House of the Dragon

[SolarGarlic]

Was that storyline in the book? Because that whole us he loyal or not seemed shoehorned in. He only had the Riverland army because they swore an oath to Viserys who named Rhaenyra as his successor. They weren’t loyal to Daemon. In fact, they made it clear they hate Daemon. If he tries to take the throne himself wouldn’t the Riverlands just fight for Rhaenyra rather than Daemon.

Daemon was quite literally delusional, but the thought was that they "needed a king" to follow. He earned their trust when he carried out Tully's sentence. It was clear in that final scene that they were not loyal to Rhaenyra until Daemon bent the knee. They hardly noticed when she came in.

 

[Mr Janny]

I disagree. A lot of times it's the episode before the finale where **** pops off. The only part I felt was completely out of place was the mud wrestling. Just completely missed the tone of the episode. The story is just isn't that compelling as of now. It felt like it took until the last 30 minutes of the finale to remember that this is supposed to be an epic/drama.

That said, I'm not nearly as disappointed as everyone else seems to be. I thought it was a good episode. Everyone is just so bloodthirsty (literally/figuratively) when it comes to GoT/HotD. I'm glad I watched GoT before the most intense twitter/reddit era. Don't fool yourself, if we were watching season 4 of GoT in this era of social media, we'd still have a bunch of morons saying "bad writing" after every episode.

Good point. Remember the giant battle in the season one finale of the original GOT? Nope. There wasn't one. I agree the mud wrestling was out of place. And Tyland comes off as sort of feckless, anyway, so I didn't really need to explore his story any more than we already had. In the book, it's Otto Hightower who secures support to fight the blockade. To me, that feels like a more compelling story.

 

[SolterraCyclone]

To me, that season had a similar problem as the last two seasons of GOT. It needed to be a 10-episode season

HOTD season 2 was too slow (whereas GOT was too crammed). I love character development and table setting if there’s a payoff. But I didn’t need a whole season of it.

Ep 9 should have been the big battle with ep 10 being set up for season 3. Like GOT was traditionally.

 

[SolarGarlic]

To me, that season had a similar problem as the last two seasons of GOT. It needed to be a 10-episode season

HOTD season 2 was too slow (whereas GOT was too crammed). I love character development and table setting if there’s a payoff. But I didn’t need a whole season of it.

Ep 9 should have been the big battle with ep 10 being set up for season 3. Like GOT was traditionally.

Absolutely agree that 10 episodes is a must

 

[SolterraCyclone]

Daemon was quite literally delusional, but the thought was that they "needed a king" to follow. He earned their trust when he carried out Tully's sentence. It was clear in that final scene that they were not loyal to Rhaenyra until Daemon bent the knee. They hardly noticed when she came in.

I don’t know. That seems like a stretch to me that just cause he executed Blackwood the Riverlords would say “oh wow! Actually we’ll follow you rather than Rhaenyra now”. Especially since Grover Tully hammered home the fact they find Daemon contemptible.

There needed to be more substance there for me to buy they choose Daemon over Rhaenyra. Like him connecting with the Riverlords, or him saving Grover Tully from something, or him winning a battle. Something like that.

 

[MugNight]

Assuming it’s resolved in S3E1, they will have effectively spent 3 episodes featuring Rheana trying to get the wild dragon. It’s minor, but that would’ve been an easy loose end to tie up in the finale given all the other open ended narratives.

 

[BigJCy]

 

[simply1]

All this fear of white walkers and we know how that ended, hah.

 

[SolterraCyclone]

All this fear of white walkers and we know how that ended, hah.

100%. All this prophecy and build up for an army that was taken care of relatively easily in an single episode.

I actually wish they’d reference GOT less in HOTD. Sorry, but knowing how the White Walkers get taken care of, the stakes of the Ice and Fire prophecy don’t really hit home.

 

[cyfan92]

I feel like a better story for Daemon would have been after he sees the vision about the white walkers, he takes Caraxes to the wall and becomes obsessed with stopping their advance and more mentally unstable..

 

[CloniesForLife]

Assuming it’s resolved in S3E1, they will have effectively spent 3 episodes featuring Rheana trying to get the wild dragon. It’s minor, but that would’ve been an easy loose end to tie up in the finale given all the other open ended narratives.

Yeah, that would have been a satisfying end of season event. Instead pretty much nothing happened. I didn't need a huge battle but I needed something to get me excited at the end. And there just wasn't much imo.

 

[ISUChippewa]

Count me in as one who felt a bit underwhelmed by last night's episode, although I enjoyed the season as a whole. I don't mind story-telling and character development within the context of world building, but it felt like we got a bit much of that and didn't have the right balance with action (Episode 4 being a notable exception, which, not coincidentally, was my favorite episode of the season).

I think the 8 episodes vs. 10 episodes, while certainly a valid debate to have, is also somewhat less important in the end, as I'm pretty sure the average run time for episodes this season was noticeably longer than Season 1. I'm pretty sure that for at least the back half of the season all of the episodes came in at an hour plus, and when you compare it the run time of 8 episodes with the extra minutes thrown in is probably pretty comparable with having 10 episodes.

 

[State2015]

Really excited about next season but still really disappointed in this season. It was all just a set-up for next season. By the time 2026 rolls around I'll have forgotten pretty much everything since every storyline is left unfinished. I'm all for that, but maybe do a 2-part season rather than just doing 8 episodes of buildup and then a 2yr wait.

 

[Cyinthenorth]

100%. All this prophecy and build up for an army that was taken care of relatively easily in an single episode.

I actually wish they’d reference GOT less in HOTD. Sorry, but knowing how the White Walkers get taken care of, the stakes of the Ice and Fire prophecy don’t really hit home.

Can't agree more. That was the plot point that got f'd up the most majorly in GoT in my opinion. 7 seasons of building these creatures up to be immortal, almost god-like. Only to see the entire lot of them fail to even make it out of the north. So disappointing. They could have dedicated a whole or at least half a season to displaying just how fearsome the Night King was, showing conquest etc. Not just a couple of cheap wins against disorganized wildling and dothraki armies north of the wall.

 

[BigJCy]

Another thing came to mind also. So when and why did Otto get locked up? Had to show the mud wrestling instead of showing more to that plot line?

 

[SolterraCyclone]

Can't agree more. That was the plot point that got f'd up the most majorly in GoT in my opinion. 7 seasons of building these creatures up to be immortal, almost god-like. Only to see the entire lot of them fail to even make it out of the north. So disappointing. They could have dedicated a whole or at least half a season to displaying just how fearsome the Night King was, showing conquest etc. Not just a couple of cheap wins against disorganized wildling and dothraki armies north of the wall.

The most fearsome, terrifying army Westeros has ever seen! The only army Argon the Conqueror was ever afraid of! Oh, actually they couldn’t even take Winterfell.

 

[simply1]

The most fearsome, terrifying army Westeros has ever seen! The only army Argon the Conqueror was ever afraid of! Oh, actually they couldn’t even take Winterfell.

I think the tales of white walkers will kill far more people than actual white walkers, given it helped start this war.

 

[dahliaclone]

Season finale was fine but honestly the season should have ended with last week's episode/last shot of her and all the dragons near her.

 

[Cmonwhatarewedoinghereman]

Can’t agree with all the posts here more. I feel like episode 8 could have been apart of a 10 episode season that ended the series. The last two could have been bangers.

 

[Fishhead]

I’ll have to watch this eventually. Just got into Game of Thrones. Just saw season 1 episode 9. Wow what an ending. I did not expect the execution