Is House of the Dragon a WOKE show??? (or the influence of MODERN POLITICS)

[@magicaljagical647]

I understand why Rhaenys said her thing about men not wanting a queen on the Iron Throne, but that doesn’t make sense when about half of the participating Lords of the 7 Kingdoms support Rhaenyra over Aegon.

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

Exactly! It doesn't make sense.

[@johndinobuff583]

She was referring to her experience. The lords (mostly men) chose Viserys over her - given that she was the only child of the the first born son.

[@carastone3473]

Or they claimed to. Several houses who swore fealty, ended up sided with the Greens in the dance.

[@darriusbethea2373]

That because the men who supported Rhaenys died decades ago. Both a lot of them did support Rhaenrya & Rhaenys. House Stark & Blackwood supported both. House Baratheon was her strongest supporter during Council but her cousin died & his son was basically like what you gonna give me & greens made a better offer.

[@JpGunsNRoses]

and now, two woman (Alicent and Rhaenyra) will burn the realm to the ground to push their claims foward.

[@sardonically-inclined7645]

The funniest thing about purifying the characters of Rhaenyra and Alicent is that it's done the opposite of what was intended, because doing that has made them superfluous to the conflict. It more or less now the men's war and they're just being dragged along. The writing in the show has very literally diminished their agency. They are at worst now damsels or at best tragic heroines, either way subject to the will of the men and the men alone.

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

I fully agree. They have no agency in their own story. I don't understand how the showrunners wanted to focus the story more on them when the story was already pretty much focused on them in the first place. They could've kept things the way that they were, but found creative ways to justify how the events came to being.

[@_somerandomguyontheinternet_]

If you look into Hello Future Me’s videos on the show (great channel, highly recommend), he notes that the lack of agency is a bit of a departure from the book, which is a historical retelling. It reflects how women can be depicted in history as scheming deceptive mastermind when in fact they were too often at the whims of the men around them. The more sympathetic depiction of the greens lends itself to the impact that historical records simply cannot accurately depict many things, as they are not privy to the details that would change their depiction. It’s a commentary and analysis on contemporary accounts and historiography and the way minorities and less privileged groups have their roles and characters distorted by their depiction and the people around them. A good real-world example would be Marie Antoinette, a girl sent to a foreign country and wedded to a man who was unable to bed her on their wedding night, she gained a reputation throughout the kingdom for being trashy, uppity, and aloof from society. Modern historiography paints a far different picture of her, but that picture has been thoroughly cemented in public consciousness as the woman who said “let them eat cake” (she didn’t say that). She became a scapegoat for the people’s anger and resentment of the royalty, leading to her later mistreatment and execution, as well as the defamation of her name.

[@cledosliop4175]

Totally agree.

[@stephenjames2159]

​@_somerandomguyontheinternet_ In all fairness most historical figures become warped as time moves on. Rasputin for example has a whole mythos for immortality, wizardly powers and manipulation, Faust is depicted has having deals with the devil and Vlad is a demonic entity that drinks blood.

[@samkelorashuza5949]

@@_somerandomguyontheinternet_ That can also be flipped around

[@Papaty25]

HBO conveniently stuck to the sources that made Aegon look bad and Rhaenyra looked good. For instance, Aegon watching children fight to death is an account from a very unreliable source. (From Mushroom who is a Rhaenyra supporter and wasn't even at King's Landing at this time) Rhaenyra killing Vaemond and feeding his corpse to Syrax when the legitimacy of Lucerys's birth was doubtful. This was conveniently removed from the show to whitewash Rhaenyra. Despite the fact that both Aegon and Rhaenyra have bastards, Aegon puts his trueborn sons with Halaena in the line of succession, unlike Rhaenyra who denies the illegitimaticy of her obvious bastards. Aegon didn't even want the throne until Aemond lost his eye and he realised what his mother always warned him about and Rhaenyra can kill him, his brothers, his sisters and his sins in order to eliminate any potential claimants to the throne. Even in the books Rhaenyra is easily evil enough to kill all her half brothers to secure the line of succession for her sons (bastards). HBO should've stuck to the F&B instead of whitewashing girlbosses.

[@noneedforaname640]

Good points.

[@TruekingoftheLeinstermen]

neither were great people but rhaenyra was the rightful heir shes a terrible person cheated on her first husband aegon isnt a good person either he usurped the throne id rather daemon or rhaenys be king or queen

[@Papaty25]

@@TruekingoftheLeinstermen Aegon didn't surprise anyone. He was the rightful King according to all laws and right of conquest. Maegor and Robert Baratheon had only the right of conquest to their claim but Aegon II is the King's firstborn son and he is the heir according to the faith of the seven.

[@TruekingoftheLeinstermen]

@@Papaty25 the kings 2cnd or 3rd son not his first rhaenyra was named heir aegon wasnt he was a usurper who unlike robert didnt win the throne he usurped rhaenyra was the rightful queen as she was named heir robert was the rightful king because he overthrew a mad one viseys wasnt the rightful king rhaenys was as aemonds only child both father and son werent the rightful king

[@Papaty25]

@@TruekingoftheLeinstermen Aegon the Elder killed Rhaenyra, Maegor killed Aegon the Uncrowned, Robert killed Rhaegar. Regardless of whether or not Aerys was mad, he was the rightful King and his heir was Viserys. That's how this works. Secondly, firstborn always sons inherit, it's a law among Targaryens and the faith. If you doubt it, why didn't Visenya inherit Dragonstone? Why didn't Aerea Targaryen inherit the Iron Throne? Why didn't Jaehaerys name Rhaenys his heir over Baelon straight away? Why did Viserys win the election? Aegon fought and retook King's Landing, even Rhaenyra's son is called Aegon III, which means Aegon II was the rightful King. You can keep crying calling Aegon an usurper but I will just call him a traditionalist.

[@derek96720]

Rhaenyra feeding Vaemond's corpse to Syrax makes her own death by Sunfyre all the more poetic and full circle. Now it's just going to appear tragic, rather than like a form of karmic justice.

[@RealRogalDorn]

The funniest thing about the whole raceswap thing is that they make the Velaryons black for diversity. Then proceed to write out one of the most prominent actual black characters from the dance lmao.

[@Dothraki-hs4sg]

As a nettles fan I am sad

[@HighRatKingBenis]

It’s genuinely kinda made me mad that they wrote out nettles. In fact, every character or scene or anything that adds nuances and complexity to the characters and their morality is scrapped. Nettles being able to claim a dragon calls into question the supposed supernatural powers of Valyrian blood, which while not necessarily disproving them goes a long way to foreshadow the downfall of house Targaryen. The swapping of velaryons to be black totally ruins the potential legitimacy of the strong boys. Why do any of this? It’s just choosing politics over storytelling.

[@MangoMann072]

HBO might change things to give rhaenyra the crown at the end because they clearly prefer her as a character

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

I wouldn't be surprised if they did. 🙄

[@darriusbethea2373]

That would screw it up entire history because in GOT Joffrey spoils the show if you remember how Rhaenyra got fed to a dragon. I noticed how you say showrunners are black biased I don’t think they are. I think they are women biased & Rhaenrya/Rhaenys are prominent blacks. Alicent is really only prominent green. Daemon I feel like they shown no problem in throwing under bus but they realized Rhaenrya was either complicit in some of his actions or was toxic enough that she didn’t care stuff he did. So by necessity they have to tone him down for Blood & Cheese while also making the bad guy on team black. Which is wild because Daemon was one who called the shots for the war for first half for the blacks.

[@youngveteran6368]

As much as I have no faith in the writers atp I’m quite certain their not THAT STUPID, however I can see them giving her the last “gotcha” before aegon kills her, and not make his “if they search the 7 hells perhaps” speech as epic🤷🏾‍♂️ I CAN DEFINITELY SEE THEM DOING THAT 😅

[@avejantzero9090]

Well, she ruled for half-year in the book. Another prove that alt-rights can't read.

[@malekiththeeternityking5433]

It's very woke, when Rhaenys murdered thousands of innocent plebs she made a girl boss stare of cringe.

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

Well, I think that the idea was for Rhaenys to look good in that scene, so that she comes across as a girlboss and a badass dragon warrior... though, unfortunately for them, it didn't come across that way at all. 🤦‍♂ But the fact that they make changes like that in the story, and for such stupid reasons as 'we wanted her to look like a girlboss', is not reassurring to fans. If anything, it's very reminiscent of season 8 of Game of Thrones.

[@malekiththeeternityking5433]

@@thecriticalmaester9702 I didn't know mass murder made characters look good, in retrospect Rhaenys killed more people then Roose Bolton/Ramsay Bolton/Joffrey and Tywin put together but the average show pleb still thinks Rhaenys is a good person lmao.

[@seto_kaiba_]

That's not really woke. Nobles in Westeros and Essos do fucked up things all the time and people still cheer for them. Khal Drogo is a 🍇ist and people adore him and ship him with Dany. Jaime attempted to murder a child and the Hound actually did and we give them a pass. Daemon in this very show murders his wife to get with his niece and he is a fan favorite. It makes no sense to be like "OMG woke" just cause Rhaenys does something morally questionable or bad.

[@malekiththeeternityking5433]

@@seto_kaiba_ Take all those dead people ypu just listed and their kill count is nowhere near Rhaenys

[@seto_kaiba_]

​@@malekiththeeternityking5433 They're Targaryens. They don't give a crap about the common people. This is very much in line with her character and since the main characters are all Targaryens and Targaryen allies who are about to start a viscious war and probably kill so many people that it will make Rhaenys stunt look like a mild knee scrape, you are gonna have to adjust your moral standards a bit to enjoy it.

