What is your review of House of the Dragon, season 2, episode 8, "The Queen Who Ever Was"?
08.06.2025 01:52
I’m reminded of GRRM’s interview about writers adopting the class structures of the Middle Ages but none of the consequences: They have scenes where the spunky peasant girl tells off the pretty prince. The pretty prince would have raped the spunky peasant girl. He would have put her in the stocks and then had garbage thrown at her.
This was a hot mess. Uneven, lackluster, and at certain points (sigh Alicent and Rhaenyra) downright concerning for the future of the show.
Daemon’s reconciliation with Rhaenyra was decent and rousing (the ice and fire nonsense notwithstanding). It’s quite a departure from the book, but at this stage I’m honestly just happy to see Matt Smith doing something. Daemon is at his best whipping an army into a battle frenzy and taking action.
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Criston Cole had a decent speech about honor but he’s already such a murderous shit it’s a bit meaningless…a doomed shit at that. And really? Gwayne holding him at sword point and all the men around them just don’t give a fuck? That was weird.
It works that Ulf is slimy and getting a taste of power, but I’m not really buying that a medieval commoner would outright insult the crown prince and try to strong arm the queen at dinner—that’s immediate punishment in this very feudal, stratified society, dragon or no. I could see Ulf starting to throw his weight around once he’s won a battle or gained a lordship, but this feels preemptive, and I really don’t understand Rhaenyra putting up with it.
As usual, the episode looks great and is beautifully shot. The actors are wonderful and perfectly cast. The music is fantastic. But the plot deviations this season are, overall, a steaming pile.
The Tyland-Triarchy thing was ok, but really didn’t feel like a Season finale type of development. That scene went on way too long for characters they’re shoving in at the last minute.
By god, Corlys is boring. He had teeth in season one, but not here. And did him renaming his ship after Rhaenys really warrant The Queen Who Never Was becoming the title of the season finale? Or sort of, as it’s actually titled “The Queen Who Ever Was.” Why ever was? Which queen is that referring to? Rhaenys is dead and Rhaenyra ends up being a pretty shit queen, so….? Small gripe, I know, but still.
Let’s start with what did work, because some things did in isolation.
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Words cannot express how much I hate this. Seriously, what is this shit? Alicent serving up Aegon on a silver platter so she can fuck off into the wilderness? And that insufferable line, “the history books will paint you a cold queen” to retcon literally everything—everything—Alicent does in Fire and Blood. The queen in chains? Alicent slowly losing her mind after years of clinging to power? This deviation is every bit as poorly devised, absurdly sexist and stupidly executed as anything we saw in Season 8 of GOT, and it genuinely makes me concerned for the show’s future. These two women should be mortal enemies at this point—family members have died, including two kids. They’re at war. They. Are. Not. Friends. I’m almost incoherent with how much I despise this.
Jace is ironically the only person having a realistic reaction here in the context of his time and society, but because no one else is, it comes off as disproportionate. However, Jace has now been distilled down to…this in every scene! The character they set up was a decent, brave kid and now he’s just an ass. We wanted Jace in Winterfell and the Pact of Ice and Fire, we got him pouting for six episodes.
What went wrong? The writers’ room did shift around some and appears to have shrunk. I also can’t help but suspect that Miguel Sapochnik’s departure played a role in what we’re getting this season. George RR Martin was also a lot more involved in Season 1, though he didn’t specifically write for it. We’ll probably never know for sure. I’m hard on this season because I really think they had something damn good and interesting in Season 1, and it’s infuriating to see so much of it go to shit.
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A Song of Ice and Fire…for fuck’s sake. I’m tired. They’ve been pushing this all season, and to have Daemon’s extensive Harrenhal arc culminating in…the White Walkers? More than anything, it feels like they’re trying to retroactively fix the painful writing of Season 8 by writing something equally painful and meaningless. We know how this all ends—it isn’t hopeful or inspiring. Why do the Blacks’ motivations have to be tied up in prophecy and noble self-sacrifice and not ambition? No one wants this.
Sigh. And sigh again.
Aemond and Helaena. I liked the raw emotion in both scenes. Aemond is desperate, Helaena shows genuine bravery. Her prophecy was on the nose (did they have to name-drop God’s Eye?) but it was nice to see her show some agency as one of the few decent people in this family. Aemond has no problem throwing his sister into battle, but I didn’t get the sense he would have actually killed her. Interesting to make Helaena the only person who can get away with taking Aemond to task. They could have done a lot more with that dynamic throughout the season. In general, this show really missed the cultivation of human relationships in favor of endless hashing and rehashing.
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Addam (Edit: Alyn, can’t keep them straight) of Hull ripping Corlys a new one. I just thought that speech was super well acted.
Considering how drawn out and redundant this season ultimately was, I honestly have no idea how they’re going to handle the rapid-fire chain of battles and city sacking that now has to take place in Season 3. I suspect they also ultimately tried to stretch Fire and Blood out far beyond the material—for example, doing 4 seasons instead of 3.
Eh.
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