There is no new episode of House of the Dragon season 2 tonight

The second season of House of the Dragon concluded a week ago with "The Queen Who Ever Was," an episode that surprised a lot of fans by leaving a lot of plotlines unresolved. Obviously we know this is an ongoing story, but the number of threads left dangling seemed extreme. The episode ends with a number of armies on the move in the Riverlands. We don't see them meet. Another army is marching in the Reach, but we don't see it engage the enemy. The Triarchy fleet is on its way to Westeros to ravage the Velaryon fleet, but we don't see it happen. Otto Hightower, who'd been absent for most of the season, turns up in a cage. We don't know where or why. Rhaena Targaryen finally found a dragon she'd been looking for in the Vale, but we don't know if she claims it or it eats her.

You're supposed to always leave them wanting more, sure, but generally you also give them something so they know what to want more of. The season 2 finale seemed like a lot of buildup for very little payoff. And now we have to wait until 2026 to see what happens next.

This is all to say that if you're planning to tune into HBO or Max tonight to see the conclusion of House of the Dragon season 2, don't bother; it's already concluded, if you can rightly call "The Queen Who Ever Was" a conclusion.

We've heard quite a bit of talk that there were originally a couple more episodes planned for this latest season of House of the Dragon but that they were moved back into the beginning of season 3. Why that happened is up for debate. It might be related to the budget, it might be because the writers thought that's what would be best for the story, or it might be a little bit of both. Whatever the reason, we'll be waiting a long while before we see any new episodes.

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