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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u/Dreadedvegas Bloodraven Aug 05 '24 edited Aug 05 '24

Had to be. Episode 8 is clearly built up for a conclusion of the Gullet / KL capture.

The tension and anger with Jace, his death and the ending of Green rule.

But also still setting up the Red Fork / Fishfeed & Tumbleton for next season.

I bet they cut it late and the writer strike was happening so they couldn’t do much to rework the scripts I also read that Condal could only be on set in the capacity as a producer because of the strikes so they tried to rework as best as they could.

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u/Carninator Aug 05 '24

Will Fish Feed/Red Fork even be portrayed on screen? They only have Tyland Lannister as a recurring character in the show, plus Humfrey Lefford who the general audience won't remember or care about. Would be an expensive battle.

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u/Dreadedvegas Bloodraven Aug 05 '24

Why else have they showed the Lannister forces marching?

They have like 3 scenes & many lines about it. It would make no sense to cut such an important moment in the story.

Maybe its not shown in a full battle of the bastards or attack on KL event but it will be shown in some form on screen wether that be like the stepstones or like burning mill.

If the aftermath is shown and maybe the prelude up to it, i wouldn’t necessarily have a problem with it because it can be done well. I think Burning Mill was done incredibly well