If you're not caught up on the House of the Dragon series, you may not want to read further. Or if you have never watched Game of Thrones but plan to one day, you may want to skip this.
My husband dislikes this show, House of the Dragon on HBO. It's a spinoff from Game of Thrones, set 100+ years earlier than Game of Thrones.
I don't much care for the show, either. As my husband said, it is a show full of ugly people doing ugly things.
We seem to be watching it out of habit, and because there isn't anything else on to watch right now.
Initially I thought I would like to see two women vying for the throne, but it turns out, that isn't a draw.
I need somebody to root for in a story, and there isn't anyone. None of these characters are especially likeable. In Game of Thrones, the very first person we like is Ned Stark, and we rooted for Ned Stark. His death, then, was a gut punch.
People die on House of the Dragon and there is nothing. I do not feel anything.
When Princess Rhaenys Targaryen died after Aemond Targaryen's dragon killed her dragon, nearly killing the young King Aegon Targaryen in the process, I didn't feel anything. Her character had not been well developed. And the young king came across as a spoiled brat, sort of an early version of Joffrey from Game of Thrones. I'm sorry he is badly wounded and the portrayal of that is striking, but aside from not liking to see anyone suffer, I don't feel for him.
Actually, there are so many characters, and so many with similar names, that I have a hard time keeping them apart. And I think that is part of what is wrong with this show. It is moving slowly to try to develop so many characters with so many similar names that it becomes a bit wearying trying to keep up with them all.
It's also a little boring. I think it needs more dragons and less people.
I can recall the names of characters from Game of Thrones even though it has been years since I saw that, and I have no desire to watch that series again. I have to go to the HBO House of the Dragon page to look up the names of all of these ugly people doing ugly things. I can tell you the name of the two women who are vying for the throne - Alicent and Rhaenyra - and a crazy guy named Daemon who is Rhaenyra's uncle and husband, and a guy named Cole who is Alicent's lover, and that's about it. But there are oodles of other characters, and I cannot keep them all straight.
Fantasy has long been a favorite genre, and I am not ill-equipped to deal with a show on this scale. But I have to be interested in the characters if I want to take the time to track them.
And these characters do not interest me. I keep waiting for that to change, but we're about done with this season. I think it'll be at least a year before the next season shows.
By then I won't remember a thing about this show.
I've never liked fantasy shows. Just can't get interested in them.
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