House of the Dragon abandons its source material in setup-heavy season 2 finale

We've come to the end of House of the Dragon season 2, and I feel a bit of a rant coming on. While the season finale, "The Queen Who Ever Was," is well-made and beautiful to look at, it has a couple of big problems, one structural and one thematic.

Let's start with the structure. This season of House of the Dragon has been dinged by many viewers as "slow." Although I've enjoyed it, I tend to agree. The first season ended with Rhaenyra Targaryen glaring vengefully into the camera after learning of the death of her son Luke. After that, we all thought season 2 would dive headlong into civil war, with both sides doing whatever they could to get or keep the Iron Throne. Instead, Rhaenyra spent the first few episodes assiduously trying to avoid war; the one big clash we got to see, the Battle of Rook's Rest, happened despite her best efforts, with Rhaenyra only giving Rhaenys Targaryen leave to fly her dragon Meleys into battle after exhausting all other options.

I understand that the show is trying to draw Rhaenyra and other characters as not wanting to shed blood needlessly, but it means the season lacks propulsion; the plot inches forward despite the characters' attempts to stop it, rather than them being the driving force that moves it along. And now, the second season ends once again with the promise of war on the horizon. The Lannister, Stark and Tully armies are assembled in the Riverlands, but they do not meet. The Hightower army is marching in the Riverlands, but we do not see them engage their enemy. The Triarchy fleet sails out from Essos, but they have yet to menace the Velaryon fleet blockading King's Landing. The Battle of Rooks Rest remains the only time this season we saw these two sides clash in a way that hit home, and it's hard not to feel like the show has strung us along, promising excitement and payoff but not delivering.

Honestly, it almost feels like the finale is trolling us with how many things it sets up but doesn't pay off. Rhaena Targaryen finds a dragon in the Vale, but we don't see what happens next. Otto Hightower, who's been dearly missed these past six episodes, shows up a prisoner in a cell, but we have no idea how he got there. According to Deadline, which is generally reliable when it comes to inside information on all things Hollywood, a "major battle" originally intended for season 2 was moved to season 3. If you're familiar with George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood, you know that there are some big clashes right around the corner, and while I can't confirm whether Deadline's reporting is accurate, it does feel like something is missing here at the end of the season. I think I'd be a lot happier if House of the Dragon sent us into the long wait for season 3 with another shock to the nervous system rather than more slow, deliberate buildup.

House of the Dragon review: Season 2 Episode 8, "The Queen Who Ever Was"

That's not to say there's nothing to enjoy in "The Queen Who Ever Was." I liked several of the individual scenes, even if I wanted them to add up to more. My favorite moment was Criston Cole's speech about how everyone in his army is marching towards "annihilation." Criston is a character I've sometimes had trouble understanding, but his detached fatalism made a lot of sense to me. "The dragons dance, and men are dust beneath their feet," he says. He isn't upset about his inevitable death; after a life of shame and confusion, he thinks it might even be "a relief." When he looked up at Gwayne and asked if he agreed, I got chills.

This speech resonated with the bigger themes of the show and made me look at Criston in a new way. I also thought the show's Shakespearean-esque dialoge fit really well here, whereas at other times I wish the characters would just speak in plain English.

I also enjoyed Alyn of Hull confronting his father Colys Velaryon, who after years of acting like Alyn and his brother Addam didn't exist is now finally treating them more like sons. I get down on the show for taking forever to set things up, and I do think we spent a few too many scenes this season on this dock in Driftmark watching Alyn be curt and silent. However, it was satisfying to see him finally let loose, to uncork the emotions he bottles up and dump them out on his deadbeat dad's head.

On Dragonstone, the newly minted peasant dragonriders are causing all kinds of merry chaos, particularly Ulf White, who has let power go straight to his head, and this after cravenly trying to dodge the Sowing of the Seeds last week. Generally speaking, the characters on House of the Dragon are glum and stern, so having an excitable blowhard like Ulf around does wonders for the energy in the room. Putting him next to the scandalized Jace, who we know has a problem with Targaryen bastards being raised to his station, is instantly hilarious. Ulf is trouble, but he's entertaining trouble.

Staying on the lighter side of things, I enjoyed Tyland Lannister's trip to Essos to treat with the Triarchy. To gain the allegiance of Admiral Sharako Lohar (played by Abigail Thorn, who does a nice job; I've watched Thorn's YouTube videos for years so seeing her in a new context felt weird for a minute, like seeing your teacher at the grocery store), Tyland must best them in a mud wrestling contest, an absurd detail from Fire & Blood I'm happy the show kept in. It's just silly and off-the-wall enough to work. Tyland's scenes go on a little long, but they effectively break up the portentous gloom hanging over Westeros.

