Ryan Shoots First: House of the Dragon (S2 Ep8) “The Queen Who Ever Was”
Man, how the season flies. We are already at the Season 2 finale of House of the Dragon and after episodes of set up does the finale finally deliver? Kind of?
This finale is a microcosm of the entire season. Significant moments slowly happening to set up something larger. I think back to the episode where Aegon is taken out and it felt like it was the spark to get things going and then nothing really proceeded to happen. The final moments of this finale are the moments before all hell breaks lose… and now we wait.
As I have been saying all season I enjoy these moments, there were some payoffs in this episode specifically through Alicent and Daemon that have been going on all season. They finally come to a place with their internal journeys but then the season ends. Daemon specifically, I suppose it is a signifier of just how stubborn his character was that it took a whole season for the ghosts to do what they did for Scrooge in one night. As with many of the threads I’m invested and excited to see where he goes but now the season is over and I think I deserved a bit more payoff than what we got. This episode would have made a terrific penultimate episode leading into an action-packed finale but instead, we now must wait. I like the slow burn, I understand that those later Game of Thrones seasons maybe moved too fast but we can also go too far in the other direction. You can only tease me with dragons flying around so much.
Great performances, great cast, great visuals, unmatched score and wonderful cinematography and costumes, just maybe give us a bit more action.
Observations
- Random Essos trip?
- Yea, the humidity is killer
- Aemond literally blowing off some steam…and fire
- Haha he’s like “What do I look like I can just pick up and go”
- Yep that’s a pretty good description of Aemond
- Things not looking good for ole Aegon
- Oh, so I guess Sunfire is dead.
- Oh Ulf, c’mon man
- Jace gonna start wearing a red cloak if you know what I mean
- The smoke machine budget on this show must be massive
- The Hand is wise
- Aww that’s sweet
- When those Starks gonna show up?
- Hahaha, Daemon would know
- What’s that old timer up to
- Helena is like “say what now”
- Eww Cole
- That’s some serious copium Cole
- Oh that’s like hell for a Lannister
- “What?” Haha
- In short “man up bro”
- Did the procession not care that she just like dropped off?
- This dudes gonna stay in Essos ain’t he
- Oh yea he def ain’t leaving Essos
- So is Hugh gonna go get his wife or what?
- FINALLY
- Woah!!! A whole season for Daemon to watch a Thrones recap YouTube video
- Dang what is Helena up to??
- She’s coming into her gifts
- Dang that is a big army
- Syrax ain’t letting her out of his sight
- That dudes nose is jacked up
- He said it!
- That a boy Daemon
- Haha he’s like “I may have misread some signals”
- I guess it’s something that Daemon is so stubborn it took an entire season of haunting to break him
- All good points
- Alicent’s turn to pull this
- That was the pettiest “in what?”
- The B Squad is ready
- I swear if this ends before the battle
- Finally!
- The music cues were pretty great there
- Sheep Stealer looks badass
- Where was Otto?
- That’s a badass shot and transition
