9862]

This was a weak season, from start to finish. It dragged on, had a slow burn that fizzled out, and they wasted Daemon’s character arc, what a disappointment. Much weaker than the first season. 7 overall for the whole season

[@mixelplik]

@@beg4mercy890 That's what happens when Pacifists are put in charge of productions.

[@THETYMEKK12]

@@mixelplik hahaah

[@mjbull5156]

So this episode proves that Philosophy Tube can play a pretentious, off-putting weirdo. What a stretch of their acting abilities.

[@artyjnrii]

Who *book spoilers* kidnaps children

[@namenloss730]

i still have the cringe laugh seered in my mind . Abigail cannot act for sh't, how the f did someone that bad get cast in a speaking role?

[@frankvandorp9732]

"Their"? He's only one person as far as I can tell.

[@edmonddantes563]

He’s also a dude with a mental illness

[@Oscar-mh7ez]

This season was awful and I loved the first season. They really stretched out what should have been 5 episodes and left out several battles just to get a second meeting between Alicent and Rhaenyra. I dont think this show can really recover from this without drawing out the rest of the show.

[@THETYMEKK12]

Come on - the Acolyte was awful. This one was maybe worse than season one, but still better than most productions nowadays.

[@drrohanjacob]

It was just awful as someone loyal to team black there is no team green to despise any more. Just team good guys vs team aemond the pycho.

[@SaneMillennial]

I really don't think they're executing this show near as well as they could have. 8 episodes was not enough and for them to waste so many on repeating the same basic scenes for Rhaenyra, Jace, and Daemon are super frustrating. They didn't execute the character arcs well, and just seemed to have them go back and forth, back and forth in their thinking instead of driving the story forward on a clear path. Character interactions were lacking, like the dragon seeds w/Rhaenyra, and Ulf especially being so unbelievable w/how he acts towards the royal family and how he so easily got Silverwing in the first place after all of that carnage by Vermithor. We've been waiting for the armies to gather all damn season and they finally are shown marching in ep 8 the finale??? C'mon! iIhear budgets were what kept them from doing another big battle this season, but if HBO didn't give the show the budget needed to CGI a lot of dragon fights which THEY KNEW WOULD BE THE MAJOR PART OF THIS SHOW, then why TF did they greenlight the show at all??? The dragons are under-utilized just like I feared they would be. We haven't even seen Daeron and he was only mentioned like 3 times the whole series so far, and just get the one shot of his dragon Tessarion in this finale. We have no attachment to these characters!! People said that we saw Helena riding on Dreamfyre during Leana's funeral episode, but we don't really get a good look so I forgot! The show is handling everything horribly! They spend all this time altering from the books and fleshing out these characters more, but still don't do enough scenes w/some of them in favor or repetitive scenes w/others and they cut Helena's third child out of it entirely! They make Rhaenyra's younger kids too young and their dragons smaller than in the books, which makes me wonder how they're going to handle the parts of the story where they're supposed to do something on them later! They're screwing up Rhaena's character, and making her so unimportant that people don't even realize the King Consort's daughter is missing when they're supposed to be off to Pentos!?! And she just has to have a dragon to feel valid when the show could've developed her in an different way, so they really diminished her character and STILL left us hanging not knowing whether or not she claims this wild dragon after so many BS scenes of her chasing it! I don't have any more hope for this series anymore. They screwed it up already, and then make us have to wait 2 years between seasons now? Yeah, whatever, just can't care about it anymore. I just want GRRM to come out w/Winds of Winter which sounds like he finally might at the end of this year.

[@kleindropper]

Anybody know why Otto is suddenly in a cage? Did I miss an episode?

[@w00t777]

I think he just had a big night out and just waking up

[@tobiakilo3413]

Apparently , he was captured by house beesbury who are mad at the hightowers for killing their lord - The guy on the small council that Cole killed in season 1

[@carlrood4457]

They want both Rhaenyra and Alicent to be too sympathetic. The problem is that it means Alicent has nothing to do and Rhaenyra seems unable prosecuting a war.