Alicent's sacrifice

So all of these scenes are good, but none of them add up to a climax of the kind you'd expect from a season finale to a war drama. Instead, the episode gives us a long conversation between two key characters that I have some major issues wish. Begin whinging.

The trouble begins when Aemond, the prince regent, hops on his dragon Vhagar and burns the town of Sharp Point. From Martin's books, we know that Sharp Point owes allegiance to Dragonstone, which probably means it's loyal to Rhaenyra, something I wish the show had mentioned. Aemond burns the town in anger after learning that Rhaenyra has recruited three new dragonriders, which I can buy. But there's a sense the show is having Aemond take this drastic action mostly so it can push other characters towards emotional breaking points. Without more context, the turn feels a tad forced. Get used to that.

Aemond also wants his sister Helaena to ride her dragon Dreamfyre into battle, even though she is a gentle soul and has no taste for riding. In Fire & Blood, it's said that Helaena enjoyed riding Dreamfyre often before the murder of her son Jaehaerys, after which she never took to the sky again. This nuance is ignored on the show, for whatever reason. Get used to that.

On a slight tangent, I've been surprised how little screentime Helaena has gotten this season. How is she grappling emotionally with the death of her son? How has it affected her relationship with her daughter? You'd figure those would be interesting topics to explore, but I guess not.

Anyway, all of this drives Rhaenyra to enlist Archmaester Orwyle's help in sneaking from King's Landing to Dragonstone. This season has featured a lot of characters traveling between these two locations, even though they're at war and there's a blockade in effect. It's long past started to feel ridiculous. This episode even draws attention to the absurdity by showing Aemond forbidding anyone from leaving the city by boat, but Alicent manages.

So already this all feels kinda contrived to me, but let's push past it. Alicent makes it to Dragonstone and gets an audience with Rhaenyra. She apologizes for her behavior, not only her part in starting the war after she misinterpreted King Viserys' dying words, but also how she tried to sabotage Rhaenyra at court for years before that. She explains her actions, saying she wore her piety and chastity as a banner but was actually envious of Rhaenyra's seeming freedom, recapping their dynamic from season 1.

Having realized this about herself, Alicent feels free to do what she really wants: to put Rhaenyra on the Iron Throne. She invites Rhaenyra to invade King's Landing. With Aegon laid up and Aemond traveling to Harrenhal to confront Daemon, Helaena will have dominion over the city, and Alicent will see to it that the guards offer resistance. With Rhaenyra on the throne, Alicent hopes, the war will end. Basically, it sounds like Alicent will do what Daemon does in the book; in Fire & Blood, the gold cloaks are still loyal to him and rally to his side, allowing Rhaenyra to take the city bloodlessly. The show is very invested in giving Alicent a story, so it gives this job to her.

The rub is that Rhaenyra is convinced that she will have to behead Aegon in order for her rule to be legitimate. Although it's very hard for her to sacrifice her son, Alicent agrees to let Rhenyra execute him once she takes the city. The episode ends with her staring at the horizon, on her way back to the city to make good on her promise.

Points of view

My first and smallest issue with this is that Alicent's plan doesn't seem to make much sense. Rhaenyra isn't on the Iron Throne right now and yet the war is raging. So why would that change if she's in King's Landing and her rival is ruling in abstentia instead of her? Even if Rhaenyra executes Aegon, his claim would pass to Aemond, who remains at large on top of a very big dragon.

But this is a desperate move on Alicent's part, so maybe it doesn't need to make perfect sense. My bigger objection is that the scene is framed in a way that flattens the story. One of the best things about George R.R. Martin's work is that everyone, even the people who commit heinous acts, is a hero in their own head. That might be why so many of Martin's characters form his Song of Ice and Fire series have become iconic, because he tells their stories without judging them. Think back to the competing factions on Game of Thrones. You had people rooting for Jon Snow, people rooting for Robb Stark, rooting for Daenerys Targaryen, rooting for Stannis Baratheon. Even Cersei Lannister, who did terrible things in pursuit of power, had people in her corner. Conflict often boiled down to a matter of perspective rather than right vs wrong.

House of the Dragon, on the other hand, has chosen a side. At one point in their conversation, Rhaenyra tells Alicent that history will paint her as "a villain," which I took as an allusion to how she's drawn in Fire & Blood, which is written as a kind of fake history textbook compiled years after the fact. But I never saw book-Alicent as a villain. I saw her as someone with needs, wants and wishes that conflicted with those of Rhaenyra, and so they were at odds. It wasn't about one being right and other wrong; they were both trapped in their own perspectives, which I think is true to how conflict works in real life.

