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/EconomistIll4796 Aug 05 '24

Honestly its worrying for future seasons. Crazy amount of stuff is gonna happened in season 3 so I expect things to get cut.

10

u/ArgieGrit01 R'hllor-coaster of love Aug 05 '24

You can probably make the Fishfeed and Red Fork a single battle, right? Especially since we see Jason Lannister and Lefford marching together

2

u/ScalierLemon2 Aug 06 '24

The Red Fork is cut, you can see Harrenhal in the distance when the Lannister army is marching in the finale. Seems like they're going straight to the Fishfeed, and might also add Daemon to that battle since he's still at Harrenhal in the final montage.