[@wangusbeef86]

HotD continuing the tradition of dissappointing finales eh?

[@willbohland3698]

This confirms my original thesis that George RR Matin does not know how to end stories. He's great at the setup, the world building, all the details, but he just can't wrap it up.

[@casualrider983]

@@willbohland3698 Not sure if George is to blame for the way this season ended.. You think that 5-minute montage at the end(which was literally last weeks trailer, and essentially a glorified trailer for season 3) was George? Doubt it. You think that second R+A scene was George? Doubt it.

[@willbohland3698]

@@casualrider983 I thought George was actively involved in the writing for this show. Is he not? How'd he let that get by? Did they ass him out?

[@casualrider983]

@@willbohland3698 Yeah idk. They got the banner wrong in season 1, he just wrote a blog about it lmao I imagine he doesnt see the final product till it airs but who knows

[@syedshakaibanwar2698]

@@willbohland3698 George was involved in s1 but his role diminished in s2 with corporate choices being forced upon the product that he did not agree with, he has completely withdrawn from being involved with S3.

[@createallow3126]

Alicent and Daemon both bending the knee saps the show of a whole lot of the tension it had. The heavily-teased action that MIGHT come in season 3 seems more pointless than ever. House of Dragons is all talk and no trousers.

[@irena4545]

It's called character development. The whole season was spent on Alicent slowly realising how she had screwed up, how little power she actually had to affect the events, that both her older sons are lost causes and that Helaena is the only child that she might still save. Daemon starts the season with his usual "I'm the ultimate badass and I'll get what I want", only, it doesn't work, and he is confronted with his faults and desires, until he overcomes his selfishness and acts for the greater good.

[@Mister_Skar]

Trying to redeem Alicent by having her agree to have her child taken out rather than helping her OTHER child whose sick and suffering... I think some of the show runners/writers are really disconnected from normal humans sometimes. I also don't know why they keep diversity hiring directors, a show this good needs good directors not ones that have directed one bad movie, "meet the patels" and one episode of a failed Star Wars spin off.

[@Unpainted_Huffhines]

Season one went out with both a bang and a promise. Season two went out with a vague, slow paced promise of some kind of bang, at some time in the future, no sooner than two years away.

[@carlrood4457]

Comic books have a term,. "Writing for the trades.". It entails how storytelling changed as trade paperback collections became popular. Stories that should have been 4 issues got stretched out to 6. Single issues no longer had their own beginning, middle, and end like an older movie serial. What we have here is "Writing for the binge watchers." When people in the future can just move on to season 3, it will be less jarring to them. Still does nothing for today's audience.

[@THETYMEKK12]

We will forget about it too in few years ;)

[@somerandofilipino6957]

It does not help that the showrunners somehow chose to cast Abigail (formerly Oliver) Thorn for the season finale. That's right, fucking PHILOSOPHY TUBE got a role in HOTD

[@amirhossein1382h]

I died when I realized who it was😂

[@mstrikerwildrift]

Fucking a That's why it looked familiar lmao

[@don.keebles]

The pirate lady? She's a youtuber?

[@frankvandorp9732]

TBF, I knew he was going to be in there and expected it to be cringe, but his character was kind of funny. Worked well with Tyland Lannister and the show needs some levity. And in universe they call him a he at least. They're not ruining the fantasy universe by having all characters be insane and calling a man a woman as if they don;t know the difference. It's very clear that he is just a crazy guy who liked to dress like a female, and that is even how George wrote his character in the book.

[@Broomtwo]

I knew it was Philosophy Tube the moment I saw them, and I was cringing the entire way through.

