Warning: spoilers ahead for the House of the Dragon season 2 episode 8 finale.
The boss of House of the Dragon has defended the ending of its second season after mass fan disappointment over the finale.
Fans have been waiting for weeks to find out how season 2 of the Game of Thrones spin-off would end, expecting a big battle and a huge pay-off.
However, many have been left sorely disappointed – with episode 8 savagely lambasted as ‘one of the most underwhelming season finales ever’.
In the last instalment – before fans have to endure a potential two-year wait until the third season – Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) and Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) are finally reunited after his hallucinatory side-quest at the castle of Harrenhal.
Before they reconcile, Daemon has a vision about Aegon the Conqueror’s Song of Ice and Fire prophecy – where he sees his future descendant Daenerys Targaryen with her three baby dragons, in a callback to the first season of Game of Thrones.
While this brief glimpse of the Mother of Dragons was exciting, it was also frustrating, as it seemingly signalled that Dany was the ‘Princess that was Promised’… thus making the end of Game of Thrones, when Dany is killed and Bran Stark winds up on the Iron Throne, even more disheartening.
What’s more, House of the Dragon viewers were expecting the finale of the second season to feature an explosive clash between the Blacks and the Greens – but it didn’t happen.
On a positive note, Rhaenyra and Daemon’s reunion with the King Consort publicly declaring his allegiance to his Queen was electric, and the vision he experienced about the future including a glimpse of Dany was fascinating.
But there was still lots to be desired in the final instalment.
There was a confrontation between Rhaenyra and Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) at Dragonstone… which didn’t amount to much, except the latter claiming that she wants to avoid an all-out war despite starting it in the first place (good luck).
Elsewhere, Rhaenyra’s new dragonriders – all of whom have distant Targaryen ancestry in their blood – are living it up in their new esteemed roles, as her stepdaughter Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) attempts to find a wild dragon to claim as her own.
At King’s Landing, Prince Regent Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) demands that his sister Helaena (Phia Saban) ride into battle with them on her dragon despite her resistance to shed any blood, while the King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) secretly flees the city.
The episode then ends by showing the different noble Houses who will be marching into war, including the Starks and the Lannisters.
No battle in sight – and so our wait begins until we finally get to see the warring sides in action in the upcoming third season.
As soon as they watched the final episodes, numerous viewers voiced their huge disappointment over the unsatisfying last episode, following eight weeks of build-up.
‘Well that was the most underwhelming, slow paced, snooze fest of a season in all of the Game of Thrones franchise! Legit so disappointed!’ @MickLee93 wrote on X.
‘Did I just watch a 70 minute trailer for Season 3?’ @ASOIAFQuotesGOT quipped, while @yoyotrav stated: ‘Well, that was probably one of the most underwhelming season finales I’ve ever watched.’
Speaking in a press conference attended by Metro.co.uk after the finale aired, showrunner Ryan Condal explained why the episode was missing the huge battle that many fans had been expecting.
Referencing a future clash in the story called the Battle of the Gullet, the co-creator of the epic TV series shared: ‘We were trying to give the Gullet, which I would say is maybe the second most anticipated action event of Fire and Blood, trying to give it the time and the space that it deserves. Obviously as anybody that has seen the finale [can see], we are building to that.
‘That event will happen very shortly in terms of the storytelling of House of the Dragon. Based on what we know now, it should be the biggest thing to date that we’ve pulled off. We just wanted to have the time and the space to do that at a level that is going to excite and satisfy the fans in the way that’s deserved.’
Explaining how they were trying to ‘build anticipation’ leading up to the massive clash, he added: ‘I know everybody wants this to come out every summer, it’s just that the show is so complex that we’re really making multiple feature films every season.
‘So I apologise for the wait, but I will just say if Rook’s Rest and the Red Sowing are any indication, we’re going to pull off a hell of a win with the Battle of the Gullet in the future.’
Ryan outlined how House of the Dragon is ‘largely a metaphor for a nuclear conflict’, with season two showing the ‘arming of the sides and the Cold War, with moments of actual conflict and explosion’.
‘As always with this show, there’s gonna be giant moments of spectacle but also real moments of surprise and character nuance that we’re very much looking forward to,’ he stated.
‘Some of my favourite moments in the book, just as a reader, that I’m excited to adapt as a dramatist are yet to come in the story.’
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House of the Dragon is available to watch on Sky Atlantic and NOW.
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