[@hydromancer4916]

The funniest thing about them blackwashing the Velaryons is that they're probably not even gonna include Nettles (a canonically black character in the book) in order to make Daemon look good.

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

Exactly! The second season hasn't been released yet, so I don't want to say anything too early, but I do think that excluding Nettles as a character is just dumb and completely misguided. If their goal is to have more diversity in the story, then keeping Nettles in the story is the way to go, mainly because people really like her character and she's already a character of colour in the books. Excluding her would be a mistake. 🤦‍♂

[@Chu9947]

Source: i made it up

[@hydromancer4916]

@@Chu9947 source: god revealed it to me

[@fanispalaiog6639]

@@Chu9947 that didnt age well...

[@tilovon30]

the fucking author signed off on it...get over it! I think it actually helps the story show that Rhaenyra's children are in NO way Velaryons

[@OurHiltsHurt]

lol if Aegon is Trump then is Daemon Bill Clinton?

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

There might be something to that 🤔😅

[@gerardjagroo]

And Corlys Velaryion is Biden because you have to be a senile old fool to keep supporting the people who murdered your brother and are trying to put their bastard in you ancestral seat. There are a few choice terms to describe it but KZbin would throw a fit. One of those terms starts with "Uncle ---"

[@equusquaggaquagga536]

DONT YOU DARE STAIN THE NAME OF AEGON THE GOLDEN BY COMPARING HIM TO DONALD THE ORANGE

[@OurHiltsHurt]

@@equusquaggaquagga536 sorry skipper. Accept it. Orange = Gold

[@equusquaggaquagga536]

@@OurHiltsHurt orange = garbage

[@vanguardian2864]

The louder, the virtue signal, the guiltier the conscience.

[@bluejay5401]

Modern politics will ruin this show. I understand the desire to touch on some issues like sexism and classism...these are long known issues that deserve commentary... BUT making them the only personality trait of this show, instead of focusing on the core theme of the story (a family tragically tearing itself apart) is a big mistake that might cost the writers in the long run.

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

Totally agree.

[@Raycloud]

The issue is lefties are themselves very biased and lacking a nuanced view. That's being generous even; I'd say they actively hate men and anything masculine, almost as much as they hate themselves. George is himself a leftist so his stories are always going to have that bent, but in the books it is mostly a more subtle theme that doesn't distract you from the story. Something become "woke" when the ideological agenda is too obvious and ruins immersion in the story. If you are going to propagandize me then be subtle about it.

[@johnmorris1009]

George R R Martin and Emma D'arcy are to blame.

[@Dothraki-hs4sg]

Why !?​@@johnmorris1009

[@zatoichi88]

@@johnmorris1009 why Geoerge wtf?

[@haroldb1856]

Casual viewers will overlook or fail to notice the insertion of modern ideological and political talking points. For real fans of ASOIAF or even of the genre of medieval-ish fantasy, the changes stand out like a sore thumb, making it impossible to immerse in the lore and the worldbuilding.

[@Arsenal_187]

The wealthiest and most powerful family is a black family with blondey silver dreadlocks during medieval England 😂 tv shows are beyond a joke now

[@sdfdd685]

@@Arsenal_187 so what they all die joffery spoiled the ending

[@jasonck9635]

Yea I really noticed a lot of the woke crap in the show , but I was so excited about the show that I was willing overlook some of it ! However a lot of it ruins things in the show that doesht need to happen

[@samkelorashuza5949]

I didn't even fully notice until know

[@johnkeating1497]

Did you notice the Gender swap in the season two finale ? The mud wrestling scene they have Lannister mud wrestle a Transgender woman that was written as a male in the books 😂😂😂😂😂😂 This show got cringe and cheesy as F😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@rise-my-angel]

Whats even more disappointing is that Tom Glynn-Carney went multiple rounds with Sara Hess fighting against making Aegon a rapist, and lost. Even the actor knew how unfairly damaging that was going to be to his character and through the eyes of the audience

[@jazzbox24]

Yes. Clearly. Just look at the women in the show. All have been watered down. There’s no real conflict between any of them, and what there is, is down to misunderstandings. Also, the roles of men and women is often spoken and crammed into the show. It’s painful.

[@Loki-g3k]

After episode 4, most of the fans hated Alicent. There, you have only one villainous female character. Literary, she is blamed for starting the civil war. What do you think?

[@jazzbox24]

@@Loki-g3k Have you seen the latest episodes? She’s already getting a redemption arc. 🙄

[@Loki-g3k]

@jazzbox24 it's only a redemption arc in the writer's mind. She is going to let her son and rest of her family get killed. The same son she forced to take the throne. I wish Alicent remained the Antagonist of the story.

[@TheChachofer]

I dont think people get angry because of the fact they changed the appearence of a character, for example, if in the books one of the characters had grey hair but in the tv adaptation they have black hair some fans would get mad saying stuff like “they didn t do a great job casting” or smth like that. People get angry (me included and very) because of the hypocrisy of the woke agenda, they HAVE to cast black people, they have to break EVERYTHING so they can fit their political crap that they dont even believe in, just so they can bring in the socialists votes and gets broader audience, even if that means losing your most loyal fans. I personnally stopped watching HotD when i got tired of their bs. The people that get mad are definitely a minority, because we see through the crap of their political agenda, while the sheep say “it s a black guy dude what are you a racist?” It s not just a black dude, idgaf there s a guy of a different race that s not the issue here. Theres plenty of films with black roles such as “I am legend” or a thousand more where the casting doesnt FEEL forced and that i personally appreciate. They cut off bugdet, they do crappy CGI, they add forced lines, they make women unrealistically powerful, they make men unrealistically weak and mean, so the white heterosexuL male is brought down and “revenge is made against patriarchy, men, capitalism, heterosexuals and white people” . If this goes on this woke agenda will backfire on them in a magnificent way. I hope there s some kind of revolution i cannot stand this new cinema/tv shows

[@arturleperoke3205]

well said , Sir!

[@rhiannonguidera7746]

When I first heard about the Velaryons being cast by black actors, I didn't really care. I can see why others fans would and under different circumstances I could see myself caring as well but I digress. The problem I have with making the Velaryons a different race arose during the succession hearing between Lucerys and Vaemond. The show runners actually potrayed their protagonist ( a privileged white woman), usurping the power from a house full of black people by trying to pass off her illegitimate white child as bi racial. And when Vaemond, rightfully, called out Lucerys for being illegitimate and having no claim whatsoever to Driftmark, he was killed for it and in the books other members of house Velaryon had their tongues removed. In hindsight, the showrunners had very little thought about the Velaryons past the their skin tone which speaks volumes for the type of show this is.

[@youngveteran6368]

@@rhiannonguidera7746 COOK!!!!!!!

[@hmm_1228]

@@rhiannonguidera7746speak on it!

[@heartlesslove9084]

The idea behind the show will always be embarrassing to me.

[@d4darwin458]

They had nettles and did this

[@aguspuig6615]

Ive defended the show in many coments, but i forgot abut Mysaria, she doesnt get a pass. The only commonborn character of any weight, arguably more powerfull than many of the nobles, but for no good reason, and she has a shitty accent that basically screams ''im all the minorities at once''. She makes me laugh everytime she shows up ngl

[@Stay_Zerose]

Hey guess what they added the sexual minority to her as well...

[@kaloryfer99999]

The funniest thing about that "im all the minorities at once" remark is that the actress is Argentinian-British-Japanese. So yes, she has a lot of minorities in her.

[@Raycloud]

The problem with "woke" is that it is biased, hostile, hypocritical, and it ruins immersion in stories. One could argue very convincingly that our media has had a left-wing bias going back decades, but usually the Progressive themes were subtle and woven carefully into well written, acted, and directed stories. Woke is obvious and ridiculous; black elves in Middle Earth, the Valaryons being black, black Norse gods, black Samurai, ect, all by the same people who bitched in years past about "White Washing". The fact is, we live in a divided society with incompatible views about life and morality and that has been deliberately injected into our media as a means to attack one's enemies and uplift ones allies.

[@caseyhart4999]

The left wing influence on media has most definitely been going back decades. I’ve always been a real big fan of Buffy but when it was originally airing I was a kid so I never picked up on it then. Watching it now I can absolutely see the groundwork being laid for what we have today. I still love Buffy and agree it was more skillfully woven into the story back then but yea I guess my point is there definitely had always been a left wing bias in movies/television.

[@Raycloud]

@@caseyhart4999 Oh yes, Devon Stack has hours of content about it.

