House of the Dragon Season 2 received mixed reactions from fans, a far cry from the unanimously lauded first season. While the follow-up series had the best episode so far in the entire franchise, it also set the record for the worst chapter.
Fans expected a lot from the second season given the commencement of the Dance of the Dragons. However, it seems like the show gave an underwhelming performance that resulted in poor ratings.
IMDb Scores For House Of The Dragon Revealed Best And Worst Episodes
The IMDb scores for each episode of House of the Dragon Season 1 and 2 revealed that the best episode was “The Red Dragon and the Gold” while the worst was “Smallfolk”.
IMDb scores for every episode so far of #HouseOfTheDragon 🐉 pic.twitter.com/2OCNrvhWln
— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) August 8, 2024
Both chapters are found in the second season, and it’s easy to pinpoint why Episode 4 was a crowd favorite. The Battle at Rook’s Rest had a gripping storyline that left fans at the edge of their seats, not to mention it saw the demise of Eve Best’s Rhaenys and her dragon, Meleys.
Episode 6 clearly did not impress the audience. A 6.2 score meant that the majority weren’t satisfied with the execution and the events that occurred in the installment. One reason could be the controversial intimate scene between Emma D’Arcy’s Rhaenyra and Sonoya Mizuno’s Mysaria.
Moreover, the still-slow pacing after the climactic events in Rook’s Rest, in addition to Matt Smith’s Daemon’s unending hallucinations in Harrenhal, proved to be annoying for the viewers.
Come the season finale, and fans are left even more dissatisfied. It earned the second-lowest rating which is not quite ideal for a final episode. So many unnecessary storylines were incorporated in the show while many interesting arcs from the book were left out.
George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood is filled with action, gore, and controversial drama, and everything leads to an intense battle or death of an important character. It did not help that fans were robbed of two more episodes which could have handled one of the significant battles in the book.
Fans Believe Season 1 Is So Much Better
Season 1 was still the most favored for the viewers. It made a great start to a new franchise, and its final episode ended with an action scene, the death of a significant character, and a cliffhanger that made fans anticipate the sequel. Read their tweets below:
Season 1 was definitely better
— Huff (@huff_xyz) August 8, 2024
4 worst episodes in the show all in one season pic.twitter.com/y8I27Ciayj
— 𝙯𝙤 (@ogchabzo) August 8, 2024
Yes the second season is the worst compared to the first one
— Edwin (@edwinlal) August 8, 2024
In some degree, I do agree with this, Season 1 I found it was better
— Ray Man (@theraymanuk) August 8, 2024
Season 2 has been a bit dragging so far, I agree
— JAM🇶🇦约翰 @heeroyuy2.bsky.social (@heero_yuy2) August 8, 2024
Season 3 should make up for the mediocre performance of the second season, and now that we’re deep into the Dance of the Dragons, fans expect to see more epic battles and storylines that are faithful to the book.
House of the Dragon Season 2 is streaming on HBO.
