FIRST TIME WATCHING: HOTD S2E8

This final episode was basically a 65 minutes trailer for season 3 xD

Heliastein

Hmmm, this was interesting. I think you put my feelings into words well. I'll still watch season 3, I don't mind the lack of action, but I do mind the poor pacing and execution moments! Also, movie poster energy is great XD

Yani Dodge

Vhagar was Daemon's wife's dragon, not Seasmoke (Laenor's) or Silverwing (Queen Alysanne). I would personally go for Silverwing as my dragon if I could choose! :)

Meg B

As a person who had read book 1-4 of ASOIAF 4 times before the show aired, I made the the decision to set my Fire and Blood book aside a soon as I heard that they were adapting the Dance of Dragons Storyline. Personally I had zero problem with the Season, I think peoples are getting greedy and don't appreciate build-up enough.

Daniel Vezina

I love that show. Except season 4, that one was kind of odd. But I would love to see someone react to it. I might even resubscribe to Natalie if she started to react to Fargo 👀 because for me, there's no reason to hang around now that HotD is over.

Christophe

there is no scene establishing why Helaena is the way she is, she isn't like this in the book either, the showrunners seemingly just decided they wanted a Bran in this show and just picked Helaena out of a hat

Questn

Don’t forget to blame the greedy billionaires that drug out a WGA and actor’s strike much much longer than it should have been. It affected shows in production in many different ways. Most notably here, the truncated season and just a slight dip in the writing.

Brian

Agreed

Brian

Jazz

Well I enjoyed this season. It doesnt have to be better. It just continues the story.

George Roybal

I thought this was an ok season. I enjoyed every episode but I agree that the finale was a bit unsatisfying. We were teased a war to come at the end of last season and were teased again this season for that same war so nothing big really happened. Disappointed that we didn’t see Rhaena finally get a dragon and Daemons storyline was a little too long in my opinion. I did very much enjoy the scenes between Alicent and Rhaenyra. Didn’t think we would see them together again after Viserys died. Hopefully next season its filled with fights and battles.

Javi

Loved the season and the "outrage" by the "fans" was laughable

Anthony Curione

There was a strike or two during production of this season, no one seems to mention.

Chris H

As a book reader, here’s my opinion on this episode and season without giving away any spoilers: They could have easily cut or combined several scenes without affecting the story. The entire Tyland meeting with the Triarchy could have occurred off screen, or they could have simply shown us the outcome. Rhaena’s scene of finding a dragon should’ve condensed into a single sequence and shown in episode 7. Regarding Helaena’s storyline, based on where she ends up in the book and how she gets there, I’m unsure what they’re doing with her character arc. (And for those saying she doesn’t have an arc in the book, GRRM actually revealed her full arc in a now-deleted blog post.) The same confusion applies to Daemon’s arc. And making Aegon III’s dragon younger will cost them an entire story beat. Via altering character arcs and cutting characters, they’ve put themselves in a difficult position. Given WBD’s budget issues, I’m not sure how they plan to structure seasons three and four with just eight episodes. They’re going to need a miracle. Finally, I didn’t like this season’s finale at all, and I’m not hype for season three.

JustMJ

not sure if someone said it nut Damon's wife's dragon was Vhagar . I know you said you didn't remember so just putting it out there!

Luke Wilson

Not to sure if someone said it a

Luke Wilson

I do enjoy this show, but I cant believe that we didn't even see the start of the battle in this Finale. Its crazy that the 1st season had its time jumps that felt jarring to accelerate the time line and this season it feels like not a huge amount has happened. I know some of the fans of the show will not like my comments but I have to say what I feel.

