If there is anything that can divide the House of the Dragon fandom more than whether someone is team Green or team Black, it is their reception of the second season of the show. Or, more specifically, the season finale that seems to have disappointed many viewers across the world, especially those who have read “Fire & Blood,” the George R. R. Martin book it is based on. Admittedly, after an incredibly successful first season, House of the Dragon season 2 had a lot to prove to its audience. But is season 2 truly disappointing? Or are the fans sometimes the biggest haters of a show they claim to love?
House of the Dragon season 2 starts where season 1 left off. As Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) mourns the loss of her son, team Black is ready to defend her claim to the throne with Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), the King Consort, attempting to claim the Stepstones in her name. At the same time, in King’s Landing, team Green is also getting ready to fight: King Aegon Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) is now sitting on the throne with the help of his mother the Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), much to the dismay of his brother, Prince Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell).
Needless to say, Season 2 of House of the Dragon is particularly impressive in its visual aspects. While easy to find oneself wanting for a map of Westeros on hand in order to follow the political discussions, the show does a tremendous job of presenting every different city and land of the Seven Kingdoms on screen in a unique and different way. The same can be said for the dragons. Every single time a dragon enters a scene, audience members will be able to tell which exactly it is, as the special effects manage to create a distinctive look for each creature. This becomes particularly important in season 2 as we start seeing dragons together on the screen, fighting each other in tense and incredibly well-executed battles.
Much like in season 1, House of the Dragon is at its best when it shows us the juxtaposition between Team Green and Team Black. Namely, that means between Alicent and Rhaenyra, a leitmotif that the show clearly carries over from season 1 — the two women can be seen as opposite sides of the same coin. Alicent and Rheanyra are both bound by duty, and both oppressed by a clear misogyny in Westeros and a disturbing gender imbalance that sees them as less capable rulers only because they are women. While all the acting is impressive in the show, Emma D’Arcy is, in particular, the star that shines the brightest in their touching and human portrayal of Rhaenyra Targaryen. If season 1 had proven to all those who doubted them that D’Arcy is the perfect actor to portray Rhaenyra, season 2 shows viewers what a brilliant performer they are. The internal conflict shared among characters spread far and wide in Westeros is one of the most successful parts of the whole season as it allows every scene to have very high stakes despite not necessarily showing the bigger conflict between the rival teams on opposite sides of the war.
The pacing of House of the Dragon is admittedly quite odd, with overly long episodes filled with seemingly irrelevant moments. In its second season, the show would have benefitted from a tighter focus on its already established protagonists instead of bringing in so many secondary plots and side characters that end up being barely explored across the eight episodes. Eventually, most of these additional interactions are justified over the course of the season, like showing the smallfolk’s discontent in King’s Landing, which may have seemed unimportant at first but becomes pivotal to the conflict. However, no matter how justified they are, these instances still end up hurting the overall rhythm of the show, which ends up feeling too long for a season 2 that only showed us one actual battle.
Ultimately, season 2 feels incredibly underwhelming, especially in its last few episodes. With a season finale that does not quite deliver, much of House of the Dragon felt like a promo for its next season. When season 1 ended, many of the viewers were under the impression that, after witnessing the growing conflict for the throne, the next season of the show would finally show us what it had promised to do all along: the civil war and, inevitably, the fall of House Targaryen that came with it. However, the second season of the series seems once again introductory as each side gets ready for the war, but isn’t this what season 1 was all about?
Despite what increasingly feels like a disappointing conclusion, excitement for future seasons of House of the Dragon remains. Season 3 of House of the Dragon has already been confirmed, but filming will only begin in early 2025, which means audiences may have to wait another two years to see what fate awaits Rhaenyra Targaryen, Alicent Hightower, and all the characters we know, hate, and love. And, this time, hopefully, witness the famous Dance of the Dragons that fans of the show have been waiting for since the very beginning of the series.
