'House of the Dragon' Director Responds To Backlash After Battle-Free Finale

House of the Dragon viewers have now had a few days to process that relatively bloodless Season 2 finale, and some of the more vocal fans out there are still raging. Where was the fire? Where was the blood? And most importantly, where was the Battle of the Gullet that book readers believed the past few episodes were leading to?

Instead, “The Queen Who Ever Was” ended without any battles — at least not physical ones. The episode’s climatic scene was a lengthy conversation between Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent (Olivia Cooke), the latter of whom clandestinely traveled to Dragonstone to convince her former friend to end the war before it gets any bloodier.

While the scene showcased tour de force acting from D’Arcy and Cooke, the lack of a battle left some viewers so incensed that showrunner Ryan Condal was forced to defend his decision to end the season on a mellow scene.

“When you’re trying to mount the show, which requires a tremendous amount of resources, construction, armor, 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,” Condal said in a press conference after the finale aired. “We are building to that event that will happen very shortly in terms of the storytelling, and it should be the biggest thing to date that we’ve pulled off. We just wanted to have the time and the space to do that at a level that is going to excite and satisfy the fans in the way it’s deserved. We also wanted to build some anticipation toward it.”

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Geeta Vasant Patel, who directed the Season 2 finale, also has no qualms about what she put on the screen — although she has seen some of the criticism.

“I was definitely overwhelmed by all the people, all the reviewers and the fans that wanted war,” she told Parade after the episode’s debut. “It definitely gives you a minute of pause, but that's not something I could have brought to them. I know how I feel at the end of my work. I know who I am as a director.”

Patel also encouraged viewers to remember that high drama doesn’t necessarily need high action to pack a punch.

“A really strong dramatic scene can be as heart-thumping as an action scene,” she explained. “I don't think you need to have action to make something feel like a season finale. And in fact, I think an interpersonal scene of that length is bold and brave. The fact that it was electric and worked as well as it did, in my opinion, that's something to applaud, because you're out there naked without the bells and whistles of blood and fire and dragons. All you have are two people in dresses. And that is incredible that Sara Hess wrote that scene, that Ryan Condal had the vision for that scene, and that we had that scene in there in its entirety. … Not everybody's going to like it, but I applaud them for being strong and visionary and sticking with their guns.”

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In addition to defending the "bold and brave" ending, Patel sat down with Parade to discuss her favorite parts of the finale, callbacks to earlier episodes and just where Otto Hightower was in that closing montage.

Eliza Thompson: What did you think when you read the script and saw that the episode was going to end on a more somber note as opposed to a big, major battle?

Geeta Vasant Patel: I trust the storytelling. Ryan is a masterful storyteller. He has great vision, and I'm here to serve him. So when I read the script, I was on board and excited to bring a finale feeling to that episode. I felt the call to action to make sure that that episode was as strong as it could possibly be and to serve Ryan's vision.

Can you offer any insight about why Ryan and the writers decided to go this route for the season finale?

I actually don't know. That's the honest truth. Some things I'm privy to, and some things I'm not. The way I see my job is to serve the person that I am there to serve, and I'm part of his team. So that was his decision. I've also been lucky enough to direct Episode 8 of Season 1 [“The Lord of the Tides,” which ended with Alicent misinterpreting Viserys’ deathbed speech about Aegon’s dream]. To me, that felt like a season finale, so I trust that interpersonal relationships — just plain, old-fashioned drama — can also feel as energizing as an action sequence.

In this case, there is something exciting about doing the unexpected. Ryan trusted his heart in storytelling. This is where he wanted to be at the end of the season, and sometimes the surprise is thrilling if we allow it to be.

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Sometimes on House of the Dragon or in the past on Game of Thrones, we only focus on one or two storylines, but this really caught up with everybody. Did you have a favorite thread or section to film?

I really loved executing [Daemon’s] vision, because when I got the script, it was beats of what we would see. Ryan entrusted me to take those beats and tell the story he wanted to tell that would shift Daemon’s point of view and call him to action in bending the knee to Rhaenyra. So that was a huge challenge for me, and I love a challenge.

And then that very last scene between [Rhaenyra and Alicent]. That section was long, and it's intimidating because a season finale is supposed to end in rising action. It was a great challenge because we had to earn the length of that conversation between Emma and Olivia. We had to earn it through everything that came before it, not just my episode, but all the writing of the show. We also had to earn it within the scene. We had to lean forward and think of it as an action sequence: OK, she said this, she said this, she said this, the ball's just going back and forth. That was my hope for that scene, that you actually wouldn't realize how much time has passed. You're actually just watching it like a tennis match.

On a totally different note, you also got to do the honors of introducing Admiral Sharako Lohar (Abigail Thorn), who is very funny on an otherwise pretty dark show. How did you take on adding some levity to those scenes?

Well, the levity started with the incredible writing of Sara Hess, who also has a background in comedy like I do. So I was pretty excited that I got a script like this from her because we all crave comedy at some point. It was really fun to work with Abigail  and find the tone of her character within the world of House of the Dragon. We spent many, many rehearsals talking it through with Sara Hess and Ryan and trying different things. We did a lot of improvisation, and ultimately Abigail found what I thought was a great tone for her character. I laughed out loud so many times in that mud wrestling scene.

I was actually shocked that we introduced a new character in the season finale. … But who decided you can't? I felt a huge challenge as a director, because to introduce a new character in Episode 8 is something not to be taken lightly. We needed her to blend in quickly, but we also needed to believe that she was part of this world in a way that she was unforgettable.

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Back to Daemon’s vision for a minute — it was all new footage, right? It wasn’t recycled from Game of Thrones.

No, I can't think of anything that was recycled. We shot it all. Catherine Goldschmidt, our director of photography … really wanted to make sure that everything felt smooth, as did I. The only way to do that was to shoot it ourselves. But also it's a vision, right? So we want it to be unique to him. When Ryan told me about the vision, he said, “I don't want it to look like any other show. I don't want it to look like Game of Thrones. I don't want it to look like a fantasy show. I want it to be within our language of our show.”

For example, Daenerys, I didn't want to see her face. I know that fans might have wanted to. But if you really think about it, Daemon doesn't know who she is, nor does he care who she is at that moment, because that's not what the point of the vision is. The point of the vision is that whoever this woman is, she brought the dragons back. And so there's little things like that that you can manipulate.

I'm sure you can't answer this, but what is Otto Hightower doing in that final montage?

I don't know! I keep asking Ryan and he won't tell me. I try to give him wine and get it out of him, like get him a little tipsy. And I have no idea where he is.

Are your friends and family constantly coming to you for spoilers?

Oh, yeah. Definitely. Right now my phone is just overwhelmed, and now everybody wants to be in the show. … They think I can get them cast as a King’s Landing extra.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

Next, What Will Happen in 'House of the Dragon' Season 3, According to the Book