[@OurHiltsHurt]

#JusticeForAegonII

[@musiclover9518]

so u seeking justice against GRRM now??🤣

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

They are doing my boi dirty 😭

[@OurHiltsHurt]

@@musiclover9518 in the books Aegon II rules

[@musiclover9518]

@@OurHiltsHurt The Books are just gossips

[@OurHiltsHurt]

@@musiclover9518 the TV show is Black Propaganda

[@SinazoNdzamela]

Love your dedication to delving into both the narrative of the books and also tackling contemporary themes such as politics… I look forward to more content like this💝 Also, its disheartening that writers and directors fail to safeguard the integrity of the original material when adapting them onscreen (its frustrating and lazy). Keep up the great work with your videos 😊 I'm excited for the next one!!!😍😍😍

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

Thank you for your comment. Keep watching, more content coming soon 💚

[@via-anghelmagahum2586]

I hate how they downplayed Rhaenyra’s negative characteristics and gave Aegon way more. Rhaenyra had many great characteristics that would make her a great ruler, she was intelligent, charming when she wanted to be, but she also was arrogant, greatly ambitious, spoiled, ruthless, quick and hot tempered, slow to forgive, impulsive, etc. Aegon was a drunk, careless, but he wasn’t into child fighting and a rapist. It’s so obvious they’re pro black. They favor her and Daemon and fans buy into it without realizing this is feudal medieval society. They are fine with the blacks maiming Aemond as a child, justify the murders of Helaena’s children, etc. They downplay Daemon’s obsessive ambition, his recklessness, and maybe even will exclude Nettles a canonically black character because they don’t want to showcase his negative characteristics of being a man who cheats and a man whose into young and I mean young girls. They shifted a lot of her negative characters and I agree to Daemon or just did away with them. I wouldn’t be surprised if they just have her the throne. They probably won’t even show the whole reason why she became Maegor with Teats! Same for Alicent, they shifted a lot of her negative characters to Otto or Ser Criston but still kept her more negative than Rhaenyra and did not showcase her positive qualities as from my perspective in the book she wasn’t such a bad mother. I do like that they humanized Aemond a bit more though. Part of what made the orirignal story so great was that we weren’t encouraged or influenced to pick a side as both green and black were portrayed as flawed individuals with both negative and positive characters and good reasons as to why they should lead Westeros. Here in the show they obviously push a black agenda and pro black movement. So people who are pro green like me are apparently wrong. Makes it so obvious they’re pro Rhaenyra, bias, and perhaps scared of making it seem to a very feminist modern audience who worshipped Daenerys (I didn’t) that a woman didn’t deserve to rule. People look at Westeros through a modern lens where we accept and celebrate female leadership. I didn’t really mind the race swap cause at least they kept the hair color but still… when characters are given a specific description as to what they look like, you cast people who look like it. Say in a show a character is described like the Mountain Gregor Clegane as big and burly, people would be upset if a short skinny dude was cast. And then it wouldn’t make sense as to how the rest of the Targaryens would look as Velaryon and Targaryens always interbred with each other. Aegon and his sisters had a Velaryon mother so they should have looked like Laena and Laenor same for Jaehaerys and Alysanne.

[@0ctalpus]

after season 2, this aged like a fine wine

[@greenknightofwar7024]

Me and my mother watched the show and when we first saw Coryls we preceded to spend an hour laughing. I called him Mophead from then on. And my mother referred to him a maskless predator. As for the women, it becomes hard to immerse yourself in this medieval setting when the topics are modern politics. Because people are acting contradictory to the setting. I think what made the show interesting to me was the male characters my favorites being Otto and Daemon, because I felt like these are characters I could actually believe exist in the setting while the women don’t.

[@DiegoRivera-ll8jy]

lies lmao you didn't watch at all if you think succession crisis is modern politics

[@greenknightofwar7024]

@@DiegoRivera-ll8jy I’m saying the show focuses on modern politics.

[@DiegoRivera-ll8jy]

@@greenknightofwar7024 I’m saying you definitely not watching the show

[@greenknightofwar7024]

@@DiegoRivera-ll8jy I did in fact watch the show and accusation is baseless.

[@DiegoRivera-ll8jy]

@@greenknightofwar7024 obviously not if you spouting nonsense about “modern politics”

[@sardonically-inclined7645]

The casting made no sense for the change. If Velayrons always looked like that then Jaeherys should look like Laenor and Alyssane like Laena, and thus all their children look like their parents, and _their_ children as well. So except for Rhaenyra and _possibly_ Rhaenys, they should *all* look mixed, but they don't. Might as well have kept them all fair-skinned, or committed and gone the other way. I'm partial to the former. And would have preferred if no one was going to bother wearing contact lenses, adjust the eye colour in post production.

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

Totally agree! And, like I said, that's gonna have to be addressed because it's going to have repercussions later on, especially since they plan on making more shows after this one. What will Baelor the Blessed or Daeron the Young Dragon's ethnicity be I wonder? 🤔 They're gonna have to come up with a better justification than "we didn't want too many white people on the screen".

[@odlfmariner470]

@@thecriticalmaester9702 they'll look Chinese

[@notyourproblem474]

Rhaenys would also be mixed since Jocelyn Baratheon's mother was Alyssa Velaryon. Which means that Boremund Baratheon, who appeared in the first part of the show, should also be mixed. Daemon and Viserys should also be mixed since their parents were siblings and their grandparents too. Basically, almost all main characters should be mixed and yet they're not.

[@evinoge5834]

Or they can just say some recent ancestors married summer islanders. Could even show that in an earlier show, a Velaryon lord with a summer islander wife, around the same time as his relative Alyssa Velaryon is marrying into the Targayrens. No contradiction there

[@seto_kaiba_]

Yeah I still think that casting decision was questionable. But now I can't help but think "Shouldn't they be Black" whenever I see Velaryons outside of HOTD. lol.

[@kaylalovell98765]

Trying to portray Rhaenyra as nice and smart is a huge fail on the show, she has three white bastards despite having a black husband and the only reason she's able to get away with it it because Viserys favors her and Corlys is a doormat, she has an innocent servant killed and let's everyone believed she and Daemon murdered Laenor which would logically lose her the support of the Velaryons if again, they weren't such doormats, she runs away to Dragonstone and never bothers to come to throne for 6 YEARS for no good reason (in the book it's because she was banned), we don't see her make alliances, preparing for the eventuality of Viserys death... At least in the book she was fun

[@lightinferno4490]

I was giving the show a pass until the season 2 finale. Its so obvious they want to turn it into a woke feminist statement, I can't ignore it anymore

[@johnkeating1497]

Did you Notice they gender swapped a character in the season 2 finale with an annoying Transgender woman the stupid mid wrestling scene 😂😂🤪🤪🤪 That was super cheesy and the show is a Joke 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@brunopenava7198]

Season 1, didnt feel provocative. Season 2, started being painfully obvious and annoying. Was doubting to quit it forever, its just sad what happened. GoT was best show

[@lightinferno4490]

@brunopenava7198 Yea, it's sad and painful that they insist on doing this to every once beloved show and never learn their lesson. I'm starting to think they don't care to make money. They just want to indoctrinate the next generation into thinking a specific way by reversing gender roles.

[@DolphineAchonga-gn6kn]

I'm guessing the two female leads will be getting dramatically new personalities this season. Maybe they wanted to save it all for the shock factor when they start making truly ruthless decisions.

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

MAYBE 🤞

[@aguspuig6615]

@@thecriticalmaester9702 I mean look at them in the trailers, they both seem like they are about to snap. And if it happens i think its a W. instead of power hungry villains from the books. We get originally decent people broken by circumstance and their own past choices. Im rly optimistic

[@Kaboomboo]

I would say it's woke in that they're trying to absolve the women for doing bad things by making it a "misunderstanding" on their part. They also shoehorned some bisexuality scenes between Rhaenyra and alicent for no reason other than to add "spice" I suppose. In the book Alicent is a good 10+ years older than Rhaenyra. I get that wanted more representation but there was already a gay character in the show and the books. I don't really have a problem making the Velaryons black. I mean, it's clear why they did it and it doesn't really affect the story as a show viewer. In the book the Velaryons looks very similar to Targaryens with the same eyes and hair. But Rhaenys is half Baratheon with black hair. So Rhaenyra's children having darker hair can potentially be explained away by that. Such a nuance is better done in prose. In the show they _really_ want to hammer home that the Velaryons are getting screwed over and adding the "PoC" element to it. On the whole, i think HotD is a good show with woke elements as opposed to being completely woke. They're clearly trying to check all the boxes of a contemporary piece: ✅️ Girl boss that can do no wrong ✅️ Prominent characters of color that were not in the source material ✅️ Lgbtq elements in place where it didn't exist in the source material ✅️ White men bad or incompetent ✅️ Women holding it all together if they were the ones in charge It's still a good show. The above mentioned elements are not inherently bad as long as the story is well done. And i think it is still well done for the most part.

[@DiegoRivera-ll8jy]

definitely watching a different show

[@michaelbuick6995]

I think this is really well thought out and well written but I don't think it really saves the show because ultimately your point, plainly stated, is that the show works *in spite* of these changes. By implication the show would be even better if they hadn't made such changes. "How much agenda tick boxing can we get away with before it *really* starts to negatively impact the show" isn't a question the writers should be concerning themselves with, and "it's not too bad, just put up with it" isn't one the viewers should have to tolerate.

[@Kaboomboo]

@@michaelbuick6995 I get what you mean, but you're missing the first point that I made, which is the most material "Girl Boss that can do no wrong". The show would be much better if the female characters were written to have more agency instead of being made out to seem that they were being manipulated by the men around them. Alicent is the biggest problem because she's written as if she did all of these things to please her father. But in the books she is very ambitious and ruthless. Her actions are her doing, not because she was asked to do so. Rhaenyra is the same as well. She wasn't as indecisive and hesitant in the books because they're trying to make it look like she was trying to avoid war at all costs. But that wasn't her character at all. So I'm going to have to disagree with you there. And I'm not saying we should "put up" with the other changes. I'm saying they're immaterial to the story but the show works anyway.

[@Loki-g3k]

Well their efforts backfired. My favorite character is Aegon 😅😅😅😅

[@PJ-zh5gd]

Aegon, Aemond, Daemon, Otto

[@RosaTorres-qp8bl]

Not really the two women protagonists of the story die without fulfilling their purposes, one of them in a horrible way and at the end of the war a man sits on the iron throne, George RR Martin is too old for woke culture, perhaps the producers tried to do the woke show but not to the author and the original story..

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

The original story is not woke at all, but I wouldn't be surprised if they change things for the show. I can almost guess what's going to happen. Rhaenyra is probably gonna be a good ruler, but it's going to be the men around her that make bad decisions and ruin things for her. Alicent might be a bit more ruthless, but it will be Larys and the men around her that make most of the decisions that lead to ruin. I wouldn't be surprised if the show went that route. 🙄

[@greenknightofwar7024]

@@thecriticalmaester9702 ironic that they want these women to be powerful girl bosses but takes all their agency and relevance from the story.

