I would’ve been fine with the pirate scenes in any of the earlier episodes over Rhaenyra and Jace pouting around Dragonstone. In the finale of an 8 episode season that moved along at a glacial pace? Bad judgement.
TV: House of the Dragon (HBO) - Season 2 - Summer 2024, please use spoil tags where it makes sense
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Sombastate
Registered User
Yeah, not nearly as entertaining as i wanted, but i definitely still enjoyed it.
Bummed we have to wait 2 years for a pay-off, but i enjoyed the season
Bummed we have to wait 2 years for a pay-off, but i enjoyed the season
Romang67
BitterSwede
Haven't seen a setup finale like that since A Dance With Dragons set up the Battle of Ice, the Battle of Fire, the Battle of Blood, and the Battle of Steel, and left the main character bleeding out in the snow.
13 years ago.
Let's hope for a slightly shorter wait here.
13 years ago.
Let's hope for a slightly shorter wait here.
I mean I hear what you're saying but I think it did fit. Maybe it didn't need to be fleshed out as much as it was as all it did was give fans an opportunity to see a Lannister get pissed on, but by the same token he ended up proving himself so even that was a wash. But the scenes were part of the wider scope of the realm ramping up for war in proper. Before it was just a campaign of Criston and Alicent's brother on a "pledge fealty for the war to come tour" and the pirates are there to establish opposition to the Velaryon fleet/blockade.
I think season 1 you can attribute to being the underpinnings of the conflict while Rook's Rest is more or less the powder keg that sparks the war and everything that followed is the ramp up from more or less a cold war to a full blown clash that we're unfortunately not going to get until the last two seasons.
It’s the pull and tug of business vs art. More seasons, more viewership, more money. It’s becoming epidemic among TV.
GKJ
Global Moderator
- Feb 27, 2002
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That wasn’t real.Wtf was that girl pirate scene. all of that shit was so awful my god how is this the same GOT IP? f***in mud wrestlin and shit. Theyve lost the plot.
Heleana helping and offering advice to the guy that was responsible for her child's murder
Starting to think they simply just don't have the budget to make this a really good series with all the CGI that is needed.
Emperoreddy
Show Me What You Got!
Some book spoilers
i think in the original 10 episode plan before budget and the writers strike got to the season, that episode 8 was largely the same but possibly without Rhaenyra and Alicent, episode 9 would have been the big climax with the Battle of The Gullet, and episode 10 dealing with the fallout, alicent and Rhaenyra meeting and ending with Rhaenyra poised to take King's Landing.
Rhaenyra demanding a son for a son in that convo makes a lot more sense if Jace just died
Rhaenyra demanding a son for a son in that convo makes a lot more sense if Jace just died
TCTC
Registered User
- Mar 25, 2013
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All in all this season was pretty boring. And I can't really say episode 8 got me excited for season 3. I'll probably have forgotten about most of the plot once the next season starts. And I doubt I'll even bother rewatching it.
Episode 7 had me hopeful that they might finally turn it up a notch, but to me it's obvious now that they're stretching over 4 seasons what seems to easily could've been a mini series.
So far this show doesn't really deserve the hype it's getting.
Episode 7 had me hopeful that they might finally turn it up a notch, but to me it's obvious now that they're stretching over 4 seasons what seems to easily could've been a mini series.
So far this show doesn't really deserve the hype it's getting.
Emperoreddy
Show Me What You Got!
The dance absolutely could not be done any kind of justice in a mini-series format
Romang67
BitterSwede
I really only didn't like episode 5 this season. I didn't think it did anything episode 6 didn't do better. I think those two episodes should have been combined and tightened. I'm surprised it's getting as much vitriol as it's getting.
The writing was not as tight as in season 1, and the pacing was off in places. I'd say it was better than seasons 5-8 GoT, but worse than the first season and season 1-4 GoT.
The writing was not as tight as in season 1, and the pacing was off in places. I'd say it was better than seasons 5-8 GoT, but worse than the first season and season 1-4 GoT.
TCTC
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- Mar 25, 2013
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Haven't read the books, tbh. So you could very well be right.
I don't even mind a slowburn or dialogue heavy content. But this show just doesn't grab me like I hoped it would.
Not sure whether it's the writing, the characters, or the actors. But something's missing.
The Crypto Guy
Registered User
- Jun 26, 2017
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I can agree with that, they should have had the intro to them a ep or two back, not the finale.
Emperoreddy
Show Me What You Got!
I have diverging opinions about the quality of season 8, but I think season 6 just getting lumped in as "crap" is really off base and is better then both seasons of HOTD
Emperoreddy
Show Me What You Got!
I'm guessing the Essos stuff is planned to be paid off within the next episode or two, but the budget shrinking the season to 8 episodes forced that payoff into season 3.
Romang67
BitterSwede
To each their own. I think season 6 is awful.
To me, it was setting up the inevitable disaster that were seasons 7 and 8. So many pivotal moments in the season (Arya killing the waif, the murder of the Prince of Dorne, Battle of the Bastards, Sept of Baylor) were spectacle over substance, and it kept up what season 5 started and the last two seasons continued with simplifying the characters and houses.
Season 6 looked good, but to me that's about it to me.
But this is all better suited for a GoT thread.
TCTC
Registered User
- Mar 25, 2013
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I think the Alicent character has been completely ruined, btw.
