House of the Dragon
Most House of the Dragon fans weren’t too happy with last weekend’s highly anticlimactic Season 2 finale, as they felt it should lead to a big battle next week, not two years from now.
Showrunner Ryan Condal responded to those comments and provided some level of explanation to journalists at a virtual press conference. What does it ultimately come down to? The budget and its use spread over many eras.
“One of the challenges of doing television on any scale [is] no one has infinite time and resources. When you’re a presenter, you’re always in a position where you have to balance the narrative and the resources you have to tell that story.”
Condal says he wants to give the Battle of Gullett the “time and space” it deserves. Although some fans would argue that “time” would be the entire eight-episode season. But here, you can see the results of what can change when you cut Season 1’s ten episodes down to eight in Season 2, undoubtedly another budget-driven movie with episode costs estimated at less than $20 million an episode.
House of the Dragon
While Game of Thrones has always been heavy on VFX, House of the Dragon has…lots of dragons, tons of FX work that is no doubt extremely expensive almost every episode.
However, with Battle of the Gullet starting Season 3 in two years, it stands to reason that there will be a long break before more action anywhere near significant. I wonder if one of the reasons it was pushed is because it might take two weeks instead of one.
While HBO is indeed having success with House of the Dragon, it’s not a repeat of Game of Thrones’ world-changing numbers, despite the cost being the same or higher, which can be a problem. Not that Game of Thrones hasn’t faced its own budget issues, which have led to shorter seasons or often skipped battles as the story progressed.
However, it seems like there was a better way to structure this and at least have it some climactic turn in the finale, even if it wasn’t the full battle. There wasn’t that, and as a result, a consistently negative reaction to the finale across the board, capping off a season where many fans felt not enough happened from start to finish due to languid plots and characters that were stuck at certain points. . We’ll see if that changes for Season 3. In two years. Two whole years.
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