The new season of House of the Dragon (HOTD) was sufficiently lackluster, characterized by shallow dialogue, and cringe-worthy, arbitrary scenes.
As I sat down to watch season two, episode five of HOTD, I was horrified by Daemon Targaryen’s line: “The bats have made the corridor almost imable with the quantity of their sh—t.” While this might seem like a minor detail, the use of the word sh—t felt too colloquial and was a lazy word choice for a show set around 100 AD. After all, the word ‘sh—t’ wasn’t even recorded to have been used until the 1860s.
This complaint may seem quite picky, but it represents a broader issue with the writing of season two.
As the HBO prequel to Game of Thrones (GoT), House of the Dragon is set about 200 years before the events of the original series, chronicling the dynasty of House Targaryen and the civil war between the Blacks and the Greens for the Iron Throne. With season two recently concluded, the series has been met with many mixed reviews.
HOTD season two is trying to replicate the brief two-minute vignettes that were so effective with GoT—a show known for delivering some witty, and powerful lines. For example, Tyrion’s monologue in season four, episode six of GoT: “I’m guilty of being a dwarf. I’ve been on trial for that my entire life. I did not kill Joffrey, but I wish that I had. Watching your vicious bastard die gave me more relief than a thousand lying whores.”
However, HOTD struggles to create entertaining and powerful two-minute scenes as most dialogue between characters feels boring, insignificant, and self-serious. For instance, in episode two, Ironrod advises Aegon Targaryen, “We would do well to ascertain if this is your sister’s hand or if there is a serpent nestled closer to our bosoms.”
This line feels as though the writers were trying to use archaic, flowery language to get their message across, as this show is set during the Apostolic Age. Instead, it rings across to the audience as a shallow metaphor with rather a corny delivery.
There seems to be a pendulum swing in the writer’s room of HOTD where they volley between pompous, watery metaphors like the Bosom Incident of episode two, odd and ineffective attempts at foreshadowing that fall short and uncreative, boring dialogue as seen in the ‘sh—t’ incident.
Due to this poor writing, it’s hard to feel attachment and root for characters in the same way as Game of Thrones. When most of Rhaenyra’s scenes are set in the courtroom with a brooding stare, swaying back and forth, wondering if and how to fight the war, regurgitating the same material each monologue, it becomes harder to proudly claim to be #TeamBlack.
Jace transformed from a promising, decent son to a whiny child vying for a spot on the throne after his mother, and Daemon spent the entire season having bad dreams and dodging Rhaenyra only to run back into her arms for the finale.
Ah yes, the finale, the moment we’d all been desperately waiting for, felt like a filler episode and ended with a montage that looked like it had been a fan edit stolen from TikTok leaving the audience, including myself, dissatisfied.
I believe the reason HOTD was poorly paced and underwhelming is a result of HBO budget cuts. HOTD is an expensive show that is costing HBO around $20 million an episode which is not very sustainable for a company that’s struggling financially. There was initially supposed to be a great battle taking place in the final episode of season two, but due to cutting costs it was moved to season three, which explains why the pacing of season two feels very strange and doesn’t amount to much.
The pacing issues, flawed writing, and shallow character development of season two aren’t enough for me to wish to leave Westeros behind, but it’s enough for me to grip. A fantasy show full of magic, wit, tragedy, politics, and dragons is bound to be met with high expectations from its viewers. One can only hope that in season three, writers that even in a world full of dragons, it’s storytelling that truly keeps the flames alive.
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Tai J
This is so frustrating!!! I agree thoroughly, especially with such ambiguous potential on a biased point of view style book. So many different possible choices but every single arrived with horrible execution.