The ‘Home of the Dragon’ Season 2 finale, defined

This season on Home of the Dragon, we endured the horrors of Blood and Cheese, witnessed the pivotal battle of Rook’s Relaxation, and welcomed new dragonriders following the fiery Pink Sowing. Now, we come to the finale, and the outcomes are… a tad underwhelming.

Do not get me fallacious, the Season 2 finale is in no way a nasty episode of Home of the Dragon. That emotional reunion between Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent (Olivia Cooke) alone is value heaps and heaps of reward. Plus, there are many juicy lore tidbits that trace at large issues forward for the present.

Sadly, when it comes to ending Season 2 with a bang, this finale fails to ship. It performs extra like a mid-season episode or a “next-on” trailer for Season 3 than a satisfying conclusion to Season 2.

It does not assist that essentially the most thrilling footage from the finale’s trailer, together with marching armies, naval motion, and our first glimpse at Prince Daeron’s dragon Tessarion, have little or no bearing on the finale itself. They’re the definition of trailer fodder, and whereas they might have set expectations for an action-filled finale, the fact — like a lot of Home of the Dragon Season 2 — is a a lot slower, extra dialogue-driven affair. Fairly a little bit of it lands, whereas different components drag the momentum of what ought to have been a extra propulsive episode of TV.

Nonetheless, it is clear from this finale that Home of the Dragon is maneuvering itself into place for a number of key battles sooner or later. (However would any of them have labored higher as closers to Season 2? Completely.) From new political alliances to mysterious visions, let’s break down what occurs in Home of the Dragon‘s Season 2 finale — and what it might imply for the long run.

Tyland Lannister has the worst time of his life in Essos.

Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Corridor) is not any stranger to bullying. Bear in mind his short-lived beef with child Jaehaerys in Season 2’s first episode, when the 2 dueled over his treasured Small Council ball? However Home of the Dragon‘s Season 2 finale takes Tyland’s powerful occasions up a notch with a go to to Essos, the place he hopes to safe an alliance with the Triarchy on Aemond’s (Ewan Mitchell) orders.

Members of the Triarchy — representing the Free Cities of Lys, Tyrosh, and Myr — canine stroll Tyland throughout their negotiations. They get him to cede the Stepstones to them in alternate for his or her naval help. It is actually not the tradeoff Tyland would have wished, however not less than the Triarchy’s fleet can go break up the Velaryon blockade within the Gullet now, proper? Proper?

Not so quick! First, Tyland has to show himself to Lysene commander Sharako Lohar (Abigail Thorn). His trials — or actually, Lysene hazing — embody mud wrestling and singing for Lohar’s leisure. Don’t fret, although: Lohar takes an actual liking to Tyland, sufficient to ask him to impregnate his personal wives and pledge his navy to King’s Touchdown.

“To the Gullet on the morrow!” Lohar crows to his males. Sadly, the “morrow” for these characters is trying extra like 2026 (or at any time when Season 3 comes out) for us, as we do not see any naval clashing this episode.

Tensions rise on Dragonstone and Driftmark.

Talking of the Gullet, let’s pop over to Dragonstone and Driftmark, the place warfare is within the air. (However when is it not?)

On Driftmark, Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) is able to be part of the blockade on his mended warship the Sea Snake, which he is renamed the Queen Who By no means Was in honor of Princess Rhaenys (Eve Greatest). Becoming a member of him is his first mate and bastard son Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim). But Alyn stays unenthused about his promotion.

In one of many finale’s greatest scenes, he breaks his characteristically stoic countenance to offer Corlys a heartbreaking dressing-down. He particulars the struggles he and his brother Addam (Clinton Liberty) confronted of their youth, particularly when in comparison with the soft lifetime of Corlys’s trueborn son Laenor. The truth that Corlys solely turned to Alyn as soon as his official heirs have been useless can also be not misplaced on Alyn, who spurns any additional assist or favor from his father as they head off to warfare.

Bastard tensions linger in Dragonstone as effectively. Freshly minted dragonrider Ulf the White (Tom Bennett) is a little too comfy in his new position. He is placing his toes up on Dragonstone’s famed Painted Desk, ordering servants round, poking at Jacaerys’ (Harry Collett) illegitimacy — briefly, he is appearing like he is king of the citadel. Final I checked, that was nonetheless Rhaenyra, Ulf! His fellow new dragonriders Addam and Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew) are way more respectful of Rhaenyra, however Ulf’s angle already spells bother for the subsequent phases of Rhaenyra’s plan.

What’s that plan, precisely? Nicely, now that Rhaenyra has way more dragons at her disposal than Aemond, she plans to face him head-on and take the Iron Throne. Nevertheless, an assault on King’s Touchdown would kill 1000’s of innocents, sowing discord and worry throughout Westeros as an alternative of uniting the realm. This rigidity between putting for victory and risking unnecessary homicide is the dilemma Rhaenyra has been dealing with all season. It is why she did not retaliate additional after Jaehaerys’s loss of life, and why she waited so lengthy to unleash a dragon in fight.

