To be fair, HOTD is a drama series, not an action series. I do agree that S1 has a stronger structured story, but Daemon finally realizing his mistakes and respecting the authority of Rhaenyra as the rightful heir are enough for me as a satisfying conclusion. Probably needed 2 more episodes for at least a tease of the war to come, then leave it in a cliffhanger. S2 is simply a glorified trailer for S3, but still a good one at that.
Man some of you are sooooooo annoying. Stfu already. I appreciate that I can still be in this universe. If you don’t like it, stop watching. I enjoyed season and will def be re watching it. When season 3 is out and the “the dance” starts getting really juicy keep that same energy you have now.
I mean they could have better writing and directing without 'action', you could have two people talking and still make it interesting/entertaining. This is just boring, especially compared to S1 as well.
HOTD or should I say 'The Rhaenyra Show' is pure fan fiction at this point and fan service to give modern audiences and former Daenerys fans a new badass warrior dragon queen. The show runner is constantly breaking the lore to push his own narrative, he thinks he can own the story and do better than the source material. Both Rhaenyra and Alicent are so different in the book, they are powerful women in a male dominatad world but no victims, they're willing participants in all the political scheming, that's how GRRM likes to write his characters, no one is blameless in his world, and Rhaenyra's character is as cruel as the rest of the players. And that's not the real Alicent, wtf, she would never betray her children for her 'bestie', in the book they hate each other, and she only stopped wearing green when she lost all her children. What we got in the book: "The city is yours, Princess. But you will not hold it long. The rats play when the cat is gone, but my son Aemond will return with fire and blood." - Queen Alicent Hightower to Rhaenyra Targaryen! What we got on the show: "Here my Queen let me bend my knee to you the rightful Queen, here is all our plans, so you can kill my entire family and my lover, did I tell you you're the best my Queen? You're the best. Take Aegon’s head I don’t care, anything for you my Queen. I will make sure Kings Landing bows to you and you can take Aegon's head, just let me and Helaena live. Wanna go for vacation btw? Team Black for the win." - Alicent to Rhaenyra in episode 8. Well, the actual point of the book's story is that thirst for power can tear entire families apart, while in the show it's more about feminism and the evil patriarchy, very popular themes these days. Martin has been subtly critisizing the writers, he found aspects of the adaptation quite problematic, like Blood&Cheece for instance, he also recently quoted: 'Ignore canon and the world you've created comes apart like tissue paper.' One thing is certain, the show is not even loosely based on the Fire&Blood book, and its unreliable narrators are far less biased than Condal the Rhaenyra simp. My expectations were low but holy f***.