[@michaelb9683]

It was so bad. The writing and character motivations are God awful. High point was episode 4 and the budget must be trash cause a lot of the battles were just alluded to. I mean why was so much time spent wrestling in the mud. Alicent throws her son under the bus because she thought she heard her dying husband mention her son's name instead? She should of just owned it and said she knows it was a farce, but she made a power play for the greens. But yeah, she throws her son under bus and then weirdly asks team black queen to run away with her as well? Are these weirder lesbian vibes again? Daemon chasing spooky ghosts but no real moment of realization where he overcomes something. No, he had to be shown episode reels of GOT from the future and the white walker and Daey? Huh. Then he totally just turns and kneels? huh? Then Helaena is a third eye raven or something like wtf where did that come from? Why couldn't she see death of her son which she can give two fucks about. No woman in this show cares about their children. I was so mad i give this episode a fucking two out of ten. All the poor dialogue in past episodes thinking we would get another big battle but nope. And wtf Otto is in a cage? Lol ok. Alicent's character was butchered, and Rhaenyra is a joke, an indecisive, self-absorbed piece of crap willing to burn innocence. Like you can't have it both ways, she is compassionate but cruel? Just pick a side already. I enjoyed season 1 WAY more because the character motivations made more sense and the writing seemed better or at least it was more cohesive for me.

[@mixelplik]

Thank you for highlighting the issues I had with Season 2. The highlight of the whole show was Episode 4's dragon scene; after that it was all buildup with no pay off, and the budget constraints were obvious.

[@itspronouncednikolaj333]

They don’t care for their male children

[@gregoryfloriolli9031]

Here’s my theory. Viserys died in season 1. They got rid of Otto this season. They’ve heavily foreshadowed that Daemon is going to die and now that he’s bent the knee to girl-boss Rhaenyra his arc is over and he’s going to die soon. Aemond’s sister basically tells him in this episode that he’s going to die. If they got rid of all of these characters, what reason do we have to tune into season 3? None and they know it.

[@namenloss730]

deamon and aemond kill each other at harrenhal in the books

[@svendragon8139]

@@namenloss730 i fckn knew that was gonna happen. Hahahaha

[@sacrebleuthedeadlypokeofzo8566]

The writers were pissed that the audience loved those three male characters more than the two intended female leads. That's why they all have to go.

[@THETYMEKK12]

ahahaha :D

[@THETYMEKK12]

I mean.. Don't want to spoil anything, but 80% of characters will die in this show. :D That's the whole point, that's why it's so tragic.

[@darriuscole8544]

Rhaenyra would have to execute Helaena as well. She is the queen; she may be pregnant, and she already has another child.

[@elibrahams5566]

Amazing how aftert the disaster that was GOT, which resulted in part due to cutting down the lenth of seasons, and the amount of seasons as a whole, HBO are so willing to cut down HOTD.

[@mixelplik]

It's signaling they don't have faith in the show. There should be a TON of battles in the show but so far...nothing. 1 battle of dragons earlier and that's it. Not even a sword stroke or broken nail in the finale. Can't give fans what they want, oh no not in 2024!

[@elibrahams5566]

@@mixelplik The lack of battle's isn't a huge problem imo, its the fact that they built up all season, only to have rushed all the payoff into 1 underwhelming episode.

[@benjaminhoak9884]

Feeling house of the dragon is about to go the way of late seasons of game of throne.

[@THETYMEKK12]

Naah.. It won't. The full story is actually already written in the book, and there are just 2 seasons left.

[@midnightblackroses]

It already has. Season 2 was badly written.

[@SacClass650]

Philosophy Tube being in it threw me off. 🤢

[@ZChronicNebula]

Can't act for shit 😂

[@mariamilano5756]

The arrogance of writers who think they can do a better job than GRRM is destroying the characters and story Martin wrote in Fire and Blood. The lot of them should be fired and replaced with people who are familiar with, and respect, George Martin's work.

[@MichaelNgTzeWei]

Really not looking forward to Season 3 if Otto isn't released from his cell immediately.

[@jackpallet1814]

So I refused to watch season one after how badly game of thrones ended. I gave in after hearing how good it was. I enjoyed season one quite a bit so I gave season two a chance right from the start. I think I’ll be going back to letting season 3 play out before I give it a watch. Season 2 started strong but lost a lot of steam by the end. It’s getting harder to look past some of the bad writing and forced changes.

[@FC-ho9hw]

This season should had 10 episodes, that's all I'm gonna say. Like the first...