[@griffiththechad9483]

On my first watch I never really noticed the wokeness apart from the race swapping but after hearing details and that gross interview from Miguel it feels like my third eye has been open. I’ll still watch S2 and beyond but it has now become very obvious to me that there is an agenda being pushed with this show so I won’t be watching with blinders.

[@jjosifovic]

Do the show runners make the show woke on purpose? Absolutely n it shows in the writing. When the writers of the show want the girl that plays Alicent to be like a “trump supporter they clearly have a bias. N since most of modern entertainment is very liberal n progressive they r more or less biased towards the blacks. The greens r religious, judgmental rule followers, r of a traditional sexual relationships. Republican which apparently is bad. The blacks have gay characters, minorities characters, women who sleep around n have bastards so that’s very progressive n liberal or democrats. To me as long as the writers don’t preach to much n tells the story of how bad both sides r n really gives the story of how tragic the dance of dragons was. The show clearly wants to make a point about toxic masculinity n how women could be better than the man around them. It’s very woke but it hasn’t become preachy woke. Also welcome back from my friend looking forward to more house of the dragon videos.

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

Thank you for watching. 💚

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

Got some more videos coming. 😏

[@itspronouncednikolaj333]

Still the same opinion after season 2?

[@jjosifovic]

@@itspronouncednikolaj333 .......i will wait until i see the final episode but look like my opinion definitely has changed

[@ambience273]

Aegon's coronation just lacked the horned guy to be perfect. Just like The Boys season 3 ending.

[@Dc225_]

Great video, very informative and thoughtful.

[@EmilyFoxSeaton]

Fortunately I have never watched the show just picked up from you tube but I think clearly the show runners want to portray people who follow the rules and are religious as bad people. Hypocritical or slutty. Team black always wins because they are lead by girl boss women whereas the religious trad wife and her family (Alicent) will always be treated worse by the show. It is really bad with the introduction of the affair with Alicent and Christan Cole. Hollywood just can't help themselves.

[@DiegoRivera-ll8jy]

you opinion is useless then

[@michaelbuick6995]

The whole Alicole thing doesn't even work. Alicent is a widowed grandmother whose son sits the Iron Throne. She's paid her dues. If she has a boy toy on the side it's of no consequence beyond a bit of palace gossip. Rhaenyra on the other hand almost lost her virginity in a brothel, actually lost her virginity outside of marriage, then had bastard sons while married to the son of the house with the biggest fleet in Westeros, and names her bastard son heir to the throne. Alicent's indiscretions are mildly scandalous. Rhaenyra's have HUGE political ramifications. Besides, if Rhaenyra is a "strong empowerment girl boss owning her sexuality" then how is Alicent bad for doing the same, and to a lesser degree?

[@itspronouncednikolaj333]

@@DiegoRivera-ll8jythat is exactly what the show is like after actually watching it. It’s so shallow that one doesn’t even have to watch it fully to know how it will go.

[@DiegoRivera-ll8jy]

@@itspronouncednikolaj333 you obviously have no idea what you are talking about is you think this is predictable. Lmao

[@kaiwancallender2761]

Shows have a lot of anti-George Bush ideas in the show basically riding style as well anti-George Bush ideas that’s why it shows a little bit anyway seems like a good enough show. What stuff is that that this thing as like Georgia Bush social justice things and a little bit too anyway nice to see you my name is K1 calendar, I’ll be part of your channel

[@damienschutte3616]

All of this is simply caused by one thing: ESG financing. Due to the cheap debt that is available through ESG financing, almost every big project in hollywood uses that financing. If you include diversity consultants in your project guess what? it might saves you millions in paid interest. So unless financing will be become avaible in a different way, all project based entertainment will keep hires these ridiculess diversity experts including games, shows, movies etc.

[@Ey3contact]

It's funny how the writers' effort to make these male characters more negative just ended up making them outshine the now more 'positive(bland)' female characters by a mile 😂

[@ChildOfTheFlower]

Well the show turned all the female characters hapless people while the men are the ones causing all the messes. The Blacks are the good guys because a female queen is being robbed of her birthright and all the female characters in the Greens are just victims of the patriarchy. The race swapping of the Valeryons is going to be a fun plothole later on as Aegon the Conqueror has a Valeryon mother and the Blackfyres will have to be race swapped even through they were considered legitimate due to appearing more Valyrian than the Dornish Targaryens. Oh and isn't Jahearyes suppose to mixed because his own mother is Valeryon too?? It was hilarious seeing how the show is sooo progressive yet Corlys is a deadbeat father stereotype, Alyn is one too and Rhaena is given the role of actual black character Nettles.

[@omedn3930]

oh boy the video is great and fits perfectly to season 2

[@kaiwancallender2761]

They seem to have at least put in some ideas, but then they do put in politics of Republican Republican

[@caseyhart4999]

However true it is or is not the fact he referred to Alicent as a “woman for Trump” is extremely telling. 100% they have had a feminist agenda from day 1 and most people are so desperate for this franchise to be good again they totally ignore it lol

[@idawg7332]

I hate to say it but HOTD is the first woke show that I've liked. Some of their choices bother me but there are so many other things the show does well that I always find myself enjoying it

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

What keeps me watching is the story itself - knowing it from Fire and Blood. I'm interested to know how it will be developed from the books... something that I've not been very impressed with just yet. 🤦🏾‍♂😩 But it's not a terrible series by any means. It's still good. It's just not a very good adaptation of the source material. The writers are clearly influenced by their _'political-leanings'_ when it comes to the show. 🙄

[@idawg7332]

@@thecriticalmaester9702 they definitely did a good making alicent and aemond more sympathetic and keeping some of aegon's good qualities. Overall I still find the story interesting. However they also made it impossible to root for aegon by confirming everything bad about him from the book and completely white washing rhaenyra

[@noirnoir4276]

As long as its good, it doesn't matter. Season one was amazing. Definitely one of the best show of that year.

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

Fair enough.

[@aplace5791]

Some of it doesn’t look good, that’s the problem

[@ForzaMara]

No wonder the producers are butt hurt that Daemon is the audience favourite character. They've done everything to ruin him, yet the audience can't get enough. If their intentions were to make us loathe him, they should have picked a different actor. Makes me worry about the Nettles storyline, though. Can't have a man be redeemed in this show.

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

I think they'll solve that problem by cutting her out of the story. I didn't see her in the trailer, but I did see Hugh the Hammer and Ulf the White, and apparently Adam Velaryon is also there, too.

[@B463L]

They forgot that their psychopath is married to the #girlboss #slayqueen and 100% of team black stans are mentally challenged hybristophile catladies who flick the bean to documentaries of Ted Bundy. Of course they love Daemon, every time he murders an innocent person they get an orgasm. Along the same vein, they also failed to convince me to hate Criston Cole, and they made Rhaenyra totally contemptible while trying to make her a hero.

[@alexandregrand-pierre1981]

I think the decision to race swap the Velaryons was dumb, and it was glaringly obvious everytime i would see them walk into a scene with the white curly hair and dreads where i would get taken out of it because aren't these 2 houses that regularly intermingled and intermarried throughout history with eachother and other Valyrian houses? Yet Corlys and Vaemond are as black as me, and Laena (who's already mixed) has kids with Daemon who look even more black than she does. In contrast with Rhaenyras kids that are as white as her and with 0 traits that could be passed off as coming from Laenor. At the same time, Steve Toussiant's portrayal of Corlys is so great in spite of the questionable casting choice that it's easier to forgive, as he's one of my favorite characters on the show.

[@synthamvs7624]

The main issue is that the superficial diversity has made them cut out the actual black character from the book: Nettles

[@herroberbesserwisser7331]

Well i heard that it is for casual viewers to differenciate between the characters, since... yk. Both families have silver hair?

[@alexandregrand-pierre1981]

@@herroberbesserwisser7331 I doubt that was their reasoning going in, and sounds more like a lazy excuse to shield from criticism while insulting the intelligence of their audience 🤣 Meanwhile Rhaenys was supposed to have black hair with streaks of silver/white thanks to her Baratheon lineage. That would have made her stand out better at least

[@herroberbesserwisser7331]

@@alexandregrand-pierre1981 to be fair, with the time skips i was somewhat confused at the middle of season 1 with a few characters. Am i stupid now?

[@alexandregrand-pierre1981]

@@herroberbesserwisser7331 no because it was an abrupt change of cast, so you needed the time to refamiliarize yourself with the characters and context clues.

[@ibnsabeel9466]

All TV shows are woke nowadays. Some are so entirely woke, for example; Euphoria, We Are Who We Are, The Boys, Gen V, that they make the rest of TV look normal.

[@mokiloke]

Need to republish this video.

[@erlkoenig505]

Making the Velaryons black can work, but it must be done more consistently. For me, it is not problematic that thete are no black Westerosi people in GoT - after almost two centuries of intermarrying with Andal or First Men houses, the alleles encoding for skin colour and hence dark skin would have become pretty rare. But that also leads to my major problem: The uniqueness of the Velaryons being black. We don't know their full family tree, but we can safely assume that they did not practice the same degree of incest as the Targaryens. For them to remain black after generations in Westeros, they must have intermarried primarily with other black people/houses. But where are they? Similarly, all living Targaryens go back to Aegon the Conqueror, whose mother was Valaena Velaryon, and his alleged son Aenys married Alyssa Velaryon, who is also the mother Boremund and Jocelyn Baratheon and their respective children Borros Baratheon and Rhaenys "The Queen Who Never Was" Targaryen. Why don't more Targaryens and Baratheons have darker skin, curly hair etc.? It could all have been more consistent if the showrunners had introduced more PoCs, especielly in the houses that intermarried with the Velaryons. In other words, more ethnical diversity would have made things more believable. For me, making only the Valaryons and noone else black looks more like the figurative fig leaf to obscure that the showrunners did not think further.

