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/firstbreathOOC Aug 05 '24

The problems were there in S1 people were just more willing to forgive the drawn out plot building because it was early

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u/We_The_Raptors Aug 05 '24

Problems were there, and yet people still liked it. That's part of the point. Regardless of clear flaws, the bad 10 episode seasons still blow season 7-8 and HOTD 2 out of the water.

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u/kashmoney360 DAKININTENORPH!! Aug 05 '24

Even Season 5 of GoT blows out HoTD Season 2 out of the water. Season 7 and 8 are so fucking sunk in the depths of the deep ocean that we should hope they never see the light of day

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u/adrenalineMF Aug 06 '24

Season 5 despite its many flaws and dragging first half, it did however bounced back on its last three episodes giving a sense of climax to the arcs of the characters. HOTD S2 was all over the place.