[@dragerdet]

I don't think they had the budget for 10 episodes

[@FC-ho9hw]

@@dragerdet Come on, of course they had. Especially after the success of season 1. Also, it's HBO we're talking about...

[@THETYMEKK12]

@@FC-ho9hw But it was HBO's (or Warner's) decision. For some reason they're not supporting their most popular franchise to date, yet planning to make another spinoffs... It's sad.

[@FC-ho9hw]

@@THETYMEKK12 I still think budget isn't the issue, they clearly have the money (that's also why they're making more shows)... They are supporting this show, there's the marketing, etc. They knew this season would be successful, because the first was and I think it has the same creative team and writers... I think it was a creative decision for some reason and I think they just didn't expect that people would be actually pissed or disappointed with this finale. That's all... Could be wrong, but this is what I think.

[@FC-ho9hw]

@@dragerdet It turns you might be right after some interviews. It appears HBO (they have money, don't get me wrong) chose not to give them enough money for 10 episodes for some reason (because they want stretch it out more, for more seasons maybe). It's still uncorfirmed, because nobody flat out says anything like that, but if you read between the lines it certainly (arguably) looks that way.

[@eagle_and_the_dragon]

I'm growing sick of the hollywood nepotism; "PhilosophyTube" isnt talented in the slightest, but continues to appear in increasingly-woke projects. Its all so tiresome.

[@coeurdecastor892]

Shad, you brought up a great point about the writers pushing us towards Rhaenera. At the end of Season 1 I was split down the middle as to whether I was Team Black or Team Green. Throughout Season 2 I have definitely sided with Team Black.

[@JustTooDamnHonest]

A word of advise and that is to not take any sides and here is a a warning and that is Rhaenyra made the biggest mistake of her life in the episode before the finale.

[@vavan100]

1. Son for a son, but I am already serving you up a one eyed one on a platter ... 2. You don't know what hunger is ... Looks like someone who never missed a meal in his life. 3. Why do we need transformers in Dragon series. 4. Also Why all that teasing in the end? I don't mind not showing battles but at least move story forward.

[@gingeranagram2467]

The dude from the Triarchy is described exactly that way in the book. This episode sucked, but let's use actual criticism

[@vavan100]

@@gingeranagram2467 And book can't suck? If you are already changing thing why not change them for the better?

[@whitecisgender4911]

@@vavan100 Because it's not for the better. Why can't they write their own story instead of turning every books we love into some 16yo fanfictions? "... oh I know what ASOIAF fans want better than the creator, why not some weird lesbian power fantasy"

[@vavan100]

@@whitecisgender4911 How does Transformer makes this any better or good to begin with?

[@Mephisto077]

​@@gingeranagram2467So how are valaryons described? Give me a break dude.

[@Azuciea]

I still cant get over the fact people still watch Asoiaf after what DnD did to GoT. I just cant get over it. Maybe its a me thing.

[@amirhossein1382h]

Brother I'm sure youre watching yourself too

[@Azuciea]

@@amirhossein1382h nope

[@zarombiste9158]

Daemon not betraying rhaenyra because of some vision instead because she is his wife and mother to his children and daughter of his brother is arc assassination..

[@wedgeantilles8575]

Well, I'll definitly not begin with House of the Dragon in the first run when it turns out so bad. Wanted to buy both seasons on DVD if they turned out good - but thats more money that I'll save.

[@techtastic2010]

House of the Dragon season 2 was basically equal to Game of Thrones Season 7. -Reduced episode count -90% filler -Felt like a trailer for the next season I would much rather have seen two more episodes with decent battles. This was garbage.

[@0142Jason]

I’m glad I wasn’t the only one who was confused that this is the episode the season ended on. Literally feels like there should be an episode to follow. That being said based on where they are in book storyline season 3 could be absolutely Packed with events. Unless they choose to pad the story out with filler which they probably will.

[@THETYMEKK12]

Probably...But they are really coming close to the point when the story really kicks into place, some filler will help the pacing. Overall I would be pretty optimistic.

