Posted by 
After such a long time, the Season 2 of House of The Dragon debuted months back to the thirsty desire of their teeming fans. As per Game of Thrones style, every episode comes every week and that only served to heighten the suspense and craving of the audience. Will the House of The Dragon go to war with itself for the Iron Throne? This, surely, wasn’t what King Viserys had in mind, but, god bless his soul. He did his best to assert Rhaenerya’s claim, but, certain factions in the realm just would not stand a woman for a Queen and so, war loomed again in Westeros after such a long time.
It is worthy to note that so many fans who turned up for this installment came to see the famed “Dance of The Dragons”—dragons going at each other, fast paced, nonstop. Many were left disappointed when, after episodes 2 and 3, there was still no clash of dragons to be seen! What? Where’s the dance we came to see? It felt empty in a way and, on that note, I understand the audience sentiment regarding that.
Another area that drew a level of annoyance was the manner in which Queen Rhaenerya went about her war plans. It seemed so protracted and drawn out. To put it quite frankly, it felt like dilly-dally, the perception being that the Queen was scared to send men to their death. At some point, she even went to King’s Landing, disguised, to see the Queen Alicent and pray her stay of hand. All of these antics made Rhaenerya’s advisers wonder if she was fit enough to lead them in the wars to come and the viewers, no less, were left irate by this waste of time.
In any case, one thing I do need to point out is how thick this story plot is. In fact, the Dance of The Dragons is even thicker in plot in comparison to large portions of the preceding Game of Thrones. I’ve read the ‘Dance of The Dragon’ book by George R.R Martins and so I know this for a fact. It was no small feat and the consequences of this dance, the Targaryeans felt for decades after. House Targaryean was never the same after this war of succession.
Thus, a story of this magnitude, try hard as the filmmakers might have, could never be rushed. It involved too many major and minor details to just brush aside and head straight into the thick of things like many fans would have preferred. The book is even much deeper and complicated, hence, the story, would have, if they tried rushing it, lost its essence.
This reality dawned on me by Episode 3 and so, I change my perceptive and appreciated the story for what it was—a well-detailed piece arriving at a goal we would eventually see. It didn’t take long after this realization before we began to see duels. First, Sir Criston Cole’s march on the Riverlands sparked a series of clashes that saw so many top royalties go down and then, the fans’ delight was rekindled again.
The same fans that yearned for action soon became heartbroken when the antagonist, Daemon, and his big scary dragon, Vhagar, laid waste to the beloved ‘”Queen that never was,” Rhaenys. Watching her fall with her dragon, Maelys, was asorrowful sight. But, perhaps, that scene captured a double tragedy even fans never saw coming—and that was Aemond burning his own brother, the King, Aegon, along with his dragon. I mean, what was that for? Well, I guess the saying, “power intoxicates,” is true indeed.
Loosing Maelys and her rider sent shockwaves around the camp of Queen Rhaenerya and gave Aemond a cloak of invisibility. He seemed unstoppable at this point and the next sequence of events to try to stop him are what led me to truly respect this series as one of the best told stories ever.
Mysaria is supposed to be a prisoner of Daemon at Dragonstone but, somehow, she strings a favour or two and earns her freedom by the Queen. Then, she makes herself even more valuable by thwarting the assassination attempt on the Queen by the twin Knight, Arryk. This makes her much more useful as an ally and so, she doesn’t just run off to enjoy freedom, but, instead, is asked to remain in Dragonstone and has the Queen’s ears. That is very typical of GoT to tell a “rejected stone to cornerstone” story and the audience loved that one.
Now, Rhaenerya comes up with the idea of looking for riders for the dragons Silverwing, Vermithor and Seasmoke under her wings. Her first attempt with the Commander of the Queen’s Guard fails, but then, it is lowly Mysaria who charts another course for her, pointing her towards the direction of the litany of Targaryean bastard littering the streets of King’s Landing. Astonishingly, against any wild imagination of the audience, the Queen throws open an audition for bastards to become Dragon riders! I mean, who does that? That was wild and no one saw it coming. Brilliant piece of storytelling that left fans on the edges of their seats.
Read Also: House of Ga’a: Analyzing the Red Flags & Continuity Issues
The eventual slaughter of the bastards at Dragonpit, with only two left who claimed Vermithor and Silverwing—this made for quite a spectacle and this brings me to a key aspect of writing, which is “twist.” Every great story must have a twist or two that throws everything off balance. No great story has ever run on a straight line and this one veered the path of great stories. With the new riders, suddenly, Aemond seemed less invisible, vulnerable in fact and something no one would have envisaged. Brilliant. To think he even had to go beg his sister, Haelena, for her dragon drove home the point. The man was scared. That scene that closed the penultimate episode, where Aemond flew to Dragonstone, saw 3 dragons waiting for him and changed course, was just awesome to behold. If he had stepped foot there, I assure you, he and his big scary dragon would have been toast.
Then, in another corner of the earth was the disturbed Prince Daemon at Harrenhal hearing whispers all day long. That cryptic bit just served another angle to the story. Here’s a man who’s always wanted to be King. It would, therefore, have been odd if he didn’t, at some point, try to chart his own course and raise armies for himself. And so, when he claimed the title of “King,” not “Prince” or “King Consort,” I knew the writers were smart. The resolution of that part was so artistic: The Witch takes him to the weirwoods where he sees for himself the prophecy. Alas! He realizes this is much bigger than his ego or ambition and this causes him to reaffirm his fealty to Queen Rhaenerya. Beautiful.
Now, for movies of this magnitude, what really makes it tick are the sub plots: I speak of characters on the fringes that aim at ascension. We have Mysaria on one hand, Adam and the Targaryean bastards on another, but then, the teaser became Rhaena. She had, all her life, sought to be relevant and the only way to do that was by claiming a dragon. She was, after all, a Targaryean.
At the Vale, she comes face to face with the wild dragon, Sheepstealer. Would she claim it or, would that be her undoing. By bringing us to that point and then leaving it untold, the writers ticked the box of suspense to the latter. Who wouldn’t rush to see the third season after that?
Now you see, with all these points, why the story was labeled, by myself, “an annoyingly well-told story.” It was indeed. One moment, they appear boring and drawn-out, then, the next, they are hitting missiles from all corners and you don’t know what just hit you. That is the true art of storytelling—being unpredictable and having viewers’ locked down.
I, for one, cannot wait to see the third installment of House of The Dragons. The Battle of the Gullet, the Dance of The Dragons; whether Haelena’s prophecy of Aemond dying will come to pass and; so much more. Let’s take a moment to give a round of applause to the filmmakers for a Season well written and filmed. It couldn’t have been told any better. Te Salut.
