The House of the Dragon finale has divided response among fans as it left more cliffhangers for fans for Season 3 rather than telling a finale-worthy story. For any other show, the cliffhangers would’ve made fans wait for the next season in much anticipation. However, the Game of Thrones franchise (including the books) is known for its snail-paced development.
A third season for the spin-off series was announced a few days before the premiere of the second season. Fans are frustrated with the pace and they seem to have no patience to wait another couple of years to see the Targaryen Civil War.
House of the Dragon Frustrates Fans With Its Slow-Paced Plot Development
House of the Dragon Season 2 finale sets up the events for an upcoming third season, but fails to provide a satisfactory conclusion for this season. As Forbes noted, the episode could’ve been a great penultimate episode for the season. Fans are fed up with the slow-paced development of the Dance of the Dragons storyline.
Daemon’s storyline in Harrenhaal has been dragged too long with every other episode showing his visions. Alicent has been sidelined during the second half of the season. Moreover, the show has deviated largely from George R.R. Martin‘s Fire & Blood.
Some fans are already suggesting that they would rather read the books instead of waiting for another couple of years. Interestingly, House of the Dragon debuted its first season in 2022 and the second season came out in 2024. It has already been five years since Game of Thrones ended.
Fans also mentioned that they didn’t mind the slow build-up, but they hated that there weren’t enough pay-offs this season. Other fans also mentioned that the series finale lacked the necessary drama like in the previous season or the Game of Thrones seasons before that. Some of the fan reactions read:
Green lit? Fook this I’m just going to read the book at this pace.
— Dan Holo 🇵🇸 (@thedanholo) August 5, 2024
I don't mind a slow build-up, but there has to be some pay-off as well and there was none of that in this finale, just a trailer for season 3
— FPL Marcin (@FPLMarcin) August 5, 2024
And season 2 was only 8 episodes and it felt like it was missing the dramatics of an episode 9 & 10. pic.twitter.com/7LDy5zVHHb
— Kory Waldron (@Just_KWal) August 5, 2024
Then you probably shouldn’t end S2 like you did.
— Regie (@byRegie) August 5, 2024
Ridiculous
Disappointed in the ending. We had things building for it all to be a tease for NEXT season, somethings should have been resolved and the season end with a bang, not a whimper. L finale
— BadCoyoteFunky (@badcoyotefunky) August 5, 2024
House of the Dragon Season 2 finale faced a major setback after the clips from the episode were illegally leaked online. HBO released a statement via THR sharing that the clips were an unintentional release from an international third-party distributor. The company added that they were monitoring and removing these clips from the internet.
House of the Dragon Was Renewed For A Third Season
HBO renewed House of the Dragon for a third season ahead of the premiere of the second season. Francesca Orsi, the chief of programming at HBO, shared that the company was impressed by “the dragon-sized effort” of the entire HoTD team in creating the spectacular second season (via Variety). She shared that the company was “thrilled to continue the story of House Targaryen”.
Earlier, George R.R. Martin noted in his blog that he was already discussing story details for Seasons 3 and 4 with the writers of the show. The discussions lasted for two days, which according to Martin was not nearly enough. He shared:
I…spent two days locked in a room with Ryan Condal and his writing staff (Sara Hess, Ti Mikkel, David Hancock, and Philippa Goslett) talking about the third and fourth seasons of HOUSE OF THE DRAGON. They were lively, fun discussions, and we got some good work done… though two days was not nearly enough. There is so much ground to cover that I am not sure twenty days would have been enough.
While featuring the Dance of the Dragons with great details might do some good for the show, the slow pacing should also be accompanied by enough big moments. House of the Dragon is clearly trying to avoid a Game of Thrones debacle, but they would have to tread more carefully in the upcoming seasons.
House of the Dragon is now available for streaming on Max.