[@TheS1m0n93]

Season 2 get 4/10 ⭐️

[@Meerlu]

4/10 :( (also, the tube lady was cringe AF)

[@fconstraints]

Horrible acting

[@savannahforsyth2942]

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""lady"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

[@edmonddantes563]

The tube *man

[@Meerlu]

@@edmonddantes563 HOW DARE WE ASSUME!!!

[@lacydoe]

All that fluff in each episode, they could have at least let us get some character development from the new riders. C. Cole seems like the only one who’s had a few arch changes that we was able to see.

[@AustinGonder]

It seems like they had a 10 episode plan, and with the shortened season just cut the last two episode and pushed them into next season. This felt like a typical GoT episode 8, but that only works if there’s an episode 9 after it

[@saharshahin1203]

I came here to say the same thing. This is like watching GOT season 2 and chopping off Blackwater and the finale.

[@John21WoW]

Ugh , so many bad scenes in this episode that just take me out of it, I don''t even know where to start, I already forgot the chronology of it, that is how bad it felt... 1. Rhaela goes after the Dragon in the wilderness with 0 food, 0 water and a freacking partydress... 2. Daemon literally gets shown the entire story as if handed the script and pretty much destroys his character and makes him just a puppet now... 3. Aemond turns into a mindless panicking moron for no reason... 4. I literaly thought the second I saw the corsair scene and no woman in it "I am curious when the strong woman is gonna walk into this scene..." an there you have it, a chick built like a twig telling the dude who trained as a knight his entire life that he looks weak, really? Not to mention she had like no wrinkle on her entire face, she looked like a castle princess, no nothing yet we are to believe she is this strong tough seawoman who has been fighting on sea her entire life, give me a break... the fight was a complete joke and you could see they did everything they could to make the Lanister knight look like scarred little boy for some reason... 5. Alicent teleports to Rhaneyra like she did before... again, then again you could argue people give less of a crap about her than the other way round in the scene a few episodes ago 6. Cole's relationship with the queen is now common knowledge... somehow? why? when? And this is just off the top of my head, I am sure I forgot a few...

[@sarkastodon30]

4. Yeah that just took me out of the show for a moment, that mud wrestle. A warrior wouldn't be scared of a wom@n. Small solace when he finally found a backbone, he outmatched her. Then he went back to scaredy boy 🙄.

[@don.keebles]

And then they teased a scene where he would bang the pirate lady's wives and then NOTHING. They showed nothing at all. GoT would have shown at least some tiddies and arse. This whole season had a severe lack of arse and tiddies.

[@frankvandorp9732]

4 wasn't meant to be a chick. He's just a dude who likes dressing like a chick, and everyone in-universe sees him like that: a crazy dude who is effeminate and dresses weirdly. Even the character himself clearly does not really believe himself to be a woman. I was kind of surprised at how they handled his character, I don't think the wokies will like it.

[@mixelplik]

@@frankvandorp9732 And neither do non-wokies!

[@casualrider983]

You forgot the last 5 minutes of the episode just one massive cock tease trailer for season 3. Can't believe they used some of those scenes for last week's trailer and you literally get nothing but those scenes fucking laughable

[@Mordring]

