House of the Dragon season 2 was a bitter disappointment with no payoff for patient fans

The second season of House the Dragon has ended, and one would be hard pressed to find a season finale as underwhelming as this one, especially considering the franchise. No one should be shocked, as the whole season was little more than Styrofoam peanuts and bubble wrap filler.

HBO puts so much stock into this series that they've been producing a making of series called The House That Dragons Built, with each episode taking 20 to 30 minutes looking at what went into the production of each episode. At first, these were fascinating, but after watching the plodding, pulse-strangling snore fest that was season 2, one wondered why they bothered. Does anyone really care that it took three tailors seven weeks to make this dress or that dress? Or that it took 10 people eight weeks to make this plaster statue or that one? Does anyone really care about all of the money they spent preparing this locale or that for shooting? They seem to be so focused on making everything look tremendous and authentic, which it does, but have forgotten to bring anything worthwhile to the screen.

It would be better to have saved money here and there on overall production and concentrated on moving the storylines forward in a significant way. The season finale felt like the eighth episode of a 10-episode season, which it SHOULD have been. Everyone sat through each episode in season 2, knowing there would be a payoff at the end. Unfortunately for all, there wasn't.

What went wrong with House of the Dragon season 2?

Outside of Episode 4, "The Red Dragon and the Gold," which featured our first big dragon-vs-dragon battle, the season was poorly paced and rather boring at times. It got bogged down with plotlines that went nowhere.

Daemon spent episodes 3 through 8 offstage, so to speak. Unfortunately, he really wasn't offstage, but stuck in Harranhal, experiencing dreams, visions, and hallucinations that were very un-Game of Thrones-like. Audiences had to suffer through these dull scenes episode after episode, only to have him figure out something everyone else already knew: that he had to accept Rhaenyra as the queen.

In the finale, actor Matt Smith had to perform a scene that must have given him deja vu: He had to prostrate himself before his queen, just like his character Phillip had to before Queen Elisabeth II in The Crown. It took Phillip only an episode or two compared to six for Daemon figure that out. Daemon was made out to be be this great unknown, this wild card. Was he going to fall in line behind his queen/wife/niece or try to take the crown for himself? After six mind-numbing episodes, he finally makes the right call, which made all of those awful scenes even more senseless. It was a waste of Smith's talent and the audience's time.

Few characters developed in season 2, other than secondary characters like Helaena, Lord Larys, Alyn and Addam of Hull, and Ulf White. Some characters actually took steps backward like Jace and Daemon. The biggest change was that Rhaenyra flashed a little of that Targaryen crazy and found more dragon-riders by sacrificing bastards of her own bloodline.

Many of the key younger characters have become more caricatures than anything else. Aegon is a spoiled, ill-mannered, childish brat as king, although at least that's consistent for him, and he may be changed after his injuries in battle. Aemond at times seems to be in full control, but when angered, he throws massive tantrums, like trying to kill his brother who made fun of him, or destroying a whole town of innocents because Rhaenrya increased her dragon power. Even the likeable Jace had fits and was portrayed as a whiny, pouting, sulking child at times. Only Baela seems to act like an adult among the younger generation.

At the end of Episode 6, they dropped a huge bomb when Rhaenyra shared an in-the-heat-of-the-moment kiss with her counselor Mysaria. The kiss was quickly interrupted, but it was never addressed in the following episodes. It's as if it never happened. If that was going to be the case, why bother with the scene?

There is nothing wrong with slow-burn plotlines. Story and character development are incredibly important; they are indeed the most important things. That said, for something like House of the Dragon, there needs to be more. There has to be some action that pushes the story along. The Battle of Rook's Rest did push things forward, but everyone expected some momentum to come from that, and it just never really happened. Aegon's immediate fate after the battle was quickly revealed, a predictable series of events followed, then...nothing. Only Rhaenyra finding her extra dragonriders moved the story along.

Audiences waited all season for things set in motion in the last few episodes of season 1 to unfold in a bigger way, but it just never materialized. There was no reward for having to endure all of the things that weren't great about season 2.

Showrunner Ryan Condal and company do not inspire confidence with this season. While the last two seasons of Game of Thrones weren't really as bad as some think, the last two episodes in that iconic series left a bad taste in a lot of mouths of a lot of fans. After some unevenness in season 1 of this series — dim lighting, sped-up timelines — season 2 hasn't convinced me that this producing team is up to the task of delivering a satisfying continuation of this particular story.

Now fans must wait at least two years for the story to unfold in season 3. Or, maybe by then, fans will have moved on to something more rewarding.

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