House of the Dragon's Biggest Flaw: Lessons for Writers

House of the Dragon left me... unfulfilled. Let's talk about it.

Chapters
0:00 I hunger!
0:57 The hole in the middle
6:10 The Cliffhanger Disease

#justintimeworlds #mariemullany #worldbuilding #fantasy #fantasyworldbuilding #houseofthedragon #hotd #cliffhanger #cliffhangers

[mehwhatever]

As is tradition, antagonists in those shows are just throwaway plot-devices and obstacles. If a story has no respect for its most important type of character it gets no respect from me, basically every story I consider "up there" does something impressive with its antagonists.

[tiffanylamb]

I just discovered your channel and I'm looking forward to going through more of your videos.

[gabrielsalesmartins]

I know you are frustrated with the lack of ending in season 2, but that wasn't a choice, it was what they could do. This season was filmed during the SAG/AFTRA strikes, so a lot of things that could have been adjusted just wasn't happening, and the studio cut the episodes from 12, to 10, and then 8. A tv show is very different from a book, lots of different things that alter its trajectory.

In conclusion, it was just very bad luck.

[joaoferreira]

To me the two worst mistakes house of dragon does are the simplifying of the political drama with grey characters in both factions into a stupid binary dispute between forces of "good" and "evil", and even in this they fail, because the narrative paints evil acts a "good" even though they cleary aren't( Rhaenys killed a bunch of innocent people for no reason, Rhaenyra clearly had bastards and punish with torture and death anyone who dares to say it, daemon literal send killers to kill a toddler), painting all the blacks as heroes and the greens as villains, and even bend some green characters to support rhaenyra (alicent and helaena) even though make no sense whatsoever.

Besides this there is a lot of stupid plots, like really stupid. I hated so much Rhaenyra, the queen of her faction, disguising herself as a goddamn septa, to get into kingslanding, even though corlys is blockading the city, in secret of her own faction, to sneak through the city and the castle, after her husband sent to killers to cut the head of the Aegon and Helaena son putting the whole city and castle in alert, to talk to alicent, who for some god forsaken reason ignores the fact that to her rhaenyra is the one who sent the killers to her grandson and acepts to listen to rhaenyra, and in the end instead of imprisioning rhaenyra right there, basically ending the whole civil war and avoid thousands of deaths, let rhaenyra go back to dragonstone, where the black faction just accepted that their queen vanished for a day to put herself into extreme danger for no reason whatsoever and keep following her as if this wasn't INSANITY, LIKE THEY COULD ARGUE THAT SHE IS LITERALY INCAPABLE OF RULLING AND HAVE DAEMON OR JACE BE REGENT, BECAUSE RHAENYRA JUST PUT EVERYTHING TO LOSE IN THIS STUPID CRAZY PLAN WHO DIDN'T ACOMPLISHED NOTHING !!!!

GODS I HATE SO MUCH THIS STUPID PLOT, HOW SOMEONE WRITES THIS ?!

[ronecotex]

What I think is very important is to respect the expectations of your genre if you're writing He-Man then you would expect him to take all the blows in the background they could be playing It's Raining Men House of the Dragon no one expects that so it's immersion breaking

[youngoutlaw]

Regardless of how many times they do spin off series they’re gonna have the same issue and that is HBO likes interpreting things in modern friendly way in ruins the story and how it was supposed to be told

[sprycmg]

Love your way of presenting!
I think Daemon cant be described as a gary stue because he has character flaws that are constantly explored but in that action scene his plot armour was impenetrable thats for sure

[absolutelycitron]

Having grown up watching dbz im immune to this tbh. I just kinda expect there to be nonconsequesial filler around every cliffhanger and storys to begin with conclusions if others. Maybe my standards are low lol

[katiekofemug]

ITA! Most cliffhangers feel like extortion on the part of authors / franchises. What brings me back is investment in characters and stories that I want to know more about. For example: All righty they conquered their fears and the villain, how is that gonna work out for them, their group, their neighbors, that mysterious figure that has been following them around? Oh dear, they got their butts kicked and have taken refuge in the caves or plains or forest or bunker, how will they survive, will they regroup, is there any hope left, how is that gonna work out for them.
Contrived cliff hangers, you gotta buy next book, stream season, whatever, nope, just makes me say, "I'm done"

[ConstanzaRigazio]

7:28 This happened to me with The Maze Runner. I read the original trilogy but I still haven’t read the prequel/spin offs because of all the things that were left unexplained after the end.

[jfferallian]

This got me thinking about cliffhangers that I had found satisfying and they're much more rooted in try/fail cycles and "yes, but" elements. Like they did "the thing" but things broke worse, or it was done too late to stop the bbeg, , or the problem was bigger than expected

[seanpoore]

Right off the bat, the whole 'crabfeeder was set up as the villain' thing isn't really true. The Targaryens, the royals, the greens and blacks Theyre are the ones being cast in the villain light, which is interesting because they're Also the heroes. The crabfeeder was never more than a footnote and even the scene we got from him was more than i expected. This show is about the conflict, not necessarily about any of the specific people involved. It's not the story of Rhaenyra or Daemon or Alicent or Otto it's about the War as a whole, Almost like a dramatic fantasy documentary

[jesterssketchbook]

its kind of fascinating to watch something popular and well-done like HotD start to fail - you can pin-point the exact moments it starts the descent

[TheMichaellathrop]

I remember at one point I was reading a book and they did what you were ranting about literally 2 out of every 3 chapters it was awful, I think I made it maybe halfway through before just giving up. Now I will say that what they are doing is actually a very classic cliffhanger as in "Flash Gorden is