Yes, something was off in House of the Dragon's season 2 finale, because the crew wanted to give an anticipated book moment 'the space that it deserves'
If you’re one of the House of the Dragon fans that have come away a bit underwhelmed by the season 2 finale, that’s probably because the crew is keeping something big for season 3.
Not every season finale is going to be a belter, and for some fans, that was the case for House of the Dragon season 2. I wouldn’t worry about the show too much, as it will be getting two more seasons (with season 4 being the last one), but still, it’s understandable if you were wondering where a particular moment you might have been expecting ended up. Showrunner Ryan Condal recently spoke at a press conference to explain where The Battle of the Gullet is, a highly anticipated moment from the books, and mostly it sounds like the reason for its absence is a budgetary one.
“One of the challenges of making television at any scale [is] nobody has infinite time and resources,” Condal explained. “When you’re a showrunner, you’re always in the position of having to balance storytelling and the resources that you have to tell that story… We wanted to rebalance the story in such a way that we had three great seasons of television [after season one] to round out and tell this story. When you’re trying to mount the show, which requires a tremendous amount of resources, construction, armour, costumes, visual effects… we are trying to give The Gullet – which is arguably the second most anticipated action event of Fire & Blood – trying to give it the time and the space that it deserves.”
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