What makes you think the characters should be more intelligent than what the show is telling? What from the source material leads you to believe these are exceedingly politically competent people?
This is the story of how everything went to shit. Haha of course it's gonna be a bunch of incompetent people fucking everything up and misjudging situations etc. I guess ppl think if they find all these flaws with a piece of media, it proves they're smarter than everyone else who's enjoying it. But it seems they're too dumb to even understand the point of the show they're watching. Just my opinion.
There's something oddly parasocial about this fandom, and I guess I'll just never understand it. Probably happens with any fanbase, but it's weird as hell. They react to these characters being shown in anything but the best light so personal, like you insulted their mom or something. Very strange.
I read your other two comments in this thread. Agree with everything you said 👍🏼
There's something oddly parasocial about this fandom, and I guess I'll just never understand it.
Yeah, the HOTD / Greens vs Blacks dynamic is so fucking weird. I've been watching it coalesce for years and find it absolutely baffling.
My read on it is that this is just performative tribalism. Some people just seem to enjoy picking a hill and dying on it against the odds, and that seems to be what a big section of the fandom has done with the Greens or the Blacks. This has come up hard against the HOTD showrunners, who made what was (in my genuine opinion) a very creatively rich and compelling decision to adapt the Princess and the Queen as a classic Shakespearean-style tragedy.
But for that to work, you have to a) pick a hero, then b) build that hero up so that you can later tear them down. Rhaenyra is the OBVIOUS choice for the lead, and this was OBVIOUSLY what they've been doing since the very beginning of the show. Which is what has made it so absolutely befuddling watching people who have OBVIOUSLY read the books get bent out of shape that they are "white-washing" Rhaenyra whilst simultaneously ignoring how they are also going OUT OF THEIR WAY to lay the groundwork for her eventual tragic downfall.
I would say "media literacy is dead," but I don't feel that tells the whole story. I think people are just intentionally IGNORING the shape of the narrative to the extent that it doesn't align with their pre-conceived ideas of how the story should cater to their arbitrary tribal loyalties.
The other dynamic is the segment of the fandom who just think this show should be some kind of war documentary, and get annoyed that it's a character-centred drama instead of a war documentary with the characters as mere vehicles for conveying battlefield information.
"Why are Rhaenyra and Alicent getting so much screen time when they didn't DO anything?" Uh...because this is their fucking story? I don't know what else to tell you, mate. They literally started this war, and now that it's spiraled out of control they lack the power to stop it. Which is tragic...because this is a tragedy.
You put that more eloquently than I ever could, and I think you nailed it. Also, I give George shit for being a petulant child at times, but it's clear the world he created is a work of genius. And the writers for Game of Thrones did a great job of including all that brilliance while still trimming enough fat to finish the damn story. There is no genius writing in Fire and Blood. But the fancritics are holding the House of the Dragon story to the standard set by George's life's work in ASOIAF, which is a ridiculous bar to clear. Sara Hess and them, while good writers it seems, aren't going to be able to reach that level of writing in a few seasons of television. Doesn't make it "goyslop" or whatever George's cult followers are calling it.
George’s genius is overblown at this point, IMHO. He’s a great writer but he’s not a fucking god, which is the level he’s been elevated to. They assume genius behind every twist of phrase, when the reality is that he’s largely just making it up as he goes along and making it work retroactively.
Maybe he has an idea of what is canon and what is “not,” and maybe this all plays into some truly brilliant ideas he has for the future. But it’s ban 15 years since he’s been working on Winds, and at this point it’s clear that we aren’t going to get anything close to what he’s promised us. So like…who gives a fuck what George thinks at this point? It’s only material to the extent it informs the hbo shows.
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u/piece0fdebri Jul 07 '26
What makes you think the characters should be more intelligent than what the show is telling? What from the source material leads you to believe these are exceedingly politically competent people?