Current Events > Season finale of House of the Dragon *SPOILERS*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Less than two hours left. Im staying up watching it despite it coming out at 03:00 local time. Cuz I want zero risk of being spoiled.

Why do some of the dragons have fake fantasy names like Syrrax and Placiduaxx and others have stoner hippy names like dreamfyre and starshine?

lilORANG posted...

Why do some of the dragons have fake fantasy names like Syrrax and Placiduaxx and others have stoner hippy names like dreamfyre and starshine?

The names of the dragons in HOTD have ties to Old Valyria to at least an extent, but the names are also up to their first rider.

Syrax for example was the name of a Valyrian goddess while -fyre seems to be a suffix used in Valyria. The sword Blackfyre indicate this as well as dragon names like Dreamfyre and Sunfyre.

Once again a great episode imo but what the fuck with them ending it with all those cliffhanger scenes!!

But I guess this means that season 3 will be full out war between the different factions.

Im a bit letdown that we didnt get to see Daeron Targaryen for the first time.

Larys has really grown on me this season. Intelligent and such a strong will to live. His dialogue with Aegon in this ep and the last are brilliant.

Daemon getting his vision of The Long Night was cool as fuck Loved him then bending the knee to his wife. His arc in Harrenhal makes total sense now but has been a bit slow to follow.

Also, Sheepstealer!

Kinda mad that the whole season was just a trailer for season 3. Simply build up for 8 episodes.

That was a stupid ending. Gotta give us something in the finale.

Super anti-climactic.

I otherwise enjoyed the season.

That was dull. Honestly pretty disrespectful to the fans knowing it's likely gonna take 2 years to get another 8 episodes.

Hot take but Criston's scene was really good I thought. Humanized him a good bit.

Sheepstealer has a cool design. Looks like a wild beast.

Daemon spent the entire season wandering around Harenhall.

Plus scenes of the long winter and references to the prophecy largely fall flat bc we already know the night king is a joke lol

Yeah, what a waste of a season. Like it was still good, but we got no payoff! I wonder what was the reasoning behind this? Do they fear that they rushed season 8 of GOT so bad that theyre being overly cautious? Or simply milking the golden goose?

Reddit seems to largely hate it and thinks ending this way tainted the whole season. Sad, because I loved the episode and don't agree with this idea that nothing happened and the whole season was filler. There were a lot of major changes in character, people claimed dragons, the whole war flipped.

It is wild that Daemon never left Harenhall, but that's a flaw from the book itself.

Wow that was a terrible finale episode. I enjoyed this season but to end it with a pointless mud wrestling match? Jesus

This season definitely wasn't filler, but even I'm not going to deny that this finale didn't exactly land very well. I really hope they don't try to milk this series because I felt that MORE stuff should've happened this season in general.

legendary_zell posted...

Reddit seems to largely hate it and thinks ending this way tainted the whole season. Sad, because I loved the episode and don't agree with this idea that nothing happened and the whole season was filler. There were a lot of major changes in character, people claimed dragons, the whole war flipped.

It is wild that Daemon never left Harenhall, but that's a flaw from the book itself.

The problem wasn't the episode. It was a good episode. The problem was that there isn't an episode next week for the pay off to the entire build up of the season.

Ya I felt like it was a good episode, but a terrible finale. Like if we still had 2 more episodes this season like last season it would be seen as a solid episode, but you cant end a season that way

Good episode, but terrible finale. I was surprised to see Philosophy Tube in the episode tough.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/d/dfe22e79.jpg

Huh, people didn't like the finale? Why not?

Nothing important happened.

Pretty much echoing the same, the episode was fine but not a great way to end the season.

There was one thing that I absolutely hated though, and it was Daemons vision. Why show Dany? Did he misinterpret it and think it was Rhaenyra? I wish theyd cool it with the prophecy shit and stop reminding us that our protagonists motivations are that theyre bit players who are doing what theyre doing so that other characters can save the world later (in spectacularly shitty fashion). I almost forgot how bitter I still am about the main show.

That montage at the end was really fucking good but I feel like it should have led to a solid final scene. Idk weird choice. Probably the best episode of the season but the rest of the season was really hit or miss for me.

I like to wager Alicent being completely okay with executing her son (her now crippled son that she fought tooth and nail to sit on the throne after manipulating him his whole life about what a monster his Half-Sister is) so she can girlboss with Rhaenerya and Mysaria is definitely weird

Season sucked, too many dragons, not enough politics.

Season sucked, too many dragons, not enough politics.

That...is a joke right?

Literally get blue balled till 2026 this season was filler come on give us something dont even get to see the town burned sheesh all that prelude for what

Quorthon109 posted...

Pretty much echoing the same, the episode was fine but not a great way to end the season.

There was one thing that I absolutely hated though, and it was Daemons vision. Why show Dany? Did he misinterpret it and think it was Rhaenyra? I wish theyd cool it with the prophecy shit and stop reminding us that our protagonists motivations are that theyre bit players who are doing what theyre doing so that other characters can save the world later (in spectacularly shitty fashion). I almost forgot how bitter I still am about the main show.

Yeah. It's hard to care about this cast of characters when the show keeps hitting you over the head with how this is all just setting the stage for GoT.

And how weird is it that Tyland Lannister got like 3 scenes in the finale when he's had maybe 8 words of dialogue all season. Cut the mud wrestling and at least show us Sheepstealer getting claimed. No reason to end that bit on a cliffhanger.

In a nutshell, the episode does a great job setting up events.

but its terrible for a season finale.

season 3 is presumably the final season? I expect 8 episodes of warfare at this point.

Alicent allowing them to walk in and take the throne seems like a big departure from the book.

https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Fall_of_King%27s_Landing

chrono625 posted...

In a nutshell, the episode does a great job setting up events.

but its terrible for a season finale.

season 3 is presumably the final season? I expect 8 episodes of warfare at this point.

They are going back and forth with GRRM on whether it should be 3 or 4. But if they take two years to produce every season it might make sense to be 3. But then that's a lot of stuff to cram into one season unless they completely get rid of the betrayer storyline.

Sonixs posted...

Alicent allowing them to walk in and take the throne seems like a big departure from the book.

https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Fall_of_King%27s_Landing

makes me believe its a trap tbh.

Whelp, I was trying to defend this season but out of the 8 episodes we've gotten, only about 2 or 3 have been good. The rest has been literal filler.

The season finale was weaker than any of the GoT ones in my opinion.

It really feels like an episode 8 of a 10 episode season but that's not what we're getting, due to Zaslav and pure unfettered capitalism.

I wouldn't even say the episode was "bad" just that it had no place being a season finale.

NOTHING HAPPENS!!!!

Season "finale"

This feels like the episode before the finale

chrono625 posted...

In a nutshell, the episode does a great job setting up events.

but its terrible for a season finale.

season 3 is presumably the final season? I expect 8 episodes of warfare at this point.

There are too many events that need to happen to cram in to 8-10 episodes of a single season. It needs to be 2 seasons unless they drop some important storylines and battles for the dragonseeds which would be a major screw up.

Sonixs posted...

Alicent allowing them to walk in and take the throne seems like a big departure from the book.

I typed out an entire rant about Alicent but decided to trash it

Season 2 wasn't kind to her

The pacing of Season 2 was horrible.

The most impactful stuff happened in the first 4 episodes. The last 4 episodes was setting up for season 3.

shit feels exactly like season 4 of the boys just filler to get to the next season

ReiRei89 posted...

There are too many events that need to happen to cram in to 8-10 episodes of a single season. It needs to be 2 seasons unless they drop some important storylines and battles for the dragonseeds which would be a major screw up.

That's no excuse, when there is so much nothing happening in season 2.

Again the first half of season 2 we have some big things happening almost right on top of each other, but then we kind of don't have anything for 4 episode.

Here's a suggestion I would have made to help with the pacing, show Aemond's attack on Sharp Point. Based on the narrative of the show it's an event that happens in episode 8, it motivates Team Black to go all in on using the Dragonseeds. So why not show it?

Not saying they had to do that, I'm saying they choose to do pretty much nothing, and there were options.

I don't want to spoil it, but in the episode they repeatedly talk about an event that HAS TO HAPPEN within the first or second episode of season 3. Why not just end season 2 with this big event and then make season 3 dealing with the event aftermath (rather than repeatedly mentioning it's coming).

"But there wasn't time to do any of that"
Cut Daemon's dreams, cut Alicent swimming. There are so many scenes where next to nothing of consequence happens, they could have moved the Dragonseeds up more, to end the season on important events.

gaminggamer13 posted...

Huh, people didn't like the finale? Why not?

I read the books. Season 1 was slow enough. There was supposed to be a LOT of payoff this season. The entirety of the Viserys' death to the end of the Dance of the Dragons was like 5 hours on audiobook and they are stretching all of it thin. They are also kind of screwing themselves by writing Rhaenyra and Alicent to be more pacifistic.

Finale definitely blue balled us. I paused it at some point and was surprised to see there was only 10 mins left. All the Tyman.. Tyrod.. Tyland Lannister scenes should've been lifted to a different episode and replaced with something more significant.

Looks like they really banked on the dragonriders being chosen in Ep.7 as the big climactic event of the season. While those scenes were pretty spectacular, what ruined it for me was how super obvious it was who were going to be chosen. Out of the whole crowd of candidates, only two were introduced and named before that episode. With two dragons to be given... of course it was going to be Hugh and Ulf. It would've been more thrilling if they had set up a couple more potential candidates and then have Vermithor wreck them.

I liked the season overall though. I don't mind the slow pace as much as the rest of the internet seemingly does. At least it's not as disjointed as Season 1 with the time skips and actor swaps.

it feels like we need another 2 episodes or some thing that didnt feel like the end

Who's writing this shit?

What was the point of her calling Tyland Tywin? Is it seriously just because the names are similar and the show is breaking the fourth wall now?

alphagamble posted...

Who's writing this shit?

feels like the guys from game of thrones did but nope

I watched this not realizing it was the season finale.

SaikyoStyle posted...

I watched this not realizing it was the season finale.

same about an hour and 20 mins of not much

CADE_FOSTER posted...

it feels like we need another 2 episodes or some thing that didnt feel like the end

Yeah the more I think about the less it feels like a 'bad season finale' and more it feels like this was episode 8.... of a 10 episode season.

https://twitter.com/the_blueprint/status/1820516788444217627

i agree with this

https://tvline.com/news/house-of-the-dragon-ending-season-4-hbo-1235311849/

Season 4 will be it per show runners

They're clearly stretching this shit out Hobbit style.

Anyway, the finale was good. Not really as a finale, but as an episode. Had a lot of character development. It does kinda suck that this is leading up to something we won't get to see until 2026.

Interestingly enough I thought the first two episodes were super quick.

Like having Blood and Cheese happen in episode 1 and then Arryk and Erryk kill each other in episode 2. That felt rushed.