Anika Begay
YouTuber Preston Jacobs wasted no time when he started his House of the Dragon after-party live stream: “I’ll say it right away [top]I think at this point it’s my jump-the-shark moment. I don’t think this show is salvageable anymore.” Sunday’s season finale, he says, “really ruins everything.” Storylines contradict each other, some story arcs go nowhere, he said. It was a disaster. And while Preston has had divisive game of Thrones Despite his past opinions, many fans agreed with him on this point, both in the comments of his live stream and on the Internet.
This is not the place for House of the Dragon Spoilers for the season 2 finale (you’ll have to watch it yourself), but the truth is that the episode ended abruptly just when it was starting to get interesting. After weeks of hyping a major battle between the Greens and Blacks of the Targaryen family tree, no such battle materialized. As The Hollywood Reporter put it, “HBO’s move to black hasn’t bothered so many TV fans since The Sopranos concluded.”
THE Soprano the comparison is both hyperbolic and irrelevant. House of the Dragon is far from being the beloved darling of critics that Soprano was, but now receives the same kind of scrutiny that its prestigious predecessor once did. Following game of Thrones‘Womp-Womp 2019 Series Finale Some Fans Were Hoping For Home could recapture some of its predecessor’s former glory, while others feared it would make the same mistakes. Sunday’s episode seemed to indicate to many that it could be all dragons, no fire.
“You basically turned this season into a wait, now we have to wait a fucking 2 years” for the next season, @Tata_Onika wrote on X, referring to rumors that the next season won’t arrive until 2026. “This really pissed me off,” another X user wrote. “Did I just watch a 70 minute trailer for season 3?” another asked, a sentiment others echoed. On Reddit, fans were “mildly annoyed,” complaining, “I didn’t see a LITTLE bit of subsequent action.”
Another favorite of mine: “Did we have to deal with Freud’s dreams for this?!!”
The Season 2 finale could also be a sign of the times. HBO, Max and all of its affiliated properties have been through a period of major upheaval since parent company Warner Bros. merged with Discovery. While big shows like Dragon AND The Last of Us haven’t been hit as hard as other properties, this season was only eight episodes, while last season was 10, and this one was shot during the Hollywood strikes, thanks in part to many of the cast members being in a different union that wasn’t on strike. Deadline also reported last year that a “major battle” was moved from season 2 to season 3, and in doing so the show may have ended up with a dull finale.
Want House of the Dragon catch up? Oh, probably. Season 2 hasn’t quite reached the viewership heights of the show’s successful first season. But as the streaming wars continue and people abandon services or, in Max’s case, contemplate switching to ad-based tiers that are also increasing in price, comparing one season’s numbers to another seems like a fool’s errand. HBO has greenlit a third season: co-creator Ryan Condal revealed Monday that it will end with season 4, which may very well start with the comparison fans have been hoping for. Until then, everyone will just have to wait for this to play out.
