The second season finale of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” spin-off “House of the Dragon” has aired, and with it has come a wave of complaints about how the episode was more a trailer for next season than a proper finale (namely it lacked a battle).
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
One of the most talked about elements is Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) getting a vision while in Harrenhal and placing his hand on a weirwood tree.
The result is glimpses of himself drowning, a dead dragon, the three-eye raven, White Walkers and their army marching for The Wall, and Daenerys Targaryen with her three baby dragons in the ‘Thrones’ first season finale.
In an interview with Variety, director Geeta Vasant Patel spoke about creating the vision saying it “had to tell the story to Daemon of the history of his people and that Rhaenyra needed to be on the throne.”
The result was making sure the included scenes were part of the natural storytelling, saying that otherwise:
“[It] just became a montage that has no meaning. If this is going to be in this vision, what purpose does it play? What part of the story is it telling? How much do we need to tell the story?
That’s why you don’t see a lot of extra stuff. There could have been, but that’s not the point. If we don’t focus on the point of the story, it just becomes a montage that has no meaning.”
He was also asked about the scene immediately after the vision in which Helaena tells Aemond that he will be swallowed up by the Gods Eye. Asked if we’ll see that vision play out next season, he says:
“I can get in trouble if I reveal anything. I will say that when we shot that scene, it was amazing. We had a huge stage, and created these stations. Each station was a moment of that vision. For the drowning, I had wanted a tank, but we didn’t have enough money for an actual tank with water.
When I got the storyboards done, somebody in the meeting was like ‘What if it’s dragon’s blood instead of water?’ That’s amazing! So we darkened the water into blood, and we ended up shooting it dry for wet – there’s no water actually. It’s just Matt Smith hanging from a rig with fans blowing on him so it looks like he’s underwater”
He also adds that when it came to shooting the White Walker, everybody came down to the set that day to watch them shoot it. The second season finale is now available via Max.