Does 'House of the Dragon' Have a Pacing Issue?

In 2022, when the first season of House of the Dragon was premiering, a recurrent point of contention among fans was that the show was moving too fast. With multiple time jumps and recasts, season 1 hit the ground running, covering a lot of ground in the 10-episode span.

At the time, I was an Editorial Writer for Bookstr.com, recapping the show from week to week. Amidst the rumbles of discontent, I even put out a short opinion piece weighing the claim that the show's rapid-fire pacing made for too many cut scenes and ultimately reduced some crucial characters down to cameos (ex. Harwin Strong).

Now, the tides have turned completely and the prevailing complaint running rampant on social media is that season 2 is too slow. On the whole, I've found the HOTD fandom to have embraced a very different and increasingly negative tone this time around (on just about everything, not just the show's pacing). I've found it, quite frankly, exhausting and, the discourse, reductive.

Screaming "BORING," "SNOOZEFEST," "BAD WRITING," and "NOTHING HAPPENED," at every episode that doesn't have an epic 20-minute dragon battle sequence is tiring and only perpetuates more surface-level reads about the show's very intricate themes, parallels, visuals, and broader ASOIAF context.

(As we learned full well through Game of Thrones, a show about 'war' doesn't consist and/or revolve completely around battlefield face-offs and blood baths; it's a lot of politicking, a lot of talking, a lot of side quests).

That isn't to say that I'm here to shut down all criticisms. I have my fair share (I'll highlight a few momentarily). Plus, I readily recognize that any television series being adapted from written source material is bound to ruffle many many feathers.

With that said, here's my official spoiler warning for the entire series before I get started. (Also, yes I chose to highlight Phia Saban as Helaena for the featured image. Let's all take a minute to admire her, I insist! She is giving ethereal Targaryen beauty x10000).

Why Eight Episodes?

As many initially feared, the eight-episode framework has proven itself, especially after last night's finale, a sore point for the season as a whole. The episode itself was good, but it didn't have any finale flair. It felt like a strong penultimate episode, which may very well be due to the effect of the 2023 writer's strike on this season's shaping and production.

In this light, cutting the season down from 10 episodes to 8 seems far from a tactical creative decision and more a byproduct of the circumstances surrounding its production period. I find this rather heartening, and perhaps a sign that we're not, in fact, doomed to relive a GOT Season 8-level blunder.

In my opinion, the pacing of this season would have been quite perfect if it had been following the 10 (or even 9) episode framework. Everything about episode 8 seems to point to that being the original plan, with the finale being the fall of King's Landing and/or The Battle of the Gullet.

Therefore, it's understandable that fans are feeling a little disappointed post-finale (more accurately tearing their hair out because the season feels just shy of complete).

Indeed, the shadow of this season's originally-planned arc is hard to ignore and it's even harder to resign ourselves to another extended waiting period. (I am nothing if not impatient).

Now, on to my personal highs and lows from the finale.

Rhaena and Sheepstealer

Okay, so my strongest gripe with this episode is the added anticlimax of the Rhaena/Sheepstealer subplot. After multiple clips of Rhaena running around the Vale, we see her find Sheepstealer (love his look btw) but not claim him.

Given that the Rhaena/Sheepstealer connection is a divergence from the book (erasing Nettles), this is already a raw nerve for a lot of fans. I, personally, am not opposed to it, but I thought that they really needed to sell this from the get-go (go big or go home) instead of using it for another compounding cliffhanger.

Since episode 8 had much less dragon action than most were expecting for a finale, this could have been a crucial redeeming moment to temper the audience's feeling of endless build-up with a minor payoff. Alas, it, too, ended up being shelved (like the rest of the action-packed antics) for season 3.

Finally, though the Tyland/Triarchy vignettes also seem to be unpopular (as more filler in the episode), I'm quite indifferent about it. I saw it as necessary backstory preceding the Battle of the Gullet that reinstated that familiar bawdiness I remember from Thrones that HOTD doesn't dabble in very often. I would have enjoyed these interludes a lot more if I wasn't fretting over and counting down the precious finale screen time minutes.

