New House of the Dragon book explains why season 2's ending felt so anticlimactic

The second season of House of the Dragon had some very nice points, most notably the spectacular Battle of Rook's Rest, but the ending left a lot of people puzzled. Rather than ramping up to some big climax, as did the first season of House of the Dragon as well as every season of predecessor show Game of Thrones, the second season of House of the Dragon ended with a montage teasing conflicts yet to come. Daemon Targaryen has raised an army in the Riverlands at the same time as the Lannisters and Criston Cole are marching on his location. The Triarchy fleet is sailing to Westeros to attack Rhaenyra Targaryen's forces, but they don't get there. The newly minted Dragonseeds put on their armor but don't take flight, and so on.

It felt like something was missing, and a lot of fans seemed to agree, since the season 2 finale is one of the lowest-rated episodes of the series so far. Even the producers have hinted that something was amiss. When producer Sara Hess was asked why the second season of House of the Dragon only had eight episodes after the first had 10, she answered, "It wasn't really our choice."

If you've read George R.R. Martin book Fire & Blood, the source material for House of the Dragon, you might have expected season 2 to climax with the Battle of the Gullet, a naval conflict featuring the death of a major character. Now that would have given the ending some punch. And apparently that was originally the plan. We're getting more insight into what happened thanks to House of the Dragon: Dawn of the Targaryen Civil War, a new coffee table book all about the making of House of the Dragon season 2. Author Gina McIntyre had access to the cast and crew. About the anticlimactic season finale, she writes:

"[Showrunner Ryan] Condal, Hess, and the other writers outlined a ten-episode season culminating in a deadly naval confrontation from Fire & Blood known as the Battle of the Gullet. However, it soon became clear that the ambitious narrative taking shape on paper would necessitate an extended production schedule. Embarking on another ten-month shoot would have had a knock-on effect, pushing back the release of House of the Dragon's second season until 2025, a prospect that gave everyone pause."

A big thanks to Redditor jonsnowKITN for posting this excerpt.

Hindsight is 20/20 — I don't want to claim that I wouldn't have looked at the facts available at the time and come to the same decision — but looking back, I wish they had just extended the shoot and premiered the second season of House of the Dragon in 2025, complete with the Battle of the Gullet on the end of it. Yes, then I would be complaining about how long we have to wait between new seasons of these big tentpole shows, but if the choice is between that or a season that feels like an incomplete let-down, it's the lesser of two evils.

Of course, I also wish they could make seasons of these shows more quickly. According to the best information we have, the third season of House of the Dragon will start filming in March of next year, which will put it on track for a 2026 release. It's hard not to wonder why filming doesn't get started earlier. Why didn't HBO renew the show until after the second season had started? After new seasons of Game of Thrones came out one per year for the bulk of its run, it's frustrating to endure these long gaps between releases.

Maybe there's a way to have our cake and eat it too. Maybe the producers behind House of the Dragon should save their budget for the big spectacular battles and scrimp on other incidental dragon shots. Also, it's possible that the writers strike of 2023 contributed to scheduling difficulties. It sounds like seasons 3 and 4 of House of the Dragon are being contemplated as a unit, so hopefully the producers can plan ahead more and use their time and resources more efficiently.

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