Watched the finale and I thought it was really good for what it was. Would I have preferred this season to be 10 episodes and the finale having a big battle scene?? Yes but even without any action, I really enjoyed it. This finale certainly does a great job as a setup for another season and yeah it sucks we may have to wait for years for another season.
So many things happened though.
I think Aemond trying to force Helena to join him in battle convinced Alicent to go to Rhaenyra but I didn't expect her to agree to killing Aegon. Btw, who captured Otto?? Is it Larys or was he captured by a rival Reach house?? Larys is quite smart with him stashing his gold in Iron bank of Braavos and now going with Aegon there.
Don't know I feel about this Lohar character yet, that's a large fleet though. The weakest part of this season was Daemon's scenes at Harrenhal and it seems the vision of white walkers finally convinced him to support Rhaenyra as he believes only she can unite the realm, didn't expect some GoT shots there. Also, is that stag creature we saw Children of the forest or Green men??
I like how a NY times critic put it regarding Criston Cole, he's gone full on Rust Cohle from true detective season 1 with his nihilistic talk.
Overall, really enjoyed this season. Season 2 was more of a set up season and hence season 3 could be even amazing with many action scenes.