But on House of the Dragon, Alicent repents of her behavior. She thinks Rhaenyra will make the better ruler, and her belief is so strong that she's willing to sacrifice her invalid son's life. Rhaenyra frames this as a fair trade, "a son for a son." No one mentions that Alicent's own grandson was murdered on the orders of Rhaenyra's husband Daemon earlier this season. Daemon is still an important part of Rhaenyra's operation. This violent man will be close to power under her regime, but Alicent is apparently willing to overlook this.

Rhaenyra is fighting this war in large part because her father told her about Aegon the Conqueror's dream: that a Targaryen must be in charge of the Seven Kingdoms if humanity is to avert disaster. This makes sense in Rhaenyra's head — the show has done a good job of selling it to us — but why should it make sense to people looking from the outside in? Alicent has a few hints about the prophecy; might it not look like the ravings of a religious zealot with a messiah complex? These kinds of competing perspectives are a bit part of what makes Martin's work so rich, but House of the Dragon ignores them in its rush to depict Rhaenyra as just and fair and good and right and everyone who stands against her as corrupted and short-sighted and manipulated and wrong.

Alicent stood against Rhaenyra for years, but the second season has been about "correcting" her perspective. Something very similar has happened with Daemon, who at one point was trying to raise an army and take King's Landing for himself. But he's been doing a lot of thinking at Harrenhal, helped along by spooky visions of people from his past. In this episode he has a vision of Rhaenyra sitting the Iron Throne bathed in a heavenly glow, which is the final push he needs to recommit himself to her and her cause. Once again, someone who may have had a potential conflict with Rhaenyra is "corrected," literally seeing the light.

This feels like right-vs-wrong binary storytelling to me, which I find much less engaging, and true-to-life than a story about people with different perspectives coming into conflict with one another. That's probably why my favorite character all season has been Aegon Targaryen, who has done terrible things but who is also earnestly trying to prove himself as a warrior and leader. He's a bad son, husband, brother, and father, but he's in earnest pain, emotionally over losing his son and literally since the Battle of Rook's Rest. There's light and dark warring in him, whereas a lot of other main characters are treated like converts or heretics.

Speaking of Aegon, he flees King's Landing with Larys Strong in this episode, the better to side-step Aemond's fratricidal wrath and hopefully return later after the war is done when he can restart things as Aegon the Rebuilder. So that means that in addition to being very wonky thematically, Alicent's promise to sacrifice Aegon has no dramatic tension, since we already know she can't make good on it. I swear, sometimes I think this show goes out of its way to make sure there's as little conflict as possible. I don't think that's a good thing for a drama.

Having read and loved Fire & Blood, it's impossible for me to be objective about this, and I'm curious to hear if the twists and turns in this episode worked for people who haven't read the book. This episode unsettled me, and I'm nervous about where the show goes from here.

House of the Bullet Points

• I liked the scene where Daemon recommitted himself to Rhaenyra, because who wouldn't enjoy Matt Smith giving a rousing speech to his army and pumping his fist in the air crying "War! War!" And it was nice to see him and Rhaenyra reconcile. But I think the show cheated by giving him that vision, which included little snippets of stuff from Game of Thrones as well as a glimpse of Rhaenyra on the Iron Throne. He's basically been divinely inspired by something outside the story, rather than motivated by something within himself.
• At one point in Daemon's vision, Helaena shows up and tells him that he has a "role" to play. In another scene, she tells Aemond his future, essentially spoiling his death scene from Fire & Blood. House of the Dragon has been criticized for taking away characters' agency (for example, last season, Aemond's dragon Vhagar chomped Luke of its own accord rather than on Aemond's command). I saw this as an extension of that. Daemon and Aemond are mae out to be cogs in a machine rather than autonomous individuals carving their own destiny. I don't like this angle. Too often, House of the Dragon seems less a story about people doing things and more one about things being done to them. Once again, this isn't a good thing for a drama series, and it's out of step with George R.R. Martin's conviction that history (or at least fiction inspired by history) is moved forward by "great" men and women, rather than systems or patterns.

Episode Grade: C-

Episode List:

• Episode 201, "A Son for a Son"
• Episode 202, "Rhaenyra the Cruel"
• Episode 203, "The Burning Mill"
• Episode 204, "The Red Dragon and the Gold"
• Episode 205, "Regent"
• Episode 206, "Smallfolk"
• Episode 207, "The Red Sowing"
• Episode 208, "The Queen Who Ever Was"

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