Baggie Mark

I loved the first half on this season but then nothing progressed after that. Everything was so drawn out 😭 and I was so ready for the season finale to finally have the crazy battle that it was leading up to and then it ended. So disappointing :(

Juliana Montenegro

If the reports are correct we now have to wait over TWO YEARS for next season...is HBO broke? =_=

Albiezushi

Happy Tuesday Nat. I think you gave a fair assessment of the season. Finally someone else pointing out the focusing this season. It drove me nuts too. One point of focus on the whole frame, and everything else blurred. Why? I agree that they could have taken the key moments of this season and combined them with the next to have a 3 season series instead of 4. A tightening up of the pacing would have benefitted it greatly. And Daemon's stay in the haunted castle could have been much shortened. Instead it was dragged out at the expense of the other characters. If this was all done for budgetary restraints this season, I hope they have a bigger budget for next season because, from what I've heard from others, they are going to need it to do the story justice. Thanks for your reaction today Nat 💛

Darryl Low

Didnt have enough episodes... studio seems to love cutting seasons too short now.. ONE more episode would have been great. In the grand scope of things once this is all finished it's going to be epic.. just sucks we didnt get a true finale, and if you piss off your viewers your show is failing in one way or another. Also their YOUTUBE hire was so jarring in the final episode, awful decision. A pirate with perfect fake teeth.. lol okay Overall I really enjoyed this season, cinematography 10/10 story 8/10 - HBO 0/10 for screwing over their audience

Simon Bauer

Exactly, the entire season was almost like world building in a sense. Knowing how this all ends makes me feel sorry for certain characters. I know who survives and who dies, this series is more than likely going to end on a bitter sweet note.

Marcus Carter

I agree with you Nat, this season wasn't the greatest, I think the same that this entire season was just a set up for the war. They put so much effort in building the tension and had no pay off. I am hoping that the payoff will be worth it in season 3. I still love the show though but that could change depending on what they do next. lol

Marcus Carter

The most frustrating thing about the season was waiting 2 years in anticipation and after a drawn out season , we are more or less in the same position we were in in season 1 , did we really need a daemon haunted special for that many episodes . But honestly you articulated alot of it better than i could, just a disappointing season all around

Rey

I also read that the showrunners were commited to a episode season and wanted to end on the battle of the gullet but alluded that wb or likely david zaslav cut the budget back...which is wild since this show is hbos max money maker

Rey

Daemon's ex-wife's dragon was Vhagar. Seasmoke was Rhaenyra's ex-husband's dragon

Jason

If you're not aware, season 2 was marred by lots of production issues. It was supposed to be ten episodes but then for some reason, the powers that be decided to cut that down to 8 after it had already been written. This necessitated a lot of rewrites in a short amount of time which probably messed with the structure of the season which is why the second half feels so oddly paced, to say the least, and also why the finale doesn't feel like a finale. At the time of filming, the writers' strike was also going on which made any script changes during production (which are normally common) impossible as per guild rules. They had to perform every line strictly as written months in advance. HBO also made some budget cuts for some unfathomable reason in their most popular show. There was a lot going against this season, frankly it's a miracle it wasn't worse than it was. That said, I also don't have much patience for people who criticize this season like it was the worst thing ever written. The pacing was too slow and the finale wasn't satisfying. That's about it, in my opinion, as far as bad things go. But people clamoring for more dragon battles simply because they want more action are frankly dumb and have no idea why Game of Thrones as well as House of the Dragon were ever great and popular. S2E2 of HotD was one of the best episodes of both series that I have ever seen and it was very dialogue-heavy. The slow walk of Viserys to his thrones in S1E7 was one of the most impactful, emotional scenes of both series and it was just an old man hobbling to a chair. Character introspection and rich dialogue was always what made these shows great. The issue with this season is that characters repeated themselves a lot and a lot of them made basically no progress in the story. That said, I have a lot of hope for season 3, at least if HBO doesn't try and needlessly meddle with the structure of the seasons again. There's obviously a lot of good stuff coming if you know the book so I'm looking forward to that.

Christophe

All I need from the next season is more Daeron, Hugh, and Aegon. I need lots more Aegon. Best character writing in Season 2 BY FAR.

Lemuel Daher

Season 2 had a lot of story development time for s3 to get into a ton of clashes between the characters.

Ridley