[@aplace5791]

Naw ur coping it’s a dumb fuck race swap

[@SacerGladius]

I did not like some changes of the book as well but there is a catch here. Book is not 100% truth in that sense. George RR Martin wrote it like it was a history book that appears in Westeros, and there were 3 different narrators in the book if remember correctly. Each portrays events quite differently. It is ok to change some aspects in that sense. Yeah, black Targarians are not a thing and is an unjustified change but I dont really care about that thing. I am bothered by that portrayal of the green side as villains and blacks as the heroes.

[@itspronouncednikolaj333]

And that’s what they made up to be able to make this rubbish of a show

[@bushmaster195]

This is why I'm against any book adaptations to screen because they butcher it always, when GOT ended and they announced this show I had some hope, but the moment I heard the line "A woman will not sit the Iron Throne" I knew this show would be woke. Still I watched it cuz I like dragons because the ''Politics" side from the books were butchered by modern day agenda's. They made the Green's completely unlikable for some reason we are supposed to root for a Groomer and His niece who is basically a privileged brat so these Woke people like privileged brats LOL. I hope none of the upcoming shows they said they are adapting from George Martin succeed to the screen cuz you just know they will make Aegon a background character, Dunk and Egg- I assume a woman will give Egg the ideas he has in the books, so he will turn out to be a liar and incompetent, Dunk will probably be gay.

[@kaiwancallender2761]

The green party seem to be very much liberals and the end, and the end, the yellow, and the yellow Varian Varian seem to be very much, Neil

[@mcstotti8691]

Is this AI generated or just by a very bad russian troll?

[@akibanu007]

the bigger problem than the race-swap is casting of black characters. I mean acting skill of most of the black actors(except the guy who plays corlys velaryon) are so bad and one dimensional it is almost cringingly unwatchable sometimes.

[@NaphakadeTheGoat]

People overuse the word 'woke' too much nowadays. It seems like if people don't like a movie or a tv show they say that its woke. But I can see why you might think that hOTD is woke, though I don't think its too much of a train smash. The 'wokeness' still works for the story. But yes, Aegon does seem more villainized from the book's perspective. And i hate the fact that he seems like a secondary character in his own story. The Dance of the Dragons is supposed to be about Aegon and Rhaenyra, but if you were looking at the posters you'd think that it was about Rhaenyra and Alicent. I can definitely see how Miguel Sapochnik and the other writers were influenced by the 'PAtriACRHY' there. That's the only part of the story that I think sucks. On the other hand, I don't think all of the male characters seem too bad. For example, in your other video you already point out how Otto SEEMS like a villain, but ultimately he is right and could be seen as the good guy from his perspective. I think that makes him look a bit good in a certain light. And Aemond is also pretty sympathetic compared to how he is in the books. The show definitely made him a lot more sympathetic to me. And Rhaenyra doesn't seem that much of a hero either. She does a lot of stupid things and she does sort of kinda kill Vaemond Velaryon. Stealing his birthright was also kinda fucked up. I don't think ALL of the female characters are made to be positive. I don't think I agree with the latter part of this video (the female agenda) too much, except for the AEgon part. I do agree with you on the former part of it - the raceswapping of the Velaryons. I actually hate that raceswapping and I'm a black guy. I agree that its gonna cause problems in the future and that it does take away from the whole 'Targaryens are closer to gods' thing. I really don't like that change. Anyway, great video again. Keep it up, bro. 💯

[@jasonck9635]

They do give the female characters excuses for every action they do ! If you notice that they always give the females characters a reason for why they did what they did and it’s usually because of a man forcing their hand ! Which is clearly not in the book ! In the book they made their own bad choices and it wasn’t solely blamed on the men ! This was the very first thing I noticed in the show ! As Alicent in the book wasn’t portrayed in a more innocent light ! She clearly made her choices in the book ! Even though I love the show . I could clearly pickup on the changes to try and make the female leads portrayed in such a Devine light and all their bad choices were forced upon them by men and the patriarchy ! No matter what I still love the show ! But I will call out the propaganda being pushed !

[@hassanbadrek2726]

@@jasonck9635no man forced rahneayra acting as prostitute

[@hassanbadrek2726]

Just wait for aegon in season 2

[@mori666]

the valeryons seem like they were swapped to just better distinguish between the families as a show only watcher. visually i prefered this change as someone who didnt know anything going into HotD, i also just dont see why it matters as it really changes nothing but a minute detail about a race of people on the verge of not existing

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

As I said in the video: it doesn't seem like a problem now, but it will become a problem as the story goes on. For example, Aegon III's children are mothered by a Velaryon woman. They are SUPPOSED to be white, but will the show make them mixed??? Will we get a mixed Baelor the Blessed??? There's even a show being developed about Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters, all of whom were mothered by a Velaryon woman. Will Aegon The Conqueror be a mixed man??? Will Visenya and Rhaenys??? You see the concern??? 🤔

[@Ladybug-no9sc]

​@thecriticalmaester9702 HAVE YOU EVER SEEN MIXED PPL IN REAL LIFE SIR????😂😂😂Most biracial people LOOK white. I'm sure you've been around biracial ppl and didn't know until they tell you. I see this ALL the time. Only in entertainment do they make mixed ppl look more Black then white. Is reality most ppl can't tell the difference. They tend to look more foreign than anything. Get a Grip

[@Ladybug-no9sc]

​@@thecriticalmaester9702I've seen others people explain this too you and you conveniently ignore them. You are just being a Chaos agent at this point

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

@@Ladybug-no9sc No, I really don't mean to be a "chaos agent", I'm genuinely concerned about this aspect of the story. All the artwork for the books depicts the Targaryens as having typical Velaryon features, so will the show change it for the sake of maintaining some 'woke' agenda??? I can understand Corlys' father having a relationship with a black woman and producing him, a black child. But there is a butterfly effect that makes changes like this ripple out to the rest of the story. Inevitably, other characters will have to have a different skin colour and that will be the opposite of what's described in the books. People are already outraged with the change of the Velaryons being black, so I think that changing a character like Daeron the Dragonknight will be even more controversial. I'm an unapologetic book purist, so this will always bother me. I'm sorry. There are black characters in the story already, why don't they just flesh them out more. Or they can include original characters within the world from places like the Summer Islands. 🤷‍♂

[@Ladybug-no9sc]

@thecriticalmaester9702 This is all Fair and as patron I actually understand, HOWEVER... The writer/creator doesn't have a problem with this, so their is a lack of respect for the author and his liberal views. I feel like this is just New age Entitlement, They tried that with Stephen King and he ripped them a new one stating "if you don't like it, don't watch it since you were never really a fan anyway." 20 years later, he's STILL the King or Horror.

[@gameianpsp]

i hate the race swap in the house of dragon its so silly, but atleast the show is good i accept it a bit more because of it

[@Buford_T_Justice1]

It is one of the VERY FEW woke forms of entertainment that is still actually good. Very rare.

[@kognitiveresonanz]

I just hit the subscribe button hard enough to earn myself the moniker Breakbutton.

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

Kognitive Resonanz, first of his name and Breaker of Buttons 😂😂😂 Thank you for watching. 💚

[@patrickwheeler5701]

marvel x-men from the 60's done it first

[@dosidicusgigas1376]

GGRM is woke and works on the show, so theres that. I wouldnt be surprised if he greenlit the raceswap.

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

How is GRRM woke? 🤔

[@dosidicusgigas1376]

@thecriticalmaester9702 I think he's woke because he's an ardent supporter of identity politics, modern feminism, & as of late he's been expressing a lot of progressive leftist views. He's always been a leftist (self described hippie), he's just expressing more modern "woke" views nowadays. Just to be clear I dont hate him or even dislike him, he has the right to his opinions. I just think his views will be more pervasive as HOTD progresses. A good example would be the changes made to the female characters in the show to make them more sympathetic while simultaneously making them appear like victims of the patriarchy, which is odd since it devalues the accomplishments of those women in the books.

[@SimiCantStandYaBits]

​@@thecriticalmaester9702 you cover the man's work, your entire online identity is defined by his work. But you know nothing about him...

[@Raycloud]

@@dosidicusgigas1376 It's amazing the internal mental deceptions that Leftists subject themselves to. I agree that GRRM is woke, yet in his story he has this massive border wall that protects the North from a foreign society that has few of the same values, practices kidnapping, sometimes cannibalism, and regularly raids their farms and violates their people, even abducting and mutilating their women. Then you have Dany leading Dothraki and bringing them to Westoros (presumably). Do you think GRRM understands the disaster this would be for Westoros, when you have wildlings and Dothraki running rampant over the land with their alien cultures and value systems? The thing with Leftist politics is that they don't work and are contrary to reality. So even in Progressiive media you will often find these kinds of contradictions that undermine their own ideological goals and views. Despite their efforts Leftist writers cannot tell good stories without undermining their own beliefs.

[@blinkusfishus2052]

@@dosidicusgigas1376 He is a self-described Hippy, The modern left is very different to Martin's era, or even the left of my youth in the 90's. left and right are not static concepts..

[@jables1122]

Making the Valeryon’s black will create a Segway to make Aegon The Conqueror and his sisters black, because his mother was Valeryon. But yeah, totally unintended.

[@SimiCantStandYaBits]

Thats pretty based

[@aplace5791]

@@SimiCantStandYaBits miscegenation is the opposite of based

[@SimiCantStandYaBits]

@@aplace5791 Less mayo is always based.

