House of the Dragon Season Two aired its first episode on Sunday, June 16. This season was highly anticipated due to the dramatic ending of the last season. The first four episodes of this new season were strong and well-made, but the last four were weaker and not as enjoyable or well-written in the opinions of some viewers.
Each episode of House of the Dragon Season Two was directed by different directors, with some repeating – for example, there was the same director for episodes 2 and 5. I thought this was pretty interesting as it offered a different perspective or mood for each episode. While episode 2 was dark and sad, episode 7 was action-packed and full of surprises.
Some people online felt as though the latter half of the eight-episode season was slow-moving and boring. This is somewhat true as I believe the 5th, 6th, and 8th episodes weren’t as engaging or interesting.
However, the 7th episode was pretty good in my opinion. In the 7th episode, we saw the full talent of the VFX artists at HBO, as the episode was full of dragons and splendor.
The 8th episode, which was expected to be a grand season finale, didn’t deliver what the plot seemed to be leading up to. The show made us believe that all-out war was going to be a feature in the finale, but instead, we just got an episode of the characters getting ready for future conflicts and hardships.
Although some were disappointed with the season, I found the trailers for each episode to be very exciting, and each week I remember I couldn’t wait to see what HBO had in store for its viewers. One of the highlights of Season Two was Episode 4, titled “The Red Dragon and the Gold”. The fourth episode of season two was the highest-rated episode of the entire series by viewers, which is not surprising. The cinematography was extremely beautiful, and it shows the consequences of using dragons (which is basically the show’s version of nuclear weapons). The ending left questions in the minds of many viewers for the next episode, which is something a show should strive to achieve.
HBO released the first trailer for season 2 about 6-8 months before the season premiere. They also advertised in New York City with a blow-up of the massive dragon, Vhagar, coiled around the Empire State Building.
House of the Dragon is the prequel to the massive hit show “Game of Thrones.” Many studios have tried to recreate, or make their own versions of “Game of Thrones” but none found the same success the original series obtained. After the interesting ending of “Game of Thrones,” many subscribers of HBO Max (known as just Max now) unsubscribed as they were disappointed by the writing of the ending of HBO’s biggest show. The unsatisfying ending of the show was due to the writers running out of source material, and the writers having other projects they wanted to work on. The author of George R.R. Martin, the author of the books “Game of Thrones” is based on, had not written the next book of the series by the time the television show was in production. Regardless, “Game of Thrones” was rated as the number one watched show in the world, which is an incredible achievement.
In conclusion, I don’t expect House of the Dragon to have a similar end to “Game of Thrones” where the writers strayed away from the source material. House of the Dragon has had minor changes from the books but most are due to budget constraints. I’m hoping for another good season of this show.
