The House Of The Dragon Season 2 Finale Was The Most Disappointing Season Finale Of All-Time
Don Arnold. Getty Images.*To clarify that super clickbaity headline, the House of the Dragon Season 2 finale was the most disappointing season finale ever in the Game of Thrones cinematic universe and that does NOT INCLUDE the Thrones Season 8 finale that almost ended the entire franchise back in 2019 since that was a series finale.
So if you frame it like that and exactly that, I think it's fair to say that the House of the Dragon was the most disappointing season finale of all-time.
Fair point, Homer J.
Season 1 was by no means perfect, but it sure as hell had its moments and any complaints for a slower finale were met with promises from book readers that Season 2 would be when the blood and the fire of the Targaryens actually showed up. Then we got the first ever filler season I have ever watched in my life. Yes it did have some "Oh shit" moments in between Daemon night terrors and Corlys having the same conversation with his bastard as the most totaled boat in Westeros history sat in the repair shop for seemingly years. But I flat out cannot understand how you could watch the last couple of episodes and not be underwhelmed considering the standard Thrones has established with their penultimate and finale episodes.
(Yes I just casually threw a full Thrones episode into a Barstool blog)
Courtney in our live stream chat nailed it last night when she said the fact that this finale leaked last week and there were no major spoilers of typical Thrones chaos plastered across the internet was a bad sign of what was to come in the episode. You can blame the writer's strike, HBO's lack of budget, or a myriad of other things. But that finale fell flat on its face (unless you like cutscenes of mid characters mud wrestling, drinking water, or telling the same story to their daddy that wasn't there).
I know you will get your typical big brain wannabe riff raff that will claim you are a mouth breathing idiot if you want a full season worth of politicking and dialogue to result in actual action. Those people are the absolute worst and probably spend their free time watching C-SPAN. Don't pay them any mind when they attempt to add their two cents to your discussion about it at work or social media.
In the end, Trent said it best as usual.
In an effort to not just be a negative ranting Comic Book Guy, here are things I liked from the finale:
1. Daemon's vision of the good days of Thrones definitely got a cheap pop from everyone at home, at least before they remembered how all the nonsense with the White Walkers and Khaleesi ended.
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2. All things Helaena. That actress rules, that character is extreeeeeeemely interesting, and she just so happens to have a badass dragon.
Back in the day, despite loving superstars like Stone Cold Steve Austin and The Rock, somehow Mankind became my favorite wrestler despite not having all the fancy bells and whistles as the other "bigger" names. I definitely see Helaena going that way and not just because she is the Human Spoiler that drops knowledge of the future in riddles like a fortune cookie.
3. Daemon finally escaping dreamland to declare for Rhaenyra that had a sorta King of the North vibe from back in the day.
Great work, D!
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4. The acting between Olivia Cooke and Emma D'Arcy was flawless as usual, even if we essentially had the same scene take place weeks ago just with a different power dynamic.
5. The montage at the end did get me hyped as fuck for Season 3, which is good since it's not gonna be here for at least TWO YEARS if humanity hasn't destroyed the planet by then.
I couldn't find the actual clip from the show but this awesome montage edit does it justice even if it doesn't show the Starks banner or play any of the houses themes, which was cool as fuck.
Trust me, I hope that I look back at Season 2 as the necessary evil that got us to whatever crazy shit is about to pop off in Season 3 and beyond. But there's an old saying in Tennessee, I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee, that says, fool me once, shame on, shame on you. Fool me, you can't get fooled again.
I hope to God that Thrones is done fooling me and actually starts delivering like they used to on a yearly basis. However, all I am left with this morning is a massive case of dragon blue balls that can only be fixed if Season 3 is a banger from the jump (or they release a surprise episode next Sunday with what we should've gotten in the finale). If you want to spinzone everything, at least this season was only eight episodes because they would've had to use more filler than all the lips and asses in Hollywood in order to finish those last two episodes.
For much more on the Season 2 finale, check out our My Mom's Basement recap from right after the episode ended. We all came in HOT, which at some point turned me into a raving bearded lunatic that kept dropping WWE Attitude Era references.