Warning: While I'm not giving details I will use some names of events happening in the books further on so it may spoil bits and pieces. You've been warned. NGL, up until I saw your video I'd thought this season also has 10 episodes (I never bothered checking as I've been generally losing more interest than gaining throughout it). I'd thought "okay, we're finally getting somewhere. Episode 9 Gullet and Honeywine, episode 10 Red Fork and King's Landing with a nice wrap up of the season." Alas, denied! Those will happen in the first couple episodes and, sure, they'll probably pay off quite well, but the momentum is all lost now. I wouldn't be surprised if the number of viewers drops significantly with so disappointing an ending. This season was really lackluster. Normally I'm more generous than you are when giving my score, but I'd have to go for at least one point lower on every episode, 2 for some. That's mainly due to the fact I've read the book and I fully realise how much time is wasted that could've been used for a shorter but better paced intense show. It's the Hobbit treatment all over again, they'll drag 200 pages into 5-6 seasons while it could've been wrapped up within 3, 4 tops. I'm not a fan of the amount of time spent on Daemon's pointless visions or his boring conversations with the witch. They bring nothing and are inconsequential to the story integrity of the show alone and even if we consider it in context of GOT, they're foregone conclusions at best as we all know how it ends anyway. Then, not one but two meetings between Rhaenyra and Allicent. They are queens of 2 factions at war and they can just walk into the enemy base of operations just like that? Another case of show writers thinking they're smarter than the author (spoiler alert, these two have no such meetings as they are as absurd as they were in this show). And for what? Neither of the meeting moved the plot a milimeter forward. "I will allow you to conquer King's Landing when Aemond's away". As if her permission changes anything that simply flying in with 4 large dragons and a couple smaller couldn't impact regardless. And all the pointless wandering. Allicent wanders around the King's Wood, Rhaela wanders around the Vale looking for a dragon, Daemon wanders around Harrenhal, Jace wanders (and pouts) around Dragonstone. Cut out all of that and we'd have at least enough screen time for the Battle of the Gullet to end with a bang like in season 1. And all the other symptoms of bad shows. Of course Triarchy's admiral has to be a girlboss lesbian (a man in the books, obviously), Aegon's King's Guard had to fulfill DEI quotas and Rhaenyra now has the hots for her husband's ex (who wasn't even a proper ex but a hooker he favoured). Cause yay progressiveness in a medieval fantasy show. Already Velaryons were a huge stretch, but they managed to make it work in favour of the plot (Strong Boys' ancestry even more easily questioned). I guess with too few people complaining they saw it as the "go ahead" to go full Netflix in season 2. Overall, while season 1 of HOTD gave me a reasonable amount of cautious hope that HBO can still deliver a decent show, season 2 just took it all away. I'm not waiting for season 3. When it comes, I'll probably watch it if I'm bored. But I expect it getting worse instead of better. We may yet look favourably at GOT final seasons in comparison, and that idea alone fills me with dread.

[@thekittenthatwantschicken8018]

hotd season 2 should be called " the season that never was" and they are gonna milk the dance in 16 more episodes when this could easily been done in 3 10 episode seasons

[@Jonah-720]

The only reason the white walkers got past the wall is BECAUSE of the Targaryen’s! The “night king” got a dragon because of the stupidity of the GoT characters. The way these shows have it… Westeros would have been better off of they all got wiped out, Dany and her dragon eggs included. 🤷 all roads lead to GoT’s terrible late season writing

[@zonefreakman]

That is if HBO still considers the game of thrones show as Canon considering how badly it ended, and how all across the board it is disliked by the fans.

[@iliaponomarev1624]

On "what's wrong": 1. Source material is hot garbage from the adaptation point of view. It's fun to study it and try to figure out what actually happened and where the author lies, exaggerates or makes an honest mistake. And it's also self-contradictory, so the right answer doesn't necessarily exist. You kinda have to settle on some version of events, and a lot people would be unhappy with what you chose as the actual set of events. 2. They made a choice of making it a story about Viserys, Rhaenyra, Alicent and Daemon. Worked for Season 1. In Season 2 Viserys is dead, and the other leads, according to the source material, do nothing. Lots of problems come from here. Alicent and Rhaenyra go back and forth, Daemon is stuck in his psychodelic journey. 3. They kinda have to entertain the audience. It was mostly Season 1 problem though. 4. Studio seems to want as many Game of Thrones references as possible. 5. Also, studio wanted more seasons, so it kinda felt like they cut the original 10-episode season in half and then they were stretching 5 episodes into 8. 6. Writers' strike didn't help, obviously.

[@michellejennings5887]

The Lannister scenes were sooo freakin stupid. They saved that dumb shit for the finale????

[@dashriprock8596]

Totally. I couldn't believe what I was watching.

[@benfry3665]

Rhaela walks off and the guards taking them to their ship are saying "im sure there was a young black girl looking after these two kids, hey anybody do a head count?? Im sure we are missing someone!!", im sure there eas an adult looking after these kids. Not exactly the elite guards promised to get them safely to their ship

[@Warren_B]

Like many others, I gave the franchise a second chance with the first season of House of the Dragon, but it feels like the show got hijacked somewhere along the way and is going down the Game of Thrones season 7 & 8 path. I have zero anticipation for the next season.