Weirwoods and Visions

The only truly redeeming finale-esque moment for episode 8 came from Daemon's vision at the Weirwood in Harrenhal. I must say, the amount of bitching and moaning I've seen about Daemon's Harrenhal arc (episode 3 onward) has astounded me a bit. I thought it was brilliant.

Daemon, after a lifetime of scoffing at prophecy, at the supernatural, comes undone and has to face his past in earnest. This isn't 'ruining' his character, it's honing it. Further, I think everyone who was calling for Daemon to just pack it up and go home to the wifey forgot how devastatingly stubborn he is! This is the man, after all, who once attempted a death mission in order to avoid accepting help from his older brother. But I digress...

One thing I am thrilled about is how this season boldly embraces and expands the magic of Westeros beyond that which we already garnered in Thrones. The vision that Daemon has at the Weirwood (carved in the likeness of George R.R. Martin) is absolutely loaded with lore.

To start, we get our first look at Brynden Rivers (or Bloodraven), the great-grandson of Daemon and Rhaenyra who becomes the three-eyed crow we meet beyond the wall in Thrones. We also have Daemon see his own death at the God's Eye, just as Alys Rivers foretold that first night at Harrenhal ("You will die in this place").

The only difference now is that Daemon is ready to face his fate, to understand where and how he fits in this greater story. It truly puts everything into perspective and the appearance of Helaena beautifully ties his demise with Aemond's. Chef's kiss.

On top of all of this, of course, the appearance of Daenerys Targaryen was taken as added proof by many fans of her being the center figure of Aegon the Conquerer’s Dream: The Prince That Was Promised. However, this is still a story point that showrunner Ryan Condal refuses to confirm outright.

Finally, when Daemon follows Alys to the Godswood, we briefly see a human(ish) figure with antlers which, from my understanding, is our first introduction to the Green men. In Fire & Blood, Addam is said to have flown to the Isle of Faces on Seasmoke and counseled with the Green men. The appearance of this antlered figure, I believe, is a strong indication that this encounter will be included in the seasons to come.

Finding Common Ground?

To return to the question I posed in the title of my little rant, I don't think it begets a simple yes or no answer. In the sheer chaos that is the HOTD fandom these days, it's damn near impossible to get anyone to agree about anything. With a book canon and show canon version of each character, there is a constant combatant energy based on what image, what story arc one has latched onto and is hell-bent on defending.

Moreover, I think that the ASOIAF fandom has been in a never-ending free fall since the disastrous ending of Thrones. The deep mistrust generated by the head-scratching (to put it kindly) GOT series finale has seeped into the HOTD audience and created a sort of hypervigilant intensity, fueling a never-ending cycle of rash and completely out-of-context takes.

The stored anger here, the love/hate relationship that many fans hold toward the various interweaving threads of the ASOIAF universe (from print to screen) makes it increasingly difficult to just return to the immersive joy of high fantasy.

I truly wish we could all step back and bask a bit in the scale and beauty of this cinematic universe more often instead of just recycling and repackaging our upset from 2019. The cinematography, the visual symbolism, the set design, the special effects, the acting, and the SCORE (Ramin Djawadi is a genius) continue to be absolutely stellar.

Thus, I shall conclude with a not-very-hot take that this flip-flopping 'pacing problem' debate about House of the Dragon is really just another outgrowth of chronic naysaying from a deeply fragmented, discontented, and permanently expectant fandom (*cough cough* The Winds of Winter, George, it's been 13 years).

To reiterate, the real villain of season two is not, in fact, bad pacing, it's simply the unplanned revert to the eight-episode model, which, hopefully, will not be standard in seasons three and four. All this premature catastrophizing surrounding House of the Dragon puzzles me in that it blatantly invokes a self-fulfilling prophecy, dooming an adaptation before it even has a chance to hit its stride.