Did the House Of The Dragon season finale deliver?

As I’m sure you know, we’re saying goodbye to it (for the time being). house of the dragon Last night with the ending of the first season”The Black Queen.” The action-packed episode that confronted Rhaenyra with many tragedies was one a lot of to take over and to prepare a certainly very bloody second season. Now that we’ve had a moment to think, let’s address how well it went, just like we did with ours Mid-term report on the game of Thrones precursorsounding out about what annoyed us, what excited us, and any other lingering thoughts we have about the show.

What did you think of the house of the dragon season finale?

Saloni Gajjar: At the risk of being downright annoying, the book just keeps getting better. Fire & Blood has its issues, but at least it made clear the evil and ambitious motivations of its characters. house of the dragon somehow failed in this regard. As much as I enjoyed revisiting Westeros and the political mind games that followed, I’m not convinced by the intensity. Major plot points were turned into “coincidences” such as Alicent misunderstanding Viserys on his deathbed or Aemond fighting Lucerys in the finale, the latter only dying at the hands of an uncontrolled dragon. Apart from Daemon and Otto – two men who would never take the throne in the first place – no one has shown any real interest in possessing the power. I’m all for changing the narration for a TV adaptation, but HEAT didn’t deserve these moments. The pace was either too hasty or too slow.

The final had the same problems. I appreciate that Rhaenyra has finally shown an interest in ruling beyond “it is my duty” – she lost her father, her kingdom, her newborn and her second son in quick succession, so revenge is her driving force now . But the show suffered from not dwelling on it anymore. “The Black Queen” was a pretty good season 1 ending, and I know I’ll be seated for the next round whenever it arrives, but I hope the writers dig deeper into the characters. The final shot of Rhaenrya promises that, so we’ll see. I admit: the recording of Vhagar crushing Arrax in half was pretty damn cool. Emma D’Arcy’s performance also made the whole lesson worthwhile.

Sam Barsanti: game of Thrones taught us that whoever deserves to be king is whoever has the best story, and while that was and still is utterly silly, Tyrion Lannister would appreciate the fact that Westeros is now going to war (via a century before he’s born) with such clear lines between who has the good story and who has the bad story. On the one hand we have Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen, first of her name etc. etc., the rightful heir to the Iron Throne and the only one who knows of the prophecy that we all know will eventually (to some degree) will fulfil. On the other hand, we have Alicent and her stupid family of idiots who have upended any sense of honor and justice in Westeros over a misunderstanding as stupid as anything that happened in the last episode of game of Thrones.

What I say is half of house of the dragon has a story that i like and invested in because rhaenyra is cool and because we will always stand up for the eleventh doctor in my house and the other half house of the dragon has characters that don’t interest me and writes that I find silly and contrived. So I think it’s good that this finale was all about Rhaenyra ruling in a way only she can and I hope she’s able to quickly destroy any parts of the show that I don’t likes – which in turn Alicent and her stupid family are idiots.

Tim Lowery: I’m sure I’m the billionth person to say this, but doesn’t every episode of this show feel like a TV season? As Jenna Scherer put it so beautifully to herself Review of the final, HEAT pack up so much action in such a short time. Now it can be exciting, for sure. That dragon hunt at the end of The Black Queen, like many of the endings of many episodes this season, was very much indeed. When you watch it, you realize that there is nothing quite like it on television. but (and to quote Pee-wee, that’s a big but) The show has yet to pull me in — and I think that has a lot to do with how many dramatic beats this show plowed through in just one episode. When characters eat it in a dramatic way, it’s hard to feel anything since we (mostly) hardly know them or their motivations. Also so well acted (and the show really is) and gorgeous HEAT is to look at, the finale was particularly guilty large dramatic scores and line deliverys for great dramatic moments, a move that I, as a spectator, find scratchy. so please house of the dragonslow down next time.

Drew Gillis: In hindsight, I’m a little embarrassed that I was so caught off guard by Luke’s death at the end of the episode. As Jenna Scherer points out in her synopsis, the preceding scene of Rhaenyra wishing him well certainly telegraphed it. I even sat there and thought, “Wow, it seems like these characters have had a lot of plot armor lately!” Boy was I glad I was wrong and I never wanted to see the next episode of house of the dragon more than this morning.

If I have one gripe, it’s that I really can’t stand Aemond as a character. I get that he’s meant to be hateful, but he’s one dimensional at this point in a way other hateful characters Alicent and Daemon aren’t. He’s looking for blood for losing his eye, but he lost his eye for stealing his dead aunt’s kite and being a world-class asshole in general. The look on his face in his final scene of the episode where he accidentally kills his cousin when he was just out to terrorize him and realizes he actually stepped inside suggests we can see something of a depth of it resembles season two. Here is hope.

Cindy White: Have read Fire & Blood, I knew what was coming at the end of this episode and I braced myself for a hard hit. However, it didn’t hit the way I expected. If we had spent more time with Prince Lucerys and his dragon this season I think it would have been devastating, but as exciting as that mid-air dragon fight was and as shocking as it was to see Luke being devoured by Vhagar, I didn’t have enough emotional connection with him to care that much. I felt for Rhaenyra, thanks to Emma D’Arcy’s moving performance and the realization that they basically put two of their kids in the fridge in one episode. That didn’t cross my mind when I read the book, so I can say that the series makes me think about these characters in new ways. Maybe next season they’ll convince me to care more about the next generation.

This lack of connection is emblematic of a problem house of the dragon has had all season. The many time jumps didn’t let us live with the characters long enough before they catapulted us into the future where we had to catch up again. Looking back over the entire first season, I think I can now understand why they did it. It feels like they had that end point in mind from the start and worked backwards to reach it by Episode 10. The pacing issues and narrow focus on a handful of locations and characters (as opposed to the larger scope of game of Thrones) comes down to a unique journey to the first major event of the Civil War – Aemond kills Luke. Things are in full swing now, but I’m not sure it was worth sacrificing what we lost in those skipped years.