Note: This story contains spoilers for House of the Dragon season two finale.
HBO cutting to black hasn’t annoyed this many TV fans since The Sopranos ended.
Season two of House of the Dragon led up to a great battle for control of Westeros — a war potentially fought on several fronts, with massive armies, impossibly high stakes, and fire-breathing dragons galore! And to see it, you’ll just have to wait a couple years for season three, since Sunday’s finale concluded moments before before the action was seemingly about to get underway (“When the most action in the season finale is mud wresting,” groused one viewer).
For fans (some the heated and varied reactions below), the finale felt a bit like deja vu. The first season finale ended with a sense of “okay, now it’s war!” The second season finale has now also ended with “okay, now it’s war!” HBO’s pre-season marketing issued dueling Green vs. Black trailers and a viral marketing stunt hanging the rival Targaryen banners at historic locations, teasing an epic civil war clash between a house divided befitting of a franchise known for its epic clashes.
But while the season’s fourth episode delivered a well-received action dragon-fighting action sequence, and there were other gripping moments of action here and there, this season Rhayerya (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) largely hung around their respective castles enduring small council meetings, while fan-favorite Daemon (Matt Smith) was shuttled off to Harrenhal to also hang out at a castle and have meetings — plus dreams and premonitions.
The Daemon move, in particular, perplexed fans this season, as it seemed more like something a show typically does with a well-worn character five seasons into a series with 20 episodes to fill rather than something a show does with an extremely popular character during its eight-episode second season.
At the same time, fans seemed to really like what they did get in the finale — particularly, a wonderfully tense face off between Rhayerya and Alicent (it’s really easy to sneak back and forth between these castles!), Daemon’s prophetic vision that included a glimpse of Daenerys Targaryen from the first show, the introduction of Abigail Thorn as Sharako Lohar, and composer Ramin Djawadi’s score. “Simply too much good shit in the #HOTD finale for me to be anything but impressed,” as one viewer wrote below
Yet the fact that the season is only eight episodes is being particularly bitterly felt. The first season was 10 episodes. Deadline previously reported “a major battle” was moved from season two to season three. Showrunner Ryan Condal has previously said the shorter season was to give the season “a good opening and a good ending.” But writer-producer Sara Hess was also quoted in EW as saying the shorter season “wasn’t really our choice.” The season was shot during the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike, having earned an exemption as many of the actors fell under Equity union and not SAG, but that was after the season’s scripts had been completed. HBO has previously claimed the episode change was “story driven” and not the result of the extensive cost cutting that’s been seen under Warner Bros. Discovery leadership change. Fair or not, it almost feels as if “shrinkflation” — which has impacted everything from the packaging of Oreos to Huggies — has come to streaming.
Below are some of the varied reactions to the finale:
