I’ve also not read the full story, although have read all of GRRMs “Beware the Butterflies”, which contains spoilers.
Perhaps pacing issues is the best way to look at it, but I also forgave a lot of Game of Thrones season 6 & 7 for their pacing issues, with the assumptions that the pace was off I ordered to tell the final story properly. (As we all know, it wasn’t just pacing… Or pacing issues so extreme that it ruined actual issues.)
The biggest individual scene that comes to mind in season 2 is Rhaenys & Meleys bursting through the floor. It was a cool scene, but it just seemed so out of character and reckless. It’s overall minor and I can rationalize it, but apart from the shock it felt odd.
The second big thing is Daemon. I’m not sure what he was doing all season. Part of that might just be we need to use Matt Smith since we’re paying him, but after season one his season two story just seemed so strange and weak.
I’m far from writing the show off, but season 2 was definitely weaker than season 1, and with an especially weak ending. I fully expect season 3 to win me back, especially with season four being a planned ending. But if GRRM is worried, I’m worried. He might be wrong, and I hope that for the overall story he is.
The second big thing is Daemon. I’m not sure what he was doing all season. Part of that might just be we need to use Matt Smith since we’re paying him, but after season one his season two story just seemed so strange and weak.
I’ve heard this complaint before and I don’t really understand it. I thought it was pretty clear that the entire arc of the character in Season 2 was there to build tension around his rift with Rhaenyra. His character is setup as one that is selfish and envious with desires for the throne, so there is a question mark over where his allegiance lies. This ties in with a lot of the stress that builds on Rhaenyra throughout Season 2. Her position looks increasingly weak, particularly without Daemon and his dragon, but just when it’s looking most bleak he reaffirms his loyalty to her in that pretty epic scene in the throne room at Harrenhal. I thought Season 2 was a really great comeback arc for Rhaenyra, and Daemon plays a big role in that.
I will admit that the stuff with Alys Rivers and Daemon’s hallucinations/dreams/visions(?) was quite confusing. I think any time the TV shows try to bring in this pagan stuff with the trees, seers, etc, it causes problems because they just haven’t laid any of the groundwork for a TV-only viewer to fully understand what is happening. Contributing to this confusion was that I was also aware of the concept of Targaryen madness, so I thought maybe he was just going insane. My takeaway was that this was also supposed to symbolise the internal grief he was dealing with as he wrestled with his own ambition, and that the final vision he had at the tree was sort of a confirmation of what part of him already knew to be true (that Rhaenyra should rule). Maybe this stuff distracted, rather than aided, the core character arc and that’s why people felt like he did nothing when he was actually one of the pivotal characters in Season 2.
Also I kinda disagree with this narrative that Season 2 had a weak ending. It’s a comeback arc that finishes on the comeback, it was a very suitable ending for this phase of the story. Sometimes I feel like people just want to see action and big battles, or they view the show as one big continuous story instead of one divided into smaller parts, but that’s not how I see it at all. For Season 2 to have worked as Part 2, it needed to end as it did. Starting a giant battle in one of the final episodes would have completely undermined the rest of the season. As I said, there were definitely pacing issues which contributed to a lot of padding towards the latter stages of the season (constantly cutting back to Rhaena running around doing nothing was really egregious) but I think overall it worked well to setup bigger and more direct confrontations in Season 3 and 4.
I’ve also not read the full story, although have read all of GRRMs “Beware the Butterflies”, which contains spoilers.
Perhaps pacing issues is the best way to look at it, but I also forgave a lot of Game of Thrones season 6 & 7 for their pacing issues, with the assumptions that the pace was off I ordered to tell the final story properly. (As we all know, it wasn’t just pacing… Or pacing issues so extreme that it ruined actual issues.)
The biggest individual scene that comes to mind in season 2 is Rhaenys & Meleys bursting through the floor. It was a cool scene, but it just seemed so out of character and reckless. It’s overall minor and I can rationalize it, but apart from the shock it felt odd.
The second big thing is Daemon. I’m not sure what he was doing all season. Part of that might just be we need to use Matt Smith since we’re paying him, but after season one his season two story just seemed so strange and weak.
I’m far from writing the show off, but season 2 was definitely weaker than season 1, and with an especially weak ending. I fully expect season 3 to win me back, especially with season four being a planned ending. But if GRRM is worried, I’m worried. He might be wrong, and I hope that for the overall story he is.
I’ve heard this complaint before and I don’t really understand it. I thought it was pretty clear that the entire arc of the character in Season 2 was there to build tension around his rift with Rhaenyra. His character is setup as one that is selfish and envious with desires for the throne, so there is a question mark over where his allegiance lies. This ties in with a lot of the stress that builds on Rhaenyra throughout Season 2. Her position looks increasingly weak, particularly without Daemon and his dragon, but just when it’s looking most bleak he reaffirms his loyalty to her in that pretty epic scene in the throne room at Harrenhal. I thought Season 2 was a really great comeback arc for Rhaenyra, and Daemon plays a big role in that.
I will admit that the stuff with Alys Rivers and Daemon’s hallucinations/dreams/visions(?) was quite confusing. I think any time the TV shows try to bring in this pagan stuff with the trees, seers, etc, it causes problems because they just haven’t laid any of the groundwork for a TV-only viewer to fully understand what is happening. Contributing to this confusion was that I was also aware of the concept of Targaryen madness, so I thought maybe he was just going insane. My takeaway was that this was also supposed to symbolise the internal grief he was dealing with as he wrestled with his own ambition, and that the final vision he had at the tree was sort of a confirmation of what part of him already knew to be true (that Rhaenyra should rule). Maybe this stuff distracted, rather than aided, the core character arc and that’s why people felt like he did nothing when he was actually one of the pivotal characters in Season 2.
Also I kinda disagree with this narrative that Season 2 had a weak ending. It’s a comeback arc that finishes on the comeback, it was a very suitable ending for this phase of the story. Sometimes I feel like people just want to see action and big battles, or they view the show as one big continuous story instead of one divided into smaller parts, but that’s not how I see it at all. For Season 2 to have worked as Part 2, it needed to end as it did. Starting a giant battle in one of the final episodes would have completely undermined the rest of the season. As I said, there were definitely pacing issues which contributed to a lot of padding towards the latter stages of the season (constantly cutting back to Rhaena running around doing nothing was really egregious) but I think overall it worked well to setup bigger and more direct confrontations in Season 3 and 4.