Though Emma D’Arcy’s Rhaenyra and Matt Smith’s Daemon are the faces of House of the Dragon, their arcs in this season were too stretched.
The second season of House of the Dragon completed its run quite successfully earlier this month. The prequel series deemed itself worthy of being called a spinoff of Game of Thrones, with several callbacks from the original series. However, it wasn’t devoid of criticism.
One of the main criticisms about the second season was its slow pacing, which was also seen in the earlier seasons of Game of Thrones. But the character arcs of two of its main characters, Daemon and Rhaenyra, felt too stretched than deemed necessary.
Daemon and Rhaenyra’s unnecessarily long arcs in House of the Dragon Season 2
House of the Dragon Season 2 began on a high note and reached a series best by the middle of this season, when dragons clashed in the air in the Battle of the Rook’s Rest. Both Greens and Blacks suffered significant losses, though the result was in favor of the Greens.
However, it went downhill from there, as the Targaryen saga dived deep into political struggles and mental issues. Rhaenyra got extremely busy trying to assert her dominance in the Black Council, as she faced more opposition after Rhaenys’ death.
On the other hand, Daemon was facing his inner demons via his trippy dreams at Harrenhal. While the two eventually sort out their issues by the season finale, their personal journeys seem to be occupying the bulk of this chapter’s storyline, ignoring some other important characters.
Daemon and Rhaenyra’s storyline could’ve been compressed
As much as fans love Rhaenyra and Daemon, their individual struggles seemed to be quite stretched out in House of the Dragon. A lot of them felt dissatisfied with the unnecessarily long arcs, and missing several major plot points like that of Prince Daeron or Jace’s interaction with Cregan Stark.
Whatever the reason be, it seems like the House of the Dragon showrunner and writers wanted Season 2 to be all about preparation, and sorting things straight before the major battles to come. And it came at the expense of other characters, who perhaps deserved more screentime, or an introduction at least.