House of the Dragon Season 2 Most Annoying Trend Was a Reasonable Choice After All

House of the Dragon ’s second season was quite a big deal last year, and not only because it was finally there after 2 long years of wait that its viewers had to endure.

The latest instalment’s arrival was soon followed by harsh criticism of probably all the essential elements of the show, including some senseless plot twists and the distance that House of the Dragon took from its source material, George Martin ’s Fire & Blood.

Still, the whole slamming campaign against Game of Thrones ’ prequel started long before the second season’s first episode was dropped, though now it feels like HBO’s execs, who took all the heat, probably had no other choice anyway.

House of the Dragon Season 2 Had Less Episodes Than Season 1 For a Reason

Several weeks before the second season premiered on Max, it was revealed that House of the Dragon had now adapted a new strategy, aiming for reducing the number of episodes per season and thus including only 8 episodes in the latest instalment and all other upcoming seasons, while the show’s first instalment had 10 episodes.

There was no explanation for this at the time whatsoever, but some more details about the whole matter emerged only recently. That said, HBO made some major changes in its initial plans back in 2023 when Hollywood was swirled with massive strikes; by making a cut to 8 episodes, the studio wanted to be sure that House of the Dragon’s second season won’t have to change its premiere date and will arrive on the platform just as planned.

Additionally, the same strikes probably shook the industry quite well since HBO also made a decision to try reducing its expenses — considering that House of the Dragon might be the company’s most ambitious and thus expensive project yet, this does make sense.

HBO’s New Tactics Isn’t Good News for House of the Dragon

It’s fair to say the show hasn’t really experienced a major decline with the second season since its first instalment had its own issues too, but the company’s decision to go from 10 episodes to just 8 made it all even worse.

House of the Dragon’s fans have repeatedly stated that the series’ quality got even lower, and now it all just looks weird considering how uneventful and disappointing the second season was, while those two missing episodes could’ve added something that the previous ones didn’t manage to.

The situation is even more frustrating when reminded that House of the Dragon’s next season will arrive roughly 2 years after the latest one’s premiere, which feels like too much wait for a show that just isn’t as good as it could be.