The House of the Dragon Season Two Issue (So Far)

Let me first start on a positive note. In my opinion, the season has been solid through the first seven episodes, although the sixth episode felt redundant to the fifth with most story lines. I understand that it is slower than many, including myself, anticipated. But I think there are two main points that major criticisms of the show are missing.  First, the show is filling in gaps from the book, which is not as easy as it seems, since the events in the book are not completely reliable. Book readers are treating this as a typical novel, whereas it was written more similar to a history book with differing opinions. In it, the narrators are clearly biased and write their "truth" to make the side they support in the Dance look better. Now, obviously the show already started making changes to things that probably could be considered fact, namely Alicent being the same age as Rhaenyra, however, many events were not as clear, such as who started the fire at Harrenhall. In the show, they take the liberty to show that Larys Strong was the one who ordered the fire, which is a reasonable inclusion to build his character. Of course, when making these decisions, the show writers are pushing the narrative and ultimately providing the real events. This can be difficult, especially as a book reader, if you had interpreted what happened in the books differently than what is being presented in the show.

With that being said, I have found that the real culprit for my critique of the show is the location of the main characters. This is something that I think also plagued the later seasons of Game of Thrones, but the plot was the main focus of backlash in those last couple seasons, allowing this problem to go overlooked. What do I mean by this? The majority of the point of views that we get in the show are centered around the same few locations. Currently, we have Dragonstone, King's Landing, and Harrenhall as the main focuses of the majority of the characters in the show. And most of the story lines in each location have become rather stagnant. What this causes is getting a fair amount of exposition about events happening around Westeros, rather than getting a glimpse of these incidents. This has led to multiple council scenes where much of the topics are repeated and the focus has been finding a way to avoid war, which in turn means that by the next council scene, not much has moved forward in the plot.

This was especially evident in episodes five and six of season two, as the majority of the events were discussed at councils and were not seen by the viewer. The Riverlands is a prime example of this. Rather than getting some growth of characters and a look into life in the Riverlands, we are stuck at Harrenhall following Daemon and everything we learn about Willem Blackwood's transgressions in the name of the Queen are through quick recaps by other Harrenhall inhabitants or in an odd midnight interruption by the lords of the Riverlands. In my opinion, quick snippets of these events would have strengthened the viewers understanding of the divides between the small houses. I understand budget constraints is probably a main reason for the decision not to include this. However, in my opinion, one of the strongest scenes in the Riverlands so far, was the initial argument we see between the Blackwoods and the Brackens. No battle needed to be shown to understand the severity of their hate for each other. It reminded me of early GOT, where battles were cut (The Battle of the Green Fork in which Tyrion was knocked unconscious), but we still saw the aftermath, rather than just hearing about it from the council.

Two other people left out that could add to the plot, would be Otto Hightower and Daeron Targaryen. Otto has not been shown since leaving Kings Landing, but knowing him, it is unlikely he has stopped scheming just because he was removed from the King's Court. And Daeron has now been mentioned a number of time so that his eventual appearance in the show does not make people confused. However, he has rallied the troops in Oldtown and has set off on his own campaign in the name of the Crown and it would be enjoyable to see his character built up.  

The Dragonseeds story line gave the show a bit of fresh air. However, they were still brought to Dragonstone from Kings Landing rather quickly, so this still did not expand much on the world building. It will be interesting to see if their plots are followed closely in the finale and next season, as that would presumably expand on the scope of the show, if the books are followed in the slightest. Their inclusion as primary point of views would help make the world feel bigger that the show currently current structure allows, which in turn would make it easier to expand on the plot, and in turn, make the show less of a chore to watch. The season finale will be a strong indicator in which direction they plan to go with the show in terms of the scope of their focus.