#hotd criticism

[lilliyoona]

lmao so GRRM's notablog post criticizing Ryan Condal's writing choices has apparently now been deleted. 💀 the girls are fightinggg

"I have no idea what Ryan has planned, if indeed he has planned anything." 💅

[spacerockfloater]

Ryan Condal choosing the necessary plotlines that HOTD must include:

Nettles ✗

Maelor ✗

The Greens loving one another ✗

Rhaenyra being cruel ✗

A whole bunch of other important shit ✗

Tyland Lannister being a sperm donor for a polygamous woman and her concubines (which slay, but priorities?) ✓

[radicalsansa]

Oh my Lord Commander, how they've ruined you

[danyyytarggg]

one of my gripes about house of the dragon is the lack of a true royal court. in game of thrones, we were shown a red keep bustling with people, both servants and nobility alike. we were shown ladies-in-waiting and noble men and women at court attempting to seek favor from the royal family like cersei, margaery, etc. there were always people around and spectators to be careful of when conducting your business in the castle. we really are not gifted this in house of the dragon. sure, we’ve seen some small glimpses of the royal court and castle life but nothing significant enough to even be close to comparable to that of game of thrones, which is such a shame because it adds so much to the idea of nobility/royal life. in a way, it makes hotd sort of dull, lifeless, and empty in the red keep, dragonstone, driftmark, etc. as well as making the world small and sort of isolating around the targaryens/velaryons/royalty/small council, and not even in an “untouchable” sort of way, just sort of in a “there’s just nobody around” way. not to mention, depicting the royal court/nobility more would be significant in a show centered around a power struggle for the throne. and seeing team green and team black truly navigate court prior to viserys’ death as well as during this war would have added so much more to the story such as depth, significance, etc. even in appearance, the red keep seems dull whereas in game of thrones, the castle was vibrant, decorated, bustling.

this also plays a role in that i’m personally not a fan of how the show depicts royalty/nobility. from the lack of extravagant clothing (though i feel like the show has done just a tad bit better this season), lack of court/castle life, to the way people tend to blatantly disrespect the royal family without punishment (with the exception of vaemond), even the way they sometimes speak, the show lacks in giving me the sense of “THESE are the TARGARYENS. THIS is how ROYALTY are like. THIS is how the HIGHEST NOBILITY live.”

personally, the show just isn’t depicting royalty/royal court/castle life/nobility to the extent it should and can even come across as sloppy at some points.

[chemicalreal]

It's funny how the hotd opening has a better grasp on the story than the show itself.

Alicent gets her focus in the opening as the one who officially started green Vs black but then it focuses on Aegon and Rhaenyra, sitting on their respective thrones, as the war is between them. Looks like whoever designed it didn't get Sara Hess' memos.

[whateverthought]

If House of the Dragon was a feminist show they would have fully fledged out all their Female characters instead of picking just one woman and never letting her be Wrong or Angry or Morally Ambiguous

[maglors-grief]

Since House of the Dragon is supposedly a "feminist" show, I still find it wild that they excluded all of Rhaenyra's friendships with other women and made the woman who was her evil stepmother in the book be her only friend in the show. They didn't include her very close relationship with Laena, they only included one of her ladies-in-waiting, they made Rhaenys vaguely dislike her since season 1 before Rhaenyra even married Laenor, Jeyne Arryn acts like she's forced to be on the Black's side and is passive aggressive towards Rhaena for no reason.

They robbed Rhaenyra of all her genuine relationships with women in the book in favor of pushing the relationship between Rhaenyra and Alicent, a woman who was abusive towards her and Rhaenyra's sons in the first season.

I really hate the narrative they got going on in the show that Rhaenyra is extremely unpopular. She had half the country on her side. She was likable to a lot of people, why is the show afraid to portray that? Isn't it enough to have Rhaenyra's enemies hate her? Why do they have to make even her allies dislike her?

[f-e-r-o-n-i-a]

Writers: "We think this might be better."

HOTD Fandom: "Just keep to the damn books...THEY'RE FINISHED. Use the book material."

Writers: *continue to change the story in the most non-book-possible way*

HOTD Fandom: *RIOTING*

Writers:

[youraverageaemondsimp]

Book!Helaena that was so lost into the madness of grief because of her child's death to the point she unalived herself.

VS

Show!Helaena helping the very person who orchestrated the death of her child.

[sirpinnington]

When you stop to think about it, Condal's justification is quite weak. They could have easily used one of the children actor who plays Rhaenyra's child in season two, no one would have complained and, as a technique, it has worked in the past with adult actors -which are easier to distinguish than children with platinum blonde wigs-, both in GOT (Dean-Charles Chapman in S3 played Martyn Lannister and then Tommen in S4 and foward) and in House of the Dragon (Jefferson Hall played Hugh of the Vale in GOT and Tyland and Jason Lannister in HotD). Condal simply wanted to do things his way.

[asongofmarvelanddc]

I’ve figured out what it is about Aemond in season 2 that feels so off to me: he’s a character who only exists within the perception of the people around him. A complete flip on the character we got to know so intimately in season 1. God, what a terrible season of tv this was.

[spacerockfloater]

“A son for a son”? After her faction killed a baby in its crib?

Otto was right from the start, Rhaenyra always intended to murder her brothers if it meant she’d get her hands on the throne.

Looking forward to this horrendous woman and her pathetic whelps getting annihilated.

[radicalsansa]

The problem with having stupid writers is that every character they try to make smart ends up being an utter idiot, and when they want to portray a character as stupid they actually accidentally end up making them smart in less conventional/obvious ways.

But that "smart" one will always be an idiot caged in the writer's box of stupidity and nonsensical political one liners

[tessarionbestgirl]

Lmfao, if you think HBO leaned anything for last season. Think again.

[lingulaca]

as someone who's also hotd critical i really struggle with seeing what others mean when they say that the show's problem is the "bias" towards team black that the writers apparently have. don't get me wrong, i think characters on both sides were done extremely dirty, but i don't understand what people mean when they say things like "the writers won't allow team black characters to do bad things/be portrayed as bad" like, literally what do you mean? i'm team black and i HAAATE how my favs from the book are portrayed in the show. they had daemon leave rhaenyra alone in that brothel which was so mind boggling, he has pretty much no scenes with his daughters and is shown to be a shit father, and how could i forget blood and cheese. i really could go on. speaking of rhae, how they did her was so diabolical. most of us rhaenyra fans wanted rhaenyra the cruel, instead we got whatever her character ended up being. she barely does anything like come onnn. if i'm remembering the book incorrectly by all means educate me, but i don't recall pacifist rhaenyra ever really being canon??? AND NETTLES WON'T EVEN BE IN THE SHOWWWW☹☹☹ TEAM BLACK? MORE LIKE TEAM WACK.

[maglors-grief]

I'm gonna be honest I really hate the show and fans comparing the wounds that Rhaenyra and Alicent have on their arms and acting like it makes them similar in some way. It's just so forced. Rhaenyra's is from her having to protect Lucerys because Alicent was trying to gouge a 6 year old's eye out. Alicent's is from the riot the smallfolk started because the war (that Alicent helped start btw because she helped put Aegon on the throne) was heavily affecting them. I really don't understand what the show was thinking trying to make them have matching cuts or whatever. Rhaenyra really can't have anything to herself without the show making it all about Alicent too and I'm tired of it 😒