Was House of the Dragon Season 2 Really That Bad?
Please note this was originally posted on Substack.
There have been plenty of grumbles about this season. I’m not going to pretend like I don’t get why people are complaining. I am big enough to admit that purely from an entertainment perspective, this season really wasn’t as good as it could have been. It is not helped by the fact season 1 had the opposite problem.
Season 1 involved a lot of time jumps and skips. It’s not too surprising they had to do that. If things were done more real time, it would take four seasons before we actually get to the Dance of the Dragons. Season 1 was meant to be the setup and full exposition to explain the Dance.
Season 2 is the actual Dance, but people aren’t overly satisfied with what was done. I think House of the Dragon also suffers from comparisons to Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones kept bouncing between different storylines that would converge and diverge through the 8 seasons. We got to watch scheming among the many families and factions. This is a contrast to House of the Dragon where there are just the two factions with many neutrals, who gradually pick a side.
However I feel like the audience doesn’t really notice that we do get different storylines in the season. We’re just not getting what we’re used to. What I do think the show suffers from is the lack of battles. And I’m not saying that in the same way most other people do.
Most people want to see battles because they want action, blood, death, and emotional turmoil. To some degree I think it makes sense for a show like this to have that too. I think the lack of battles on screen doesn’t fully make the stakes big enough. Also it doesn’t seem like a big deal that the Brackens and Blackwoods are squabbling because we didn’t see it on screen. We also don’t see Aemond attacking Sharp Point. Criston’s attack on Duskendale was also only briefly covered. We only see the death of Lord Darklyn. What we have yet to see in this show is the aftermath of the battles.
The closest we get is we see the citizens of King’s Landing not getting enough food due to the blockade. I think what we’re missing is something that was literally brought up before the battle of Rook’s Rest. We’re missing the consequences to the common people. This is something that added a perspective to the war in the ASOIAF novels. Arya’s wanderings is about the consequences to the common people when the Westerosi 1% have their squabbles and power plays. We get this magnified when dragons are in play.
The hellscape of a battlefield with Rook’s Rest touches on this. So was Criston Cole’s scene in “The Queen Who Ever Was.” I hope we do get more “smallfolk” perspectives in Season 3 and 4.
Otherwise? I don’t think Season 2 is that bad either. I think the angry section of the audience forget that this isn’t just a war. There’s a lot of political battles, tactics, and talking that happens. It’s not just action.