[@Quark214]

Gotta love how they decided to blackwash the velaryons, but they didn't include Nettles in the adaptation, an actual canon and likeable black character. All because it would have made Daemon look bad, and Daemon is a fan favorite. Just goes to show that they don't give a fuck about Martin's vision or philosophy behind this.

[@ambience273]

2:00 wich Aba and Preach video is that?

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

I'll put a link to the video in the description.

[@jimbo7551]

Book readers represent 👇

[@Rawnervzz]

I actually haven’t heard anybody complain about this show because it was still written pretty good

[@AegonTargaryenthesecond3096]

The author

[@_somerandomguyontheinternet_]

I’ve got to say, that is the most evenhanded way I’ve heard someone refer to the people crying “woke” all the time. That said, I’ll note that these days, “woke” has morphed from being an descriptor used for shows that abide by a list of characteristics social conservatives don’t like into being a word that stands on its own as the issue, without people having to specify what exactly makes something “woke.” As such, when pundits refer to a work as “woke,” they don’t need to define what makes it woke, but rather go on about numerous flaws with (and most often a bunch of bad faith arguments about) the thing they are decrying as “woke.” By this point, it is little more than a buzzword to get reactionaries angry.

[@elijah5182]

It’s a gay show that’s the agenda and being biased towards men to be honest it really doesn’t have any tides with game of thrones it’s really about two lesbian

[@johnmorris1009]

It is proving to be getting more woke as it goes on, or certainly more feminist. I thought season one was good and this didn't harm the story, but it's definitely slowed down season 2 considerably. Too much attention is given to the women ''trying to have a say" in events and men saying "no you can't." We even lost 10 minutes to a completely unnecessary scene with Alicent and Rhaenyra. The whole agenda behind it is becoming tiresome. I do wonder if Emma D'arcy hasn't had something to do with this Anyway, lets see some more dragons please.

[@delighted2849]

how is daemon in the books? Given you mention the bad traits are put onto him

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

He is bad (I mean he does kill a child, never forget), but the show makes him worse by shifting all of Rhaenyra’s actions onto him. In the book, Daemon is violent and murderous, yes, but so is Rhaenyra. In an effort to absolve Rhaenyra and make her look more righteous and good than she was in the book, the writers decided to make Daemon responsible for all the bad things done by Team Black, even some of the things that Rhaenyra is actually responsible for. And their justification for it is that _”the book was written by misogynists that hated women like Rhaenyra”_ 🙄

[@catoverlord1185]

Most west entertainment industry is woke projects

[@Astartes-6969]

If the writing is good does it matter?

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

I suppose not. But some would argue that the 'woke' stuff makes the writing weak and that it compromises the story. For example, you can look at the scene where Rhaenys bursts out of the floor with her dragon. That scene was pointless and absolutely unnecessary, and it was done for the sake of making her look like a feminists boss-queen.

[@aguspuig6615]

@@thecriticalmaester9702 Id argue thats not true. They do try to make her look like a girl boss yeah. But the scene has a big impact imo. First off it makes war unavoidable, shes killed a bunch of commoners an threatened the royal family. But imo the more important side to it, we see Aegon finally loved by someone during his coronation, all the people of Kingslanding no less! He started off reluctant but now finally looks truly happy, he doesnt have to hide anymore, and suddently Raenys, a rival, ruins it all and he has to run and hide, the one time he felt proud in his life. The fear in his eyes in that scene felt lik a big character moment.

[@Mutazili]

Midway S2, it got worse...

[@DiegoRivera-ll8jy]

you just slow

[@Mutazili]

@@DiegoRivera-ll8jy ???

[@Zait2009]

There will come a day when you will see tensions between coworkers at your local grocery store do to people thinking that that person got the job cause they are filling in a diversity standard. "Here comes the diversity hire." they will say, regardless of whether or not that is true.

[@freddiecawston2892]

Yes but only Rosey O'Donnell!

[@mcstotti8691]

The very idea of faithfully adapting fire and blood into a TV show is silly. Faithfully adapting a pseudohistory book would need it to be a documentary style. With the maaster, the septon and the fool as narrotors of the documentary. Furthermore the first season was like three chapters worth of book. A lot needed to be fleshed out and because its dramatic narration instead of faux history they needed to make some decisions. What happened how needs to be made definitive. And people the characters need arcs they very much lacked in fire and blood because they had very little screentime and the truth of the character was always filtered through the lense of 3 narrators of diffrent repute. The more detailed characterwork is very much a thing any adaption of this book into visual media has to do. And no Rheanyra isnt punk Rock thats a thing Sapochniks wife said by the way not himself. She isnt here to tear down the system she is just here to get on top. She thinks the world belongs to her cause her daddy said so anyone threatening that is just collateral to her and i think thats the side we will see from her in season two. Until now her entitlement didnt even allow her to see that she would be usurped. Now shes angry. Thats what the season ended with. Her angry face. Now thousands will burn not because she wants to destroy the unjust system that opresses them but because she aint on top anymore. Alicent on the other hand seems like a more positive more rightous version of cerscei where she will protect her children above all else even if they are monsters. Out of a sense of familial duty and love. This is a much more intresting conflict than two factions vying for power because they are powerhungry. Its about people who should be a family but whos circumstances made it impossible for them to be one. All of them are victims and perpetrators of the system they are trying to uphold and ultimately tear it down through their infighting. Or at least start its demise by eradicating the dragons in their war.

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

Imagine, for a moment, how a maester in the future might record the events of The War of the Five Kings and Joffrey's Reign. From their perspective: 1. Joffrey would be the true heir of Cersei Lannister and Robert Baratheon, a handsome prince with a legitimate claim. 2. Ned Stark would be written as the villainous friend of the former king, a self-confessed traitor who attempted to usurp Joffrey's throne. The histories would paint Joffrey in a positive light in ordering his beheading, because they wouldn't know the secret between Cersei and Jaimie, and they wouldn't have been privy to the events and nuances that shaped Ned's motivations. 3. Tyrion would be a villain - the monstrous imp. They would paint him as an evil dwarf who killed his mother to come into the world; a lustful and evil imp who bedded harlots and drank with thieves. They would blame him for Joffrey's death (even though we know, from the events of the book, that Littlefinger was to blame) and the death of his father (which is a fact; but they wouldn't delve into the reasons why Tyrion was led to that decision). The maesters recording these events wouldn't know all of the nuances of Tyrion's character, and they wouldn't understand that he actually had good intentions and did many kind things throughout that time period. These are things that only we, as the readers, are privy to because we are actually inside his head. 4. Stannis would be painted as the evil uncle who wanted to usurp his noble nephew's throne. The maesters wouldn't really know that Stannis actually has a more legitimate claim than Joffrey, and that Joffrey is Jaimie's bastard. I could go on and on with examples of how events from the book could be misconstrued by historians that don't have the same level of context and understanding that we do about the characters of the story. For us, we understand why characters like Tyrion and Jaimie act the way that they do, because we are privy to their thoughts; but it's also understandable that a person who isn't privy to those thoughts might perceive them in a negative way. It's understandable that people would view Jaimie as the dishonorable Kingslayer, for example, because they don't know the rest of the story and they don't understand the context of him actually driving his sword through the Mad King's back. We know Jaimie's reasons because we've been in his head and we understand the complex emotions that drove his decisions. So what is my point? The showrunners of House of the Dragon don't really have to adapt the events of the book accurately. We know that Fire and Blood is a history book and that historians can sometimes be inaccurate due to their own biases. We also know that even primary sources can certainly be biased, as people's perspectives on events and characters are often coloured by their own prejudices. However, regardless of how someone might interpret an event or character, there are some things in history that undeniably happened and that just simply couldn't have been false. For example, regardless of how a person might perceive Henry V as a king, there is simply no denying his charisma and strong leadership, especially when you consider how he led his forces to victory in the Battle of Agincourt. We can debate about his reasons and politics, or the morale of the soldiers at the time, but there's just no denying the remarkable event that happened on that fateful day. We can also debate, for example, about the death of Abraham Lincoln - why he was killed and who the man was to him - but there's just no denying that he was actually assassinated. If there was a live adaption of his life and death, and they changed it so that Lincoln died of a heart attack instead of an assassination, then people would recognize it and be very upset... and this is exactly how fans of Fire and Blood feel about certain events on the show. The showrunners can give justifications for why certain events in the book happened, and they can show how perhaps the historians misconstrued the character's intentions and motivations, but I don't think that book fans appreciate a complete changing of the event itself. For example, we know that Rhaenys was not in King's Landing during Aegon's coronation, and we know that she didn't burst out of the floor and try to burn the Greens with her dragon (an event like this would've had too many witnesses to not be noticed and would have certainly been recorded in the annals of Fire and Blood), but this is what the showrunners portray in House of the Dragon. They completely distort the event, and change what happened in the books, in order to try and give Rhaenys a badass girl-boss moment (though I admit that it didn't work). There are many more examples of the showrunners simply changing things from the book that would've undeniably happened in 'real-life' Westerosi history, all for the sake of portraying Rhaenyra (and any other female character) in a more positive light than they were described in the book. There are events that show Rhaenyra to be more ruthless and ambitious in the book, but which have been taken out for the sake of making her seem more likeable on the show (often at the expense of Daemon's character). No one minds when the showrunners try to introduce more conflict to the events of the book, but people will definitely mind it if this is done at the expense of the overall story. They'll mind it if events are changed for the sake of the writers trying to push their 'woke' agendas.

[@pamjames9077]

😂😂😂there isn’t a Mushroom in the adaptation.😂😂😂😂 If this is a woke feminist, Trump hating adaptation the world is off its axis. The creators of the show are woke. It’s a fantasy world leave your biases out of it.