[@HistoryandHeadlines]

Will the next season be better?

[@transtremm]

It was a good episode, but a poor choice as a season finale

[@BluegrassKnight]

I do have to agree this episode, while good in its own right, didn't deliver as a season finale, I think it had some great world-building and plot build-up, as well as some great visuals, including the shots from dragon back (which I really liked, I call it "dragon-rider vision") and the shots of castles were very cool too! However, I do think this would have been better if it were an earlier episode or if we just had more to go, but it was a bit of a letdown with no big pay-off, though with all the pieces on the chess board now in position to strike, I am still very much looking forward to season 3 and expect there will be some great things happening next season! Also, I do think the scene with Rhaenyra and Alicent was unneeded, it basically just repeats much off the same stuff from the first meeting, I think the new bits could have been done in a different way, either in an earlier episode or next season! Though I have to say that I kind of disagree when it comes to which side I'm on (Team Black), I do think Rhaenyra is in the right for the most part, while she isn't perfect, she is the legitimate heir, she hasn't directly ordered the mass burning of towns or put them to the sword, she has shown restraint even when she has a clear advantage and she does try to help the "small folk" when she can, as well as being overall level headed and even handed!

[@frankie3010]

Dude I have been telling you!

[@ajandu_marvel]

Why can’t i find the nerdrotic stream?

[@R0GU351GN4L]

I think they got a copywrite strike from HBO so it's probably down whilst they contest it.

[@mjbull5156]

HBO did block it for copyright, the bastards.

[@LARPANON]

hbo took I down, I found out at 5am or whenever the fuck the automation did it

[@tiger7634]

Idk I actually liked it, do I want to see some fighting? Yeah but, all in all I like the show for the drama and the dragons are pretty awesome.

[@totallynuts7595]

I think the biggest issues MIGHT have had something to do with the writer's strike. I feel like too much of the season was undercooked. The green council, Mysaria, Rhaenyra and Alicent talks, character morality... I don't think it applies to all scenes in these episodes, but certainly the weakest of them. Because it's not like the scenes were Disney Star Wars levels of idiotic, most could work if tweaked, add a line here, take another away from there, nothing was really flawed at the foundation of it, nor were the ideas poor. Smells like a first draft to me. Now, HotD season 2 started filming in April 2023, in May the writers strike started and both the filming and the strike ended in September (so it seems, that's 5 months of strike which is an eternity for them). The first season was airing from August to October 2022. The only hypothesis I have is that their scripts for season 2 were not fully finished before the strike, they lied in May when they said "Yeah we are fine" and this was the result. Conclusion: Someone is getting fired, there's 2yrs between releases, assume 6 months editing + 6 months filming, they had at least 1 full year to work on those scripts and they did a significantly inferior job than on S1...

[@zonefreakman]

Thank you, finally someone agree that the writing it seriously Inferior compared to season 1. I think even the production quality is even worse. I didn't feel the music like in season 1, and the set designs or camera work felt off.

[@Roland3ld]

Here is the usual full support for channel growth.

[@deusredeemer]

THERES NOT GONNA BE A SEASON 3 ...THERES GONNA BE A WW3 THOUGH 😅

[@butkusaurelius3419]

I hate that this season was marketed and promoted (especially to those unfamiliar with the books) as the “it’s time for WAR, pick your side!” And it resulted in being an 8 episode promotion for next season which will be “it’s time for WAR! Pick your side!”

[@prorok3382]

I overall really enjoyed this season but I should mention that if it comes to GRRMs works I always care more about the worldbuilding than the actual story (same as George himself Im pretty sure) so Im just generally more exited about the show adapting the world, heraldry and the magic then the actual story. For example I really liked this episode purely based on the fact that they finally showed us tyroshi with colored beards and posssibly a greenman from the isle of faces.