Now she has all of the firepower wanted to finish the warfare — however does she have the merciless streak to do it?

Aemond has a mood tantrum, and Alicent and Helaena need no a part of it.

As Staff Black rejoices of their three new dragonriders, Aemond is in shambles. He takes Vhagar on a joyride, with slightly aspect serving to of loss of life and destruction alongside the way in which. The victims of Aemond’s rage? The whole city of Sharp Level, burned to a crisp, with no thought for the individuals who reside inside. (Or how the realm will react once they discover out of this slaughter.)

Mashable High Tales

Aemond’s subsequent step to rally his dragonriders doesn’t go based on plan. He turns to Helaena (Phia Saban), ordering her to fly Dreamfyre into battle. However as Rhaenyra stated earlier within the episode, Helaena has no style for dragonriding. She refuses to burn individuals, and Alicent does not need the perfect and most mild member of her household to face any extra ache.

Not even threats from Aemond can change Helaena’s thoughts. As a substitute, she hits him with a one-two punch courtesy of her prescient dreaming means. First, she tells him that she is aware of he burned Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) at Rook’s Relaxation. Then, she delivers a knockout within the type of a prophecy: Aegon might be king once more sooner or later, whereas Aemond will die. “You are swallowed up in the Gods Eye,” she tells him, referring to the big lake apart from Harrenhal.

Helaena’s phrases are per Aegon and Aemond’s fates in George R.R. Martin’s Hearth & Blood, so until Home of the Dragon makes some shocking strikes, Helaena simply advised us precisely what is going to occur within the present’s subsequent seasons. If Aemond desires to outlive, perhaps he ought to heed his sister’s spoiler warning — though as she says when he threatens to kill her, it would not change something.

Daemon has one final Harrenhal imaginative and prescient — of Daenerys Targaryen herself.

Helaena’s dreaming powers are working time beyond regulation on this finale, as she additionally seems in a weirwood imaginative and prescient Daemon (Matt Smith) has at Harrenhal. However in contrast to Daemon’s different visions, which he skilled involuntarily, this can be a imaginative and prescient he chooses.

Witch Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) guides him to Harrenhal’s weirwood tree in the midst of the night time, telling him how being at Harrenhal has opened him up, and the way he is realized he cannot merely bend the world to his will. Now, she provides him the selection to see the omens the world needs to offer him. He accepts, and launches into the final — and trippiest — of his Season 2 visions.

Right here, he sees visions of warfare and doom, together with the White Walkers main a military of loss of life. He additionally sees a pale-haired man (Joshua Ben-Tovim) sitting in a weirwood tree. A birthmark on his face morphs right into a three-eyed raven, implying that this man is Brynden Rivers, aka Bloodraven. A Targaryen bastard and former Commander of the Evening’s Watch, Brynden is most recognized to Recreation of Thrones followers because the Three-Eyed Raven, Bran’s greenseer mentor.

However by far the buzziest Recreation of Thrones reference in Daemon’s imaginative and prescient is the looks of none apart from Daenerys Targaryen herself, simply after the start of her three dragons. Her presence right here proves that Home Targaryen will persevere and stand in opposition to the specter of the Lengthy Evening, even when Daemon is unaware of the a long time of tragedy that may befall his Home between now and her start.

One final imaginative and prescient of Rhaenyra on the Iron Throne and a useful nudge from Helaena push Daemon to do what he ought to have accomplished from the start of the warfare: bend the knee to Rhaenyra. The selection is a product of all of the ghostly visits that got here earlier than this, by which younger Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell), and Viserys (Paddy Considine) pressured him to query his want for the crown. Now, understanding that Westeros wants somebody to unite the realm within the face of loss of life and destruction, Daemon is greater than prepared to face behind Rhaenyra. I am positive Willem Blackwood (Jack Parry-Jones) and the members of Home Bracken who suffered at his arms would have cherished for this determination to come back sooner, however higher late than by no means!

Alicent involves Rhaenyra with a game-changing proposal.

There are not any large battles in Home of the Dragon‘s Season 2 finale, however this ultimate confrontation between Rhaenyra and Alicent cuts deeper than any knife.

After a season of being belittled and pushed to the aspect, Alicent has lastly realized the folly within the order that she fought so exhausting to uphold for all of her life. She by no means knew something however the obligation Otto (Rhys Ifans) and the realm pressured upon her — what would she have chosen to do had she been capable of reside her life any in a different way? She makes an attempt to make a daring new alternative now, assembly Rhaenyra on Dragonstone to suggest a deal that would finish the warfare.

At first, Rhaenyra does not wish to hear it, rightfully mentioning Alicent’s hypocrisy. Alicent slandered Rhaenyra’s advantage, then later selected to take a lover when it suited her. Alicent kickstarted the warfare by crowning Aegon and turned down Rhaenyra’s try and sue for peace. Now she desires to do the identical?

Nevertheless, Alicent’s proposal is just too good for Rhaenyra to show down outright. When Aemond flies to Harrenhal, Alicent says, she is going to give up King’s Touchdown to Rhaenyra. All she asks is that she and Helaena are capable of go free. Rhaenyra accepts, on one situation: Alicent should give up Aegon to Rhaenyra. Solely his loss of life will actually safe her declare to the throne.

What follows is a heartbreaking silence as Alicent weighs her personal life, Helaena’s life, and the way forward for the realm in opposition to the lifetime of her eldest son. She tearfully nods, unable to even voice the settlement. The selection comes as considerably of a shock to Rhaenyra. “History will paint you a villain,” she tells Alicent. But Alicent does not care, hoping to really reside as herself for the primary time since her youth.

The whole scene is a full circle second for Rhaenyra and Alicent, who might have agreed on a plan of action however who may by no means be farther aside when it comes to their relationship to energy and their locations on this warfare. Alicent is at peace with giving up any of the facility she thought she as soon as held: Gone are her signature darkish inexperienced wardrobe and any symbols of the Religion of the Seven. As a substitute, she wears a brand new, lighter shade of blue, per the concept of rebirth we noticed when she swam in a lake in episode 7. In a pleasant element, we additionally see her nervously biting her nails, simply as younger Alicent (Emily Carey) did within the first few episodes of Home of the Dragon, suggesting that Alicent has reverted in some methods to her youthful self.

In the meantime, Rhaenyra stays squarely centered on taking the Iron Throne, along with her insistence that Alicent select Aegon’s destiny appearing as the final word energy play. It additionally calls to thoughts Jaehaerys’s homicide, particularly with the brutal return of the road, “a son for a son.” And whereas Alicent gladly relinquishes her spot within the historical past books, even asking Rhaenyra to come back along with her, Rhaenyra stays firmly on the warpath. “Whether I will it or no,” she tells Alicent. The road suggests a reversal between the 2: Now it is Rhaenyra who’s given up alternative, whereas Alicent is selecting to stroll away.

Nonetheless, regardless of all their variations, there is a heat between the 2 as they half methods, proof of the love they’ve all the time had for each other. Sadly, given the opposite many shifting items at play right here, it is fairly probably this duo’s plan in the direction of peace will crumble proper at first of Season 3.

The board is about. The items are shifting. We simply have to attend till Season 3.

The primary downside with Alicent’s plan? Aegon is now not in King’s Touchdown. Larys Robust (Matthew Needham) is smuggling him to Braavos, so there is no method she may give him as much as Rhaenyra. There isn’t any method Rhaenyra sees Aegon’s departure as something however a betrayal from Alicent, so contemplate that alliance toastier than one in every of Vermithor’s Pink Sowing victims come Season 3.

Aegon and Larys’s street journey reveal is only one of many who comes within the montage that closes out Home of the Dragon Season 2. We additionally see numerous armies marching in the direction of the Riverlands for battle: the Hightower host rides with Daeron and his dragon Tessarion from Oldtown, the Winter Wolves cross the Twins on their method south, and the Lannisters are actually inside eyeshot of Harrenhal. On the naval aspect of issues, Tyland and Lohar sail in the direction of the Gullet — presumably to interrupt the blockade “on the morrow” — whereas Corlys and Alyn experience out to affix the combat. Oh, and Otto’s in jail! And Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) has discovered the wild dragon within the Vale! And the brand new dragonriders are suiting up for the primary time!

It is a jam-packed montage that actually teases large issues to come back in Season 3, however as an ending, it feels overstuffed and underdeveloped. Why could not Rhaena have gone on her dragon tenting journey in episode 7, proper after she left on her quest? Why aren’t we getting any motion in regards to the blockade, particularly since that is a confrontation that is been teased for the reason that very first episode of Season 2? Why do none of those arcs really feel totally accomplished?

Solely Daemon’s return to Rhaenyra and Rhaenyra’s relationship with Alicent really feel like they’ve reached their pure conclusion this season, and the finale chooses to give attention to the latter as its ultimate picture. Simply as it has been doing for the reason that very begin of Season 2, Home of the Dragon locations Rhaenyra and Alicent in parallel. We see comparable pictures of them each from behind. Rhaenyra is framed by the cabinets holding the various historic scrolls and household data of Home Targaryen, whereas Alicent stands on a cliff edge at Dragonstone, watching the solar rise. One is now endlessly held inside the framework of her Home and its nice historical past, whereas the opposite hopes for freedom.

In fact, that would all change on the morrow. (Or in Season 3.)

Home of the Dragon Season 2 is now streaming on Max.

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Home of the Dragon