[@xlr8r2010]

I watched GOT and loved it (except the horrible ending) I will not watch this House Of The Dragon cringe fest. They are using D.E.I to fill character roles...not staying true the to original story. They are pushing a political agenda...I wouldn't want to watch "Roots" if Kunta Kinte was cast with a white actor , or even a mixed race person either. Just cast the shows the way the original author(s) intended FFS.

[@radioslave5307]

for all the mistakes the showrunner have made, injecting "wokeness" into the writing isn't one of them. I'd agree there's a vague "girl power" attitude in the show, but most of the "wokeness" is coming from the fanbase uncritically hyping up Rhaenyra and using her and other characters to project their shallow, social media version of feminism onto. the youtube channel Hills Alive has a great series going over how viewing the show as an allegory for modern gender politics is shallow and misguided.

[@callumtindal9856]

George played a big part in the writing and plot choices of the show, I think why the female charecters come across more sympathetic is because in the medieval style fudal system that HoTD is based in, women were used as political pawns by there fathers that are trying to play the game of thrones, I think it’s cheap to stick the “woke” label on it, just because it misses the point George is trying to tell.

[@arturleperoke3205]

bro read the book

[@aguspuig6615]

I think the show is pretty complex, yes its a little woke, but for the first time in history i think they are making it work without shitting on the actual fans. They give us woke team black, good guy coded and full of girlbosses riding dragons. And then team green, arguably more competent, just as sympathetic, more legitimate. I think if you hate the show because you think its ''woke'' youre failing to realise that they arent just being woke. For example i think they KNOW that Raenys killing tons of civilians in her girlboss move of destroying the dragon pit wanst a good thing, but they also know that alot of people will think its a cool girlboss move, and other people will think its so cringe that the show is bad. While a smaller percentage will see that its a kind of badass but ultimately very negative action thats interesting for the story, if you manage to look past woke and anti woke extremes

[@foxtaunt]

The changes are done for a reason: Make one side sympathetic, and the other not. It's more engaging for viewers to have a side to root for, and more tragic when Rhae's ultimate fate occurs.

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

What about book fans that rooted for the Greens in Fire and Blood? Shouldn't the show offer some sort of balance to the narrative, so that the audience can make up their own minds about who they want to support? 🤔

[@foxtaunt]

@@thecriticalmaester9702 book fans make up 1% of the audience, they are not and have never been the focus

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

@@foxtaunt I wouldn't go so far as to say that the book fans are 1% of the audience, because it's really the book fans that were supporting this show from day one. Most of the audience are book fans, I would wager, because everyone else ran away after the disaster that was season 8 of Game of Thrones. The only audience that was willing to give this show a shot were the book fans. However, I don't think that that's something that the showrunners or the producers understand; and even if they do, they'll try to move away from it by including more woke stuff into the show and pandering to the masses. I don't think it's a good strategy overall, because that's what made Game of Thrones fail so dismally: not understanding why people loved that story in the first place.

[@foxtaunt]

@@thecriticalmaester9702 " Most of the audience are book fans" agree to disagree because there is no way you could ever convince me this is even remotely true

[@Timquan.]

As a black man i have to say, GOTs dissapointed me a bit with westeros not featuring a single black noble house. I understand the idea George had of hard basing westeros on medival britain, as most fantasies are, and essos off of asia, the middle east, and parts of Africa. I understand there is the summer isles but as a fan of fantasy, i do apreciate seeing a black Noble house in westeros, and making the Velaryons black enhances the stakes and tension of Rheanyra's bastards problem, the "Just look at them scene" hits 1000 times harder, it gives an air of " those boys dont possess silver hair or dark skin, so what are we even doing here".

[@dickonmanwoody7599]

Cultural appropriation.

[@Zapp33311]

I’m Hispanic and I don’t need to see a Hispanic noble house in Westeros to enjoy the show. It would take me right out of the story seeing hispanics in a British medieval setting. Just like I can enjoy an Asian show with an all Asian cast. It looks like pandering and lacking self esteem to need my ethnicity shoehorned into the story of a fictional show. 🤔

[@me4067]

As a brown man, I can give 2 shits if there are any brown people represented in the show. lol

[@Zapp33311]

@@me4067 Same here. I don’t understand what some people get out of needing to see their ethnic group represented in out of place stories. I don’t need to see Hispanic medieval kings, Hispanic wizards or Samurai’s to enjoy a show it just looks ridiculous.

[@madhistoryn]

Its like saying you would want to see a white tribe in Wakanda.

[@Jay-cu6nd]

Yep..... A full episode showing us woman can hunt just like men....woke

[@cokereynolds5893]

Velaryons are traditionally sailors. A fan theory says that they went and hooked up with some Southern Islanders (black skinned people) during a voyage or two. Hence why they are black. Also there weren’t really any Velaryons in Game of Thrones (show). So I always get a little frustrated at that JRE clip. Personally I think it’s a creative way to show a little diversity in Westeros.

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

The show hasn't confirmed anything yet, so we'll have to wait and see. It's just that right now, they seem to have shoe horned it into the show for no reason and that's why people are upset.

[@essenby123]

Casting Black actors only to sideline the characters way more than they were in the books... not a good look. Vaemond being upset that a white boy was going to usurp his family's throne and he's portrayed by the show as being unjustified and power hungry... Laena being portrayed as a second choice to Rhaenyra so much so that the night of her funeral her husband *finally* gets with his first choice, and her death being changed just to frame Rhaenyra's eventual death as more "badass" befitting of a dragonrider... not to mention Rhaenyra forcing Laenor into exile and having to give up both his claim to Driftmark, his family, and his station in life (access to the privileges afforded to him in Westeros)... Baela and Rhaenyra having sparse dialogue and barely any reaction to their betrothals (something the show have Rhaenyra entire episodes to grapple with)... I'm on board with the change, because why not, but then do the characters justice and don't just use them to prop up or support other characters.

[@user-pc9px8nu1o]

I love what they did with Alicents character in the show and I think it was necessary. She’s a tool for her father, she was forced to marry her best friends dad, and in the process lost that best friend. She was then forced to stay faithful to her sick husband while there were other men she’d rather be with. All the while, Rhaenyra gets to cheat and birth bastards and still keep her inheritance. When Alicents children are grown, they are the only family members she really has. And one of them turns out to be an SA’er and sociopath who likes watching children fight, and the other son turns into a weird blood hungry killer who idolizes his sociopathic uncle. But she doesn’t want to see them killed by Rhaenyra, which her father manipulated her into thinking. Her lack of agency in the story and innocence makes her a more tragic character, imo.

[@aguspuig6615]

Tbh i think the characters are rly well done. Its the overall world that maybe suffers a bit from how the show portrays things, like the Valeryons being black creates issues, and specially the fact that so many lords choose to support Raenyra. However i think what they did with the characters is awsome. Look at it from this angle, they arent making a woke show, they are making a show for a modern audience. Otto isnt really villified, hes just bad guy coded, his mannerisms, looks, way of speaking, all scream scheming power hungry villain. But his actions dont. Raenyra is made more sympathetic than in the books yes, but shes still clearly not squaky clean morally, i think in this case the Valeryons being black works well, since her bastards are obvious, and its only her station and threats that keeps people in line about it, it does feel belivable, and people do call her out on it, so its not like everyone becomes dumb and pretends not to notice. Sure its a change from the books, from plausible deniability to more of an emperors new clothes situation, but i think it works well, specally with the books being history books in the lore, i think they can afford to take these liberties. I think Alicents character also benefits, i hate it when every bad guy in every piece of media is just power hungry for its own sake, not because society rewards it and they want aproval, or for some greater cause, just ''uOoH Power GoOd, Im EviL'' i love the idea of Alicent being an imperfect but generally good person who is used to following the rules all her life, suffering from it, and now is in a sunken cost phalacy were she will do everything by the book because thats what she knows, even if it ends up damning her. Instead of just yet another scheming bad guy who wants power. Then i love how the meta aspect of the show works, they know its a modern audience, they know there will be woke people watching AND they clearly know there will be people watching who are afraid of the show being woke. So they give you in one hand all the cool empowered female characters, Alicent being sort of a traditional submissive good girl but powerfull at the same time, Raenyra and Raenys being very girlboss coded... Your avarage woke normie will always support the blacks, they have the Valeryons on their side, the girl bosses on their side, and they are clearly shown as the good guys. However, instead of showing the greens as pure evil as some claim (in my opinion this is exageration at best lying at worst) the greens come off as competent and cool in their own right, even more legitimate than the blacks. But at the same time the blacks being just as sympathetic if less legitimate, and having more girl boss characters on their side. So i think book fans will side with the greens while ''normies'' will side with the blacks, and i think its an awsome dynamic for the meta side of the show. Also i think the first season didnt show the characters as they will be by the end, Raenyra for example, look at the recent trailer and tell me she isnt about to snap and become unhinged. Shes just had a stillborn baby and one of her sons has just died, murdered as far as she knows. So instead of yet another power seeking villain (boring) we get a sympathetic traumatised mother who is probably gonna do some very fucked up things, wich will be bad, but at the same time understandable. Ok thats a massive ramble, thankyou whoever read it all the way. Pls do answer with your opinion i think this is all rly interesting to discuss.

