The Queen Who Ever Was

Quite possibly one of the most boring season finales I've seen. The characters are basically all over the place at this point. I debated skipping this episode entirely and truth be told, if I did, it would've been inconsequential.

Why the show runners felt the need to deviate from the source material so much is beyond me. What they failed to realize for this season, was that perhaps the most compelling story, was the actual story! The first season did an amazing job at wiping away the bad stain the ending of Game of Thrones left when it ended. The second season, on the other hand, with exception of maybe 2 or 3 episodes, unfortunately reminded us of what happens when you abandon the source material.

Combined with the penultimate episode, this was actually, a two episode trailer for season 3. Quite a disappointing outcome from this show.

GoT S1-6, one couldn't fall in love with a character because every episode someone was dying and it kept us on our toes. With HotD mostly everything is painfully slow and predictable, leaving the audience asleep.

This season put a bad taste in my mouth, especially that I gave it so much grace and patience. Came into it being super optimistic, and left like I wasted time from my life that I will never get back, just like the last two seasons of Game of Thrones.

House of the Dragon (HOTD) season 2 has been one that has left me very ambivalent about the whole show. After what was a very fine restart for Game of Thrones with season 1 of HOTD, this season has had so many ups and downs, and I'll avoid any clear spoilers.

We have very fine acting in general, but I feel that the jumping around characters gave often little room for proper detail. Matt Smith's character in particular seemed to be trapped somewhere with little challenge, and really was a wasted chance. Alyse Rivers was an excellent character and intriguing but we got to see little development.

I don't want to be over negative but really there were too many moments where I just cringed, the final episode was dreadfully written, and I groaned quite a number of times. Sharako Lohar in particular was possibly the worst & most ridiculous character I have yet seen in the entire Game of Thrones world. I just am not confident for the next season.

There's some modern world nonsense slapped into the show too, which I won't go into as I'll avoid spoilers but it's so sign-posted, and one-sided, I gave up. Whatever happened to the Tyrion Lannister type witticisms, the games of the whisperers, the mediaeval gamesmanship and the fantasy warfare? If anything this show seemed to be like a corporate meeting that was about organising corporate meetings (that's a real thing), as in this was the starting block of the beginning of a war to come which I'm losing interest to follow.

I thought the season 2 started fine, but really have lost a lot of interest. I'll likely keep up with season 3, but really this has lost its way. Can't even empathise with the characters. Each to their own, but I hope the writers can turn this all around.

The finale did a good job of wrapping a plot points, but it was all extremely predictable. I don't think they needed eight episodes to tell the story that they did because looking back on season two every single character arc was very unambitious. The only way this season could've been interesting would be if the characters had the same depth as Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones also had a slow pace in many places, but it worked because the characters were so fleshed out. None of the characters in this show have the same depth. Combine that with glacial pacing and an eagerness to bore audiences with drawn out scenes with little payoff (Damon's arc) and you have a recipe to torpedo interest in the show. Let's see if anyone will even watch S3.

Truly a disappointment of an ending. I don't understand the point of building up the entire season if it leads to nothing. Will this 70-minute teaser even pay off next season, or will they drag on half the series until one of the major events finally happens? This season could have included at least one of the 4-5 important events.

Alicent's character assassination is laughably bad. Is this the same Alicent who previously sought an eye for an eye for Aemond? Now she's simply giving up on Aegon and fast-traveling to Dragonstone, unseized by any guards, and allowed to roam the castle unquestioned.

I just don't understand the motives here. It's not surprising coming from writers who openly admit adding random scenes strictly for shock value without moving the story along. They're trying to prove George's point about writers always thinking they can make a better product but ending up with something worse or even bad.

It's such a shame. I honestly hoped the finale would have some spice, but almost every episode felt the same: Rhaenyra complaining about her powerlessness, Daemon hallucinating in Harrenhal. Unreal.

The acting is the only good thing in this episode.