[Editor’s note: The following contains spoilers through the Season 2 finale of House of the Dragon.]
There’s a very good purpose to be pissed off by the Season 2 finale of Home of the Dragon, which is that it ends simply when issues had been getting good. The Sport of Thrones prequel sequence, way back renewed for Season 3, devotes its ultimate minutes to a montage that’s largely table-setting for the motion to return subsequent time: Armies marching to battle, ships taking to sea, younger girls discovering dragons. (Regular status drama stuff.)
But whereas the ending couldn’t be any extra of a cliffhanger, taking priority over any frustration is real pleasure at the truth that with this 18th episode, Home of the Dragon has lastly discovered its footing as a present. Not as a result of it’s lastly set issues up for a 3rd season of epic battles, however as a result of its secure of characters feels prefer it’s lastly come alive.
Whereas it’s all the time been well-produced and compelling from week to week, for many of Home of the Dragon’s run, the present has all the time felt a bit of dry in its method, which may arguably be traced again to the supply materials. The first textual content on which Home of the Dragon is predicated is Home of the Dragon co-creator George R.R. Martin’s Hearth & Blood, which is written not like a dynamic piece of fiction, however as a historical past guide chronicling this fictional historical past. (Its in-universe writer is Archmaester Gyldayn, a historian writing tons of of years after the occasions being chronicled.)
The issue with adapting a historical past guide, even a fictitious one, is that the occasions of the story get emphasised over the individuals concerned, resulting in a present in want of breakout characters from the margins of the web page. Individuals conscious of life outdoors of a throne room, with pursuits past who occurs to put on the crown, who may even select to smile each every now and then.
There was potential throughout the established ensemble early on: The craving for her birthright of Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock, then Emma D’Arcy), the difficult scheming of Larys (Matthew Needham), the clandestine love between Laenor (John Macmillan) and Joffrey (Solly McLeod). Nevertheless it’s actually in Season 2 the place sure people have begun blossoming. Take Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), who had a couple of intriguing moments in Season 1 as effectively — earlier than actually maturing in Season 2 as a savvy advisor to Rhaenyra.
