Well, that finale. Wow. And not wow in a particularly great way. Anyway, I’m going try and provide a review of the series with zero spoilers, so brace yourselves. A chunk of narrative incoherence is coming.
If you remember the brilliant ending shot of Rhaenyra’s pissed facial expression last season, then you’ll know that excrement of a distinctly brown tinge is about to hit the fan. The season opener addressed that issue right away, even though things don’t quite go to plan. Nonetheless, it’s a great way to remind us of the sheer brutality that still carries the legacy of Game of Thrones, even if the murder here takes place off screen.
For the rest of series, however, the directors keep the pace fairly slow. The battle between House Black and House Green rages on, but they don’t exactly advance the story as much as they could within the realm of eight episodes. Aegon is still a bit of an ass, Criston Cole remains a twat, and Rhaenys continues to be a boss. There’s not a whole lot of character development in places, but sometimes that works. After all, you need twats like Criston Cole to make you angry and focus your attention. The actor playing Daemon is still Matt Smith despite Rhaenera’s character switching actors back in the first season to reflect aging, but hey, I guess Smith has more star power at the end of the day. And he is a really awesome Daemon, easily one of the best characters in the show. After a fairly physical role in the first season, it’s interesting to see him go down a much more introspective path as he is plagued with hallucinations and visions from past and future. And there’s a nice little Game of Thrones easter egg (easter egg, not dragon egg) in the finale for fans to enjoy.
But, let’s talk about that finale. In a non-spoilery way, of course. There were so many big events set up to happen that could have happened, and could have made for a far more impactful finish. I’ve read pretty much all the material which House of the Dragon was based on, and heck, they could’ve squeezed in so much more. I do appreciate the slow pacing, especially in respect to the time lapsing chicanery that was Game of Thrones‘ notorious final season. But still. Yes, I loved the interaction between certain key characters at the end, but things like that could have been set aside. Y’know, you could’ve finished off with that epic dragon finale between [insert name] and [insert name] or even left that fight on a tense cliffhanger.
Even if you didn’t do that, you could’ve at least ended on the scene in [location name] where [insert name] gets absolutely whacked into oblivion. You could’ve thrown us that bone. It would’ve been nice. I get it, Game of Thrones has never been nice, but, come on, something at least, eh? We’ve now got a minimum two year wait until season 3, maybe more. Then again, in reference to the material at hand, there’s not much more ground they can cover. About two more seasons, at most? But then again, don’t underestimate the greed for jumping the shark to make some more sweet, sweet money. Anyway, we’ll see how that unfolds.
But hey, at least we have the A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms series coming up next year, right? Created by George Martin. Hooray. And guess what? He was recently generous enough to release not three, not four, but five…NEW COVERS FOR THE SONG OF ICE AND FIRE SERIES. As Sesame Street’s Count might exclaim, WHAT JOY. It’d be lovely if Martin could get round to releasing a um, certain other book soon though. That’d be really nice indeed.