Look What They Did to My 'House of the Dragon' Season 2

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Yikes. Following the widely criticized ending of 'Game of Thrones' Season 8, one would expect them to make better decisions. To run down a series so hard becomes their specialty. Don't get me wrong, I didn't mind the final season and what happened with Daenerys and Jon Snow or the White Walkers as much as the general audience, but the outburst is still waving on the continuation slash prequel. After, I would say, a boring first season that my best friend couldn't finish and served only as a hook with some badass scenes promising what is coming next, to make the same mistakes is wild. Disney often takes hits because they hype the finale of their series, and then end with something like, 'This was crap, but look at what’s going to happen in the next season.' We end up waiting for two years to get a resolution that almost turns out the same way. So, I am calling out 'House of the Dragon' for the same mistakes because it will take another two years so we can get some dragon battles that were promised from the first season. Yet, we got a whole season that is actually a trailer to the third season, which will include the major battles from the book, or won't. Can we trust the showrunners to finish the job correctly after so many disappointments and their lower budget? 'The best is yet to come' is a terrible approach that should be forbidden after the DC drama with the Rock.

This final episode starts with a scene that I found myself fast-forwarding a couple of times because it looked out of place, comedic, with characters that I didn't care for or knew. It was interesting to see seeds of intellect growing in the Lannisters, but the mud fight and this new YouTuber slash Ed Sheeran moment is almost unwatchable. I saw Angry Joe's review, and they mentioned how the captain of the fleet Sharako Lohar, played by Abigail Thorn, says, "I sail only with people that best me," and they pointed out that in that logic the whole fleet actually beat her up to sail with her, which was hilarious. The writing here is a letdown, and they should have included a major battle at the end, giving us what we are looking for in the series called 'House of the Dragon.' Where are the dragons? The whole first season, we asked that question. With two exceptions, one of which was in the last episode, that was not completely satisfying, and the other in the fourth episode, where we had the chance to see one battle between three dragons, the show fails to deliver. The last episode though provided some new commands for my dog. From now on, I will use High Valyrian to call out my dog for a walk or to make him calm, just like Rhaenyra called out Vermithor in the cave. I am considering including 'dracarys' as a command of attack in case a murderer comes and decides to play in my 'House of Doggos.' I am the father of the dog, adopter of dogs, second of his name—you get my excitement. Back to the finale of the season, we saw Ser Otto Hightower. That's it. Prince Daemon did nothing this season except hallucinating in his haunted mansion, seeing some elk creature, and a trailer for 'Game of Thrones' with that horrible AI-generated White Walker. I saw a hilarious joke that this is a White Walker ordered from Temu. This joke is taking so many shapes right now, and I am loving it; you can basically call anything that looks bad ordered from that company.

This season had its moments but overall did something that could kill the franchise: it ended on a boring note. Two major VFX sequences are not enough for a show that is called 'House of the Dragon.' HBO has to do right by the third season, or the franchise is dead. Not to mention that in 2025 a new series 'A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms' is coming, and no one asked for it. And after this ending, the new show will be roasted unless, of course, it delivers something beyond and above, which from the small teaser I saw seems unlikely. I really want this franchise to succeed, but they are asking us to give so many hours for this. I am canceling my subscription as I write.

And to do this in a season where the major characters are women or LGBT+ is another blow that is not going unnoticed. With some exceptions, 'Last of Us' season 1, episode 3 being one of them, almost every time they put an LGBT+ character or a woman as a main character, the show fails to deliver. Sometimes it's due to the lust to appeal to a specific audience and sometimes due to bad writing. I love Rhaenyra and Emma D'Arcy, as well as her love interests in the show, but HBO is giving food to the vultures when they decide to save their budget and misfire on a major show.

Iliya Badev

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