House of the Dragon finale review—this painstaking series saved its greatest episode for last

Things are now moving forward. As Princess Rhaenyra, Emma D’Arcy. Picture from HBO

It took a long for this complex, character-driven Game of Thrones precursor to come together, but now it’s ready for an explosive second season. We can only hope that it stops including gratuitously offensive births

Better Call Saul for Game of Thrones has always been the lazy way to describe House of the Dragon (Sky Atlantic). This is a precursor to that show, and much like that show, we already know how things will finish. But now that a whole season has passed, the parallel seems appropriate.

Better Call Saul and House of the Dragon both benefitted from an already-existing fan following, so they didn’t need to take off as rapidly as their mother series. House of the Dragon, like Saul, turned out to be a slower, more complex viewing that prioritized character over spectacle. It needed to be seen much more closely. This worked wonders for Saul in its remarkable last season. With House of the Dragon, the future is now nothing more than a big question mark.

You’ll recall that this drama is focused on a fabled civil war that almost tore Westeros asunder. However, as of the conclusion of season 1, we had seen absolutely nothing of it. We have just seen the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand for ten whole hours, if the fabled Game of Thrones episode The Dance of Dragons represents the first global war.

To put it another way, this series has shown to be a precursor to a prequel and might one day be seen as the prelude to House of the Dragon. We got to know the players—some of them as little kids—and now we understand what motivates them, whether it’s treachery, greed, or just the fact that they were invented by a writer who enjoys creating psychopaths. The ducks are lined up in a row. They will remain there for a considerable amount of time.

Obviously, it will take some time before we can determine whether or not the thorough world-building was worthwhile. But it now becomes clear that the season saved its finest for last. By the conclusion of the episode, things are finally moving forward after a lengthy delay. Having spent numerous episodes effectively acting as a gibbering skeleton, Princess Rhaenyra now learns that her father has passed away and that she was not anointed queen. Battle lines are quickly being established, and the program is forcing viewers to choose a decision. On the one hand, a lady who was given the crown after being promised it. On the other are certain cartoon villains that command their dragons to figuratively devour other dragons while wearing eye patches. Due in large part to the fact that Rhaenyra’s son was riding the dragon that was slain, that last one served as the episode’s conclusion. However, it wasn’t even close to being the episode’s most heartbreaking scene.

The brutality of delivery was one of the major themes of the season, whether on purpose or not. We saw a lady die while giving birth in the first episode. The new Rhaenyra actress was introduced with a drawn-out closeup of her arduous labor midway through the season. However, this episode’s worst was reserved for last. Rhaenyra’s astonishment at discovering she wasn’t the queen was so great that she went into early labour and miscarried in a very gruesome way. One may argue that the sequence was completely unnecessary, and it was among the worst to ever be shown on film. Characters in this program may age and pass away in between scenes because of how quickly time passes. However, it lingers like the worst sort of rubbernecker when it comes to depicting a woman’s suffering during delivery. It’s a disheartening habit, and I hope the program will handle it more delicately in the future.

Naturally, I hope that other things also change. When it comes to character aging, House of the Dragon should be consistent. While his brother (played by Matt Smith) has proven himself to be Westeros’ Paul Rudd, Paddy Considine’s Viserys, for instance, degenerated like an Indiana Jones baddie unlocking a terrible tomb. I’m not sure how old he should be since he hasn’t aged a day. Is he 30? 45? 90? It’s difficult to say. What is he hiding? Optimal hydration? Incest? Glossy magazines must be informed. Furthermore, and I don’t want to pick on you, but it would be wonderful if further episodes were lighted in a manner that would enable me to understand what the heck is supposed to be happening.

The second season of House of the Dragon, in my opinion, will be considerably more exciting than the first, and if that’s the case, it won’t matter if the whole plot hinged on an elderly guy getting his names confused. We’ll have to wait and see. It’s the end of House of the Dragon. I’m eager for it to get started.

Thanks to Stuart Heritage at The Guardian whose reporting provided the original basis for this story.