[@somasaasaa4850]

2:54 if the goal is to make them seem unique then race swapping them makes them seem more foreign because Westeros is mainly white. Hence making them black makes more sense in your own argument Your second point is deviating from George RR Martins writing is what made game of thrones bad… well George is a main writer for house of the dragon the race sealing is something he both knows about and probably approved of. Third- it is yet to be clear if this contradicts the cannon of the books especially sense Colus is clearly willing to choose white skin people as his own heir. If fact knowing that by the time of game of thrones they are white makes audience members like me wonder if Colus family dies out making the story more interesting. Fourth Rynerias kids clearly being bastards makes things well more clear. That the reason her inheritance is maintained is not her bloodline but the kings will. Fifth turning character black doesn’t make them woke, it’s how it’s done. No one argues that Nick furry being black is woke, it’s just a good actor playing a role that was white in the comics. 8:54 your arguing that the show makes the women characters more likable then their book counterparts but there’s three issues with this 1) the book is not an accurate retelling of the events that happened and is written in favor of the greens to make the blacks look bad so if people were more responsible than retellings it isn’t about gender but the difference of how stories are told and what really happened 2. You argue Reyna is made more sympathetic as well as Alias but sir Cristian is more sympathetic as well as Amon, Agon and even Deamon. All the characters are more sympathetic not just the women. 3) they changed who did what to make a more cohesive narrative, like Otto power plays arnt depicted as evil decisions but logical choice he’s making for the good of his Family. Deamons choices are depicted in a similar light where it’s just prince Deamon he does what he wants, it not seen as villainous as long as you understand their motivations and it adds to the story and characters. I’m going to stop here because I don’t want book spoilers

[@kaiwancallender2761]

The show is a little woke, but woke nowadays of me have socialism involved in the politics of the show and it’s very anti-Bush for some reason how the dragons we references to George Bush throughout season one George Bush ideas involving it very much green are very much supposed to be likethe guy who ran against transmission 2000

[@ryankwon8785]

Condal: This show is about what really happened. Martin: I like Show Viserys than Book Viserys (Literally treats Fire & Blood as the story he wanted).

[@CT_Phipps]

George is aware of systemic injustice in medieval society in his books so...yes?

[@hitskwaad]

Why do you never present your opinions as your own?

[@LunaMoon0]

Woke is good. I mean, look at baldurs gate or the Witcher or Skyrim. All good woke stories

[@johannord4778]

@LunaMoon0 They existed before ”woke” became a thing (2018) so they are not considered woke the same goes for tons of other media.

[@Quark214]

It's hard to tell sarcasm especially on the internet these days, so i take what you've said at face value The Witcher.. books and game trilogy? Yeah, that is good. The TV show that is a complete trainwreck, so much so that the main actor who is a huge fan of the Witcher series decided it's best to drop it. Skyrim... Not sure where you brought that one up, it's the worst game in the TES series, and i am not counting ESO or any of that mobile game garbage. Skyrim is shit when compared to its predecessors like Morrowind or Daggerfall. As for Baldur's gate, yeah both the game trilogy and the TTRPG are great, but it's not really woke, it's only woke if the player decides it, it's a totally different medium. I mean you can play Baldur's gate 3 as a bloodthirsty sociopath that just wants to murder everything in sight.

[@LunaMoon0]

@@Quark214 i mean the witcher Game Not the series. And Baldurs gate 3 is mega woke. IT has homosexuality, transgender Charakters and black ppl and its Feminist. i speak Not about the char Editor.

[@LunaMoon0]

@@Quark214 shadowhearts best friend is transgender and you Tell me Baldurs gate is Not woke lol. But woke IS cool and this IS no Joke.

[@LunaMoon0]

@@Quark214 Most people who use the word woke just want to drag minorities into the mud. A movie is not bad or good because it is woke. It's bad because it's bad. Only the right-wing morons don't understand that. There is no elite that wants to make you gay or trans. Most people just want trans or gay characters to be included. The morons who are upset about woke are the clear minorities, a loud minority but the minority.

[@noirnoir4276]

@THECRITICALMASTER, You missed one crucial thing in your video. GRRM is still alive and made those changes. Its his creation and can do what he wants. Imagine you told a shop owner how to run his shop?? You have a right to not shop there. Just like you have a right to not watch the show. I mean why waste your time on something that is "woke". Especially after how GoT ended. You just setting yourself up for disappointment. You can spend your time do things you care about. Its should be noted too. GRRM is not a fan of trump. So yeah if your afraid of this show going woke. I would walk away now.

[@youngveteran6368]

GRRM the self proclaimed “feminist”????? George has always been under the liberal umbrella so wtf would he go against HBO when they’re cutting him A BIG ASS CHECK to conform to an agenda that he already subscribes to??

[@berserk____1878]

I honestly hate race swapping. But i do think we could look to the source and maybe criticise GRRM for just making the targaryens/valarians white to begin with when westeros are already white/european based and the targaryens foreigners.

[@Quark214]

Yeah, but the free cities are clearly based off the Italian city states of the medieval period, those are not in Westeros, yet the people living there are still white.

[@draadjesvleess]

Larys is a kin slayer in de books ( if you wanna implicate him as the killer) so that's not pushing a woke agenda that's just staying true to the book material. And let's say they switched it, so larys isn't a kin slayer, well then they portrayed him like a creep, either way you can't win using this reasoning. The point is is that hardly any character is being portrayed positively expect our protagonists, which happen to be women. They did the same in GoT, the singer stew scene got cut from the story for this reason or dany burning down the house the undying, changed it so it doesn't look like she's committing genocide. It's making changes so people like the main characters, so the main characters become the face of the show so they can push more merchandise with that face so they make more money. Stop making it about politics

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

"'This would be much more interesting if it was about the two main female characters, rather than the male characters. If you really focused in on the patriarchy’s perception of women, and the fact that they’d rather destroy themselves than see a woman on the throne.' That wasn’t a perspective I have ever told before. I think it made this show feel more contemporary too... We said, ‘What if Alicent is like “Women for Trump,” and Rhaenyra’s like punk rock?'" - Quote by Miguel Sapochnik in his interview with EMPIRE *** I'm not "making it about politics". They are. I'm just pointing it out.

[@n.u.k.2188]

Dislike. For you stating all the way that the show is woke, and why it's woke, and chikening out at the last second.

[@MarcosSantos-dj6lk]

the fans? hahaha The show is a success and a lot of fans are very satisfy with season 1. Season 2 is having problems evolving slow burn but race no one cares. Is not a problem at all

[@synthamvs7624]

Viewership has decreased from season 1

[@itsmainelyyou5541]

Well, if Aegon is Trump it would fit in that they're both r**ists(neither are alleged, both are proven) and aren't qualified for the position they hold. It's happenstance and coincidental as the character was written in 2011. They both fit the stereotypical failson nepo baby trope. If people want to overlay and read into a show and look for their own agendas, go off, but that doesn't mean the show is particularly woke. The male characters aren't shown positively because they operate in the incredibly oppressive and steel structured patriarchy of feudalism. They show the struggle of women used as pawns within this system and how it rips them apart. That's it. The only grossly shoehorned girlbossing scene so far was Rhaenys and Meleys- totally unnecessary. People are just weirdly pissed because the Velaryons are black and it doesn't dovetail thematically tight enough with the text. Sometimes a rose is just a rose.

[@thecriticalmaester9702]

1. How was Aegon proven to be a r**ist??? 🤔 2. Why are the female characters shown in a positive light at the expense of the male characters? Even if it is a patriarchal world full of misogyny and unfairness, why does it have to be so one-sided against the male characters? The A Song of Ice and Fire books are also based in a medieval, patriarchal world, and yet George never presents the female characters positively at the expense of the other male characters in the story. All of the characters are flawed and complex, and none of them are given special treatment over the others. Why is it unreasonable to expect the same of House of the Dragon? 3. People have good reason to be upset at the raceswapping of the Velaryons, especially if the raceswapping seems to be done for no valid reason at all. It doesn't make sense within the context of the story and it will cause a ripple effect for the events to come. Why make the change if there's no reason for it? 🤔There could've been better, much smarter ways to include black characters into the story, rather than to do a raceswaps that are meaningless and unjustified.

[@itsmainelyyou5541]

@@thecriticalmaester9702 Seriously? He raped Dianna and knocked her up, he rapes all the help when he can catch them. She isn't the first. Any power imbalance like that chalks up to rape. They cannot refuse, they have no say. That's r*pe. I can't say that I agree that the female characters are shown in a particularly good light either, they're just shown as women working within the system. They just do it with less privilege and more manipulation. They employ hubris and are woefully flawed if anyone is paying attention. They also have almost no agency and no choices. How that is putting them into a positive light, I can't say. So you say, and I agree that there are logistical problems with the Velaryon swap in continuity- but I don't think most show watchers care overly much, and the showrunners have to appeal to more than book readers to justify their budgets. POC finally seeing some people that look like them is a positive thing. They've been largely shut out up until now. It may have been inelegantly done but I'm not going to gatekeep every show set as a period piece. It just isn't that important.

[@aasthabairagi3113]

Book Aegon wasn't a rapist, and if you read the books and analyse, Rhaenyra wasn't the most diplomatic ruler too. Arrested Corlys, this lead to a domino effect of her end . In reality both characters were kinda nepo babies who shouldn't have been allowed to rule , instead Jahaerys should have made Rhaenys Targaryen the heir.

[@itsmainelyyou5541]

@@aasthabairagi3113Nobody is particularly defending Rhaenyra. Yes, he was. Any ruler or someone in a position of power who sleeps with the help is. The people they target can't say no or their families starve.

[@keystorm8598]

@@thecriticalmaester9702 Trump was really good friends with epstein. Trump being a R is not that far of a reach, among other things. I always wonder why trump didn't do anything with he was M. On his watch but the dots are not hard to connect. Side note. You should do a video on the boyz. They are definitely mocking trump as homelander and MAGA too. its super popular and the next season is coming up.

[@ioanmorar930]

Based on the comments you have liked on this video..I won’t watch your videos anymore lol. You have your own bias