[@sarkastodon30]

13:00 Daemonds arc went waaay too long.

[@anklesockson8134]

Whenever they bring up the song of ice and fire and the 'others,' I wonder are they referring to books or the show. Seeing they have taken things from GoT show I assume the latter and then I wonder if the purpose of all Targaryens is to make sure that the mad King gets to the throne, so the entire of GoT can happen, Cat marries Ned instead of Brandon so Arya can be born. As from what I remember, the whole thing ended when she killed the big baddie while screaming. Had nothing to do with Dany or Jon anyway,

[@falconknight4964]

I honestly think that despite the ending scene, which didn’t hit quite as well for me, I still liked the ending episode quite a bit! There were a lot of moments that I enjoyed and I’ll watch the next season to see where this buildup goes. It is typical GoT fashion to have the last episode of a season deal with some of the climax of the second to last episode, so beats me on intention of how this goes. Definitely took a little issue with the future look at GoT from the vision, the ending conversation with both queens which I thought could’ve been much better but did feel not quite in place of everything else, and Nettles. For those who know, I hope they still make it work next season, I have theories of how they could make it work if they decided to still stay true to the book/story, but only time will tell at this point. Overall, I agree with the season rating, pretty good 7/10! Lot to love about this season with some definite missteps, but considering everything else in media atm, happy to enjoy this show still

[@Duke_of_Lorraine]

It feels like everything will crash down within a couple episodes. The Gullet, the Fishfeed, the fall of KL... the main problem is having to wait 2 years to see that happen instead of having at least one as a season finale. In time this won't be a problem as we'll have season 3 automatically start after S2E8 but cutting now is very frustrating until we get S3.

[@immortaljanus]

In my own writing, I just did a significant plot twist and now the second half of the story has lost all structure. It's now much more interesting than it was before, but I'm losing the emotional pay off. So, yeah, it can go bad very quickly.

[@ladymairreads]

I’m on the fence on how I feel about the season as a whole. There were some incredible scenes (deamon and rhneaya at harrenhall) but I don’t believe it was strong enough for me. And to end on this episode? I felt so cheated

[@timothypolanco8622]

NGL this was an underwhelming finale to a pretty good season. What's the point of doing the dance of dragons if your not going to show the battles !?!?!? This finale should've at some point showcase the battle of honeywine !!! That way the live action audience can see Daeron the daring. And see how he earns his moniker in the war an for what's to come in season 3, but nooo the writers skipped it like they did with the battle of the burning mill !! I always rooted for team black in the book Fire & Blood, however Daeron Targaryen is one of my favorite members of team green. And he would've been a good character in team green for the causal audience to root for, but nope let's save him for season 3 !! All in all this season feels straight up incomplete, with a lot of good to great scenes surrounded by filler scenes. Your second season is supposed to be better than the first, not slightly worse. At least there was some payoff for all the Daemon scenes this season, I guess that would be a plus for me.

[@matthings4133]

This episode feels rushed because it is. They had a story for 10 episodes but HBO cut it to 8 episodes (during production I think) which gave them little time to rewrite the last episode. It was definitely a bummer but knowing the context, I can't blame the writers. This is like the Hobbit movies where production companies get too much into the mix of the show. HBO is renowned for their shows so I hope this is an exception.

[@Seacai150]

I didn’t see it that way. Wasn’t the best ending, but to me all 4 seasons are basically one long ass movie. As long as they stick the landing in the ACTUAL ending, I’ll be happy.

[@ChaosLierLen]

Season 1: a family talks about playing Risk Season 2: they set up the board and make initial moves

[@theeightbithero]

I actually liked the ending. I think in the long run they made the right choice here. Jace’s character isn’t ready for his death, so they need to give him more screen time before the battle.

[@darthbricksempire3606]

So, from what I’ve heard, the Showrunners had written 10 episodes, yet HBO decided to save money and cut it down to 8. The showrunners then decides not to rewrite the 10 episodes into 8, but rather move the last 2 episodes to the next season - which is so stupid! There’s now no payoff in this season, and it’s a huge letdown. All in all, damn HBO