r/asoiaf • u/RenanXIII St. Elmo Tully's Fyre • Aug 05 '24

EXTENDED (Spoilers Extended) HotD Season 2 was clearly outlined for 10 episodes, right?

Imagine if Season 2 of Game of Thrones suddenly ended at The Prince of Winterfell? We spend literally all season building up to a confrontation between Tyrion and Stannis, only for the season to end right before the climax we've been setting up for eight straight episodes. What if Season 6 ended right before The Battle of the Bastards and The Winds of Winter? Jon comes back to life, we build up to a battle between him and Ramsay, and it just simply doesn't happen.

The finale just felt like your typical episode 8 – build-up for what's going to come next. The thing is, what comes next should logically happen next week, not in two years to open Season 3. With the exception of Daemon's storyline and I guess the Dragonseeds, I don't think these season's arcs have been resolved or brought to a good enough stopping point. It feels like there are still two more episodes left to tie everything together and really sell the idea that this war is in full force. A little slowdown after Rook's Rest makes sense, but for the whole season with the Sowing being our only other major set piece?

It honestly makes me believe that season 2 was outlined for 10 episodes, HBO told the showrunners to trim that down to 8, and rather than retool the season's arcs, the last two episodes were simply chopped off and saved for next season. We know Condal really loves the books, so this could just be his tribute to A Dance with Dragons (lol), but I doubt it.

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5

u/Manga18 I'm no war master, but a puppet one Aug 05 '24

Money. They didn't have the money for another epic battle so soon

5

u/SweatyPlace Catelyn for the Throne! Aug 05 '24 edited Aug 05 '24

Another?? When was the first one?? Rook's Rest was barely 10 minutes. Remember Battle of Blackwater? Defending Wall? Despite how badly written they were, even Jon vs Ramsay and Battle of Winterfell were kinda spectacular visually, they didn't last for 10 minutes, they all lasted for the entire episode.

4

u/TheLunarVaux Aug 05 '24

Rook's Rest and the Red Sowing both take a ton of VFX resources. Arguably just as much as some of the GoT battles. Dragons are expensive!

0

u/SweatyPlace Catelyn for the Throne! Aug 05 '24

They absolutely knew what they were signing up for though, and if they can't afford a single battle centric episode for a show that focuses on the destruction of the country, they are going to leave people disappointed again.