So she's going to sacrifice her sons (one of them didn't even want to be King and was only made King because of her) and side with the enemy just to clear her conscience? Is that supposed to redeem her? Poor writing, in my opinion. And if that's how it's in the book, then maybe the book isn't that great after all.
So she's going to sacrifice her sons (one of them didn't even want to be King and was only made King because of her) and side with the enemy just to clear her conscience? Is that supposed to redeem her? Poor writing, in my opinion. And if that's how it's in the book, then maybe the book isn't that great after all.
Romang67
BitterSwede
She explicitly said she wasn't expecting to be redeemed. I read it as her not wanting to deal with the politics anymore, and wanting to save whomever of her children and grandchildren who can be saved. That being Helaena and Jaehaera. They are also, at least likely in Alicent's mind, innocent. Aemond and Aegon aren't.
It's not just about clearing her conscience. She's trying to end a war she knows is going to be massively destructive. She's choosing to sacrifice Aegon over likely thousands or tens of thousands of people getting killed in a prolonged war, and also keeping the one child of hers that is truly innocent, Helaena, safe. As a dragon rider she would likely get drug into the war whether she wanted to or not.
Kinda going off topic here. The other unintended downside of that finale is my Twitter feed is replete with Dany stans who still can't cope with how GOT ended screaming about how Dany showing up in that dream sequence is confirmation that she was the prince who was promised. So annoying. Also Twitter's new algorithm sucks.
Emperoreddy
Show Me What You Got!
You aren't supposed to find Alicent redeemed from that.
Her arc this season was basically learning that she hates or flat out doesn't know her children outside of Helania and that all her scheming has absolutely exploded in her face with the realm heading towards an awful war.
She was on the verge of killing herself in the woods but instead is instead hatched this scheme to possibly save her daughter and get to run away from everything.
She is trying to cloak it in doing good for the masses but it's largely self-serving due to her attempts to take control of her life backfiring to such a degree that she has less control then ever.
The big monkey wrench here is how will things go if/when Rhaenyra shows up in KL and finds Aegon is gone? Or even juicier if it gets out to Aegon or Aemond that she was the one who opened the city?
Her arc this season was basically learning that she hates or flat out doesn't know her children outside of Helania and that all her scheming has absolutely exploded in her face with the realm heading towards an awful war.
She was on the verge of killing herself in the woods but instead is instead hatched this scheme to possibly save her daughter and get to run away from everything.
She is trying to cloak it in doing good for the masses but it's largely self-serving due to her attempts to take control of her life backfiring to such a degree that she has less control then ever.
The big monkey wrench here is how will things go if/when Rhaenyra shows up in KL and finds Aegon is gone? Or even juicier if it gets out to Aegon or Aemond that she was the one who opened the city?
Yeah I don't understand this interpretation at all. I'm seeing it around as well.
JetsWillFly4Ever
Registered User
I thought that was a good episode but should not be the finale.
Feel like you could basically not watch this season and jump from season 1 to 3 and not miss anything tbh. Season 1 ended with 'war is coming', now season 2 has ended with 'war is coming'.
Was still enjoyable but not sure how you don't at least give some semblance of action. I agree with the poster above who said if you were binging it would be a fine leave off point, but having to wait two years after this is such a let down.
Feel like you could basically not watch this season and jump from season 1 to 3 and not miss anything tbh. Season 1 ended with 'war is coming', now season 2 has ended with 'war is coming'.
Was still enjoyable but not sure how you don't at least give some semblance of action. I agree with the poster above who said if you were binging it would be a fine leave off point, but having to wait two years after this is such a let down.
GKJ
Global Moderator
- Feb 27, 2002
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She also just kinda sucks as a person, not in an evil kind of way, but she wants of have her cake and eat it too, and it was stated as much. The most important thing is finding a way to be able to live with herself.
I really don't get this. How is her character ruined exactly? It's something that has background development through multiple scenes dating back to last season when she learned that Aegon raped a maid. It's shown when she has multiple opportunities to show love and support for her son and can't bring herself to do it. It's shown when she cracks at the high council listening to Aemond making his first round of decisionds as acting king and then again when she's furious at him for trying to pull the peaceful and traumatized Haelena into the war.
Like is your standard for her being ruined that a mother should never be willing to offer up her children to be sacrificed? Because you weren't supposed to watch that scene and think what Alicent was doing is commendable or redeeming. The defining trait of her character is hypocritical conflict between her supposed adherence to honor and virtue and behaviors attitudes that run entirely contrary to her supposed beliefs. E.g. she wants to be or at least wants to be seen as a good person but she's not.
She's as morally bankrupt and self interested as many GOT and HotD characters before her. Like that's what I don't get. Whether it was hearing what she wants to hear in the interest of having her family have ultimate power and standing or being willing to offer up Aemond and Aegon as sacrifices so she can and her daughter and father be free and safe from the conflict she played a part in starting, Alicent has always been defined by acting in her own self interest which is not weird on the world of Westeros. Sure you can compare her as a mother and say "Cersei would never do something like this" but Cersei also helped reap all that her children sowed in a different way (e.g. not raising Joffrey better and encouraging some of his shittier perspectives so that he ended up an assassination target; or having her fight for power over the High Sparrow and Tyrells ending in the elimination of all of them and causing Tommen's suicide).
Alicent doing what she did doesn't "ruin" the character, it just reinforces that people in this universe (highborns especially) tend to do morally dubious to awful things (see Stannis Baratheon sacrificing his own daughter for an advantage). The list of characters who do what is morally expected or appropriate consistently across both shows is very short.
