House of the Dragon Has Made It Nearly Impossible to Take Sides Between the Blacks and the Greens

In the runup to the House of the Dragon Season 2 premiere, HBO ran an ad campaign featuring landmark locations in our world flying the colors of either the Blacks or the Greens, the two sides at war in the series. In the spirit of having some fun with that premise, I pitched my editor at TV Guide with the idea of writing an editorial that would essentially raise the Black banner in support of Queen Rhaenyra's (Emma D'Arcy) claim to the Iron Throne. I also suggested that someone else at TV Guide write a piece in support of King Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) under the Green banner, so we could have our dueling perspectives.

That was the plan right up until the House of the Dragon Season 2 premiere arrived, and the Blood and Cheese scene depicted the brutal off-screen death of a child on behalf of the Blacks. Subsequently, I told my editor that I couldn't take the Blacks' side in good conscience after that, even though the second episode made it plainly clear that Rhaenyra neither approved nor supported the decision to murder a young prince of the realm. This is all a work of fiction, and nobody actually died. But even the concept of child murder is a bridge too far for me if I was ever going to "pick a side" for fun. Up until now, I could have sided with the Blacks without too many reservations. 

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It's not as if the Greens are pure either, but I had already lost all sympathy for their cause even though the Dowager Queen, Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), is arguably one of the most likable characters on the show. At least Alicent has compassion. Her father, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), didn't even wait until his grandson's body was cold before deciding to exploit his murder for sympathy. And as for Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), he's not only an oathbreaker, he's a blithering idiot if he really thought sending Ser Arryk Cargyll (Luke Tittensor) to pass as his twin, Ser Erryk Cargyll (Elliott Tittensor), and kill Rhaenyra was ever going to end with anything other than Arryk's own demise. 

Therein lies the problem for House of the Dragon. It was difficult enough for this show to follow in the footsteps of its predecessor, Game of Thrones — George R.R. Martin's novels provided the blueprint for one of HBO's most popular series of all-time. But where House of the Dragon has difficulty with sympathetic characters, Game of Thrones gave the audience several characters to latch on to. The Starks and Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage) quickly proved to be sympathetic, while Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) was absolutely beloved until the show sprang her "Targaryen madness" on the audience in the divisive final season. Even the dangerous loner The Hound (Rory McCann) had some moments where he displayed his own moral code, which went a long way towards making him a fan-favorite. All of those characters had flaws, but they were also easy to root for in the story. 

It's not as if HBO is any stranger to giving viewers unconventional main characters or even outright antiheroes like Tony Soprano. The key difference between The Sopranos' leading man and House of the Dragon's Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) is that Tony had redeemable qualities and some capacity for love. It's hard to picture The Sopranos achieving the same success it enjoyed if Tony had started out by murdering children. Even in House of the Dragon's first season, Daemon was shown casually murdering his first wife, Rhea Royce (Rachel Redford), in addition to his brutal reign as the leader of the City Watch and the rest of his morally questionable actions. That's not even getting into his incestuous relationship with his niece/wife, Rhaenyra. I sometimes wonder if Daemon gets a pass for all of those things from some House of the Dragon fans because the actor who portrays him, Matt Smith, used to play the Doctor on Doctor Who.  

As much as I enjoy House of the Dragon, I find myself no longer caring which person ends up ruling the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. Rhaenyra is better suited to rule than her half-brother, Aegon, but she's always been controlled by her own desires rather than her duties. One of the big reasons why Rhaenyra fell out with Alicent is because she lied about having sex with her uncle before Rhaenyra's illicit affair with Ser Criston Cole was also exposed to Alicent. Now, years later, Alicent has proven that she's not that different from Rhaenyra by embarking on her own affair with Criston. Alicent is well aware of the hypocrisy of her actions, and it hasn't stopped her yet. 

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Martin does have a talent for crafting complex characters, and he co-created this show based on his book, Fire & Blood. That gave Martin more freedom in deciding how they would be portrayed in the series, which has softened some of the perceptions from the book. The most obvious example of that is Alicent's decision to take the throne for Aegon is born out of a legitimate desire to follow her late husband's wishes, even though she misunderstood his intent. Alicent's second eldest son, Prince Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), has also shown more humanity in the show by privately expressing his regret for the death of his cousin, Lucerys (Elliot Grihault). Because the book relates these events from a distance via unreliable narrators, Alicent and Aemond on the page lacked the nuances that have given their characters more depth on TV. Those tiny moments are appreciated, even if I still don't have any strong feelings for the Greens. 

House of the Dragon is still a very good series that easily outshines its fantasy rivals, including The Wheel of Time and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. But I also believe that House of the Dragon's lack of conventional heroes may hold it back from being embraced by the larger audience that turned Game of Thrones into such a global phenomenon. 

In our world, most people aren't simply good or bad, and the argument could be made that House of the Dragon's morally ambivalent characters are closer to reality than some of the heroes of Game of Thrones. But fiction is not reality, and it plays by its own set of rules. Martin, showrunner Ryan Condal, and the rest of the House of the Dragon creative team seem to enjoy flouting those rules on this show by keeping both sides of the conflict in a moral quagmire. That won't stop me from watching. I just can't bring myself to feel the same investment in the characters that I once felt for Game of Thrones. And I may not be the only one who feels that way.   

House of the Dragon airs Sunday nights at 9/8c on HBO and Max.