So HotD, as its fans apparently call it, has been low-key cringe for quite a while now. While it is not wholly lacking in virtue, it has done its fair share of pandering to the crazies. The season finale, which I was stupid enough to watch, brought things to a new level.
They brought on a GUY IN A DRESS to play an actual woman. With all their CGI and sound transforming technology, I could immediately tell that something ain't right. And once I figured out the character's name, it turns out she was played by... a bloke who presents a Youtube channel called Philosophy Tube. He looks like this. His name is Oliver Thorn, and he masquerades as Abigail Thorn. Don't you love the names that these cross-dressers pick - the "it's ma'am" fellow called himself "Tiffany", because of course.
Suffice it to say that """"""""SHE"""""""" was flirting with a guy, saying that he has good genes, and that """she""" wants his babies... and that he should therefore lie with """her""" wives. What? I thought: well yeah, you're a bloke - you can't get pregnant, but you do have wives.
It's just a ****show as well as a **** show.
Why am I telling you this? Misery loves company, I guess?
I'm amazed GoT had any fans left after the end of the first series. What part of that colossal clusterfuck of shit made you think this would be any good?
Even GRRM can't write himself out of the corner he's written himself into, with the main series. After the Red Wedding the central plot thread tying everything else together was snipped, and that central plot thread was based on the War of the Roses. Imagine if during WW2 the Allies had figured out a way to just assassinate the leaders of the Third Reich and Imperial Japan. All the other adjacent conflicts would have still persisted, but mostly independently of one another. Whereas GRRM is in the position of having to tie everything back together, despite the fact that he severed the cord that was tying everything together.
Moreover, constructing plots that are both plausible but not based on real situations is really hard to do. It's like trying to construct fictional characters with no resemblance to any real people, or to world-build settings with no resemblance to any real places. GRRM's great trick was realizing that a high fantasy setting allows you the freedom to do historical fiction, but without the constraints of having to make things consistent with real history. But by snipping the main cord, it's next to impossible to come up with a way to continue tying everything together that's actually plausible.
Whereas House of the Dragon didn't place the writers in an impossible situation. They already had a good plot outline to work with, and a good writer could have really cooked with it. But of course, the writers are shit, so they took good ingredients and managed to make something vomit-worthy.
Dragons, people like dragons. Honestly the GOT universe went from a fantasy lover's niche to a hipster's product. It's why they play episodes at their shitty progressive bars and record reactions. They gentrified the fandom, haha.
Although dragons aren't real, flamethrowers are.
Something about being reminded of the existence of hipsters made me think of flamethrowers for some reason.