Mild Spoiler Review Of HBO's 'House Of The Dragon' Season 1 Finale
Image Source: Reddit
WARNING: SPOILERS FOR EPISODES 1-9, AND MINOR SPOILER FOR EPISODE 10
Last night’s season finale of House of the Dragon was the best episode of the season by far. While the episode was a welcomed surprise for many fans, unfortunately, others had already seen the episode after it was leaked on Friday. HBO has said that they are looking into the leak and that they believe it was leaked by one of their overseas distributors. This is the first issue House of the Dragon has had with episodes leaking early, but its predecessor was all too familiar with the practice. Thankfully, the leak of the episode did not ruin it for fans that chose to wait for the actual release.
Since we will not have the opportunity to discuss this episode in length in a review next week this review will contain MINOR SPOILERS! I will not include any major spoilers of the episode.
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The season finale picked up exactly where Episode 9 left off. Daemon and Rhaenyra were unaware that Viserys has died and that Aegon has been crowned king. Upon learning the news, Rhaenyra went into premature labor, and fans were given a birthing scene that may rival Aemma’s tragic scene in the series premiere. As Rhaenyra was in labor, Daemon began planning for war with the Hightowers and anyone that allied with Aegon.
In a truly beautiful moment, Rhaenyra had her own crowning ceremony in Dragonstone with a crown that fans will recognize immediately. This was one of the major catalysts of the episode as Rhaenyra officially stepped into her role as queen. Although Daemon wished to go immediately to war, Rhaenyra instead used her brain to work on how to strategically grow their numbers before going after the Hightowers. In the heat of their strategizing, Otto Hightower arrived at Dragonstone with “generous terms” from the king in an attempt to force Rhaenyra and her family to bend the knee to Aegon. He leaned on the fact that Rhaenyra and Alicent had once been close and hoped that this would force her hand.
Image Source: IMDb
This episode not only gave fans more dragons than we have seen all season but mentioned other dragons as well. This hinted at what we would see in the second season. Fans also saw that Lord Corlys has recovered, and from his few scenes in the episode, we can expect him to be a main player in the next season as well.
The final twenty minutes of the episode were heart-pounding and suspenseful that were not seen in earlier episodes. The cinematography was stunning. The gutwrenching conclusion perfectly foreshadowed what is to come. Fans also saw what finally pushed Rhaenyra to war, and it had nothing to do with the Iron Throne.
Image Source: IMDb
The only thing I did not like about tonight’s episode was the treatment of fan-favorite Daemon Targaryen. One of the showrunners, Sara Hess, has made it clear in interviews that she does not understand why fans like his character. Prior to last night’s finale, she promised that we would see a side to Daemon that we had not seen before. This “different side” to his character manifested as violence towards his wife, something that seemed completely out of character for him.
Season 1 was truly a sight to behold both in story and cinematography. The finale promised a more violent and Game of Thrones-esque season two.
The entire first season of House of the Dragon is available to stream on HBO Max.
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Source(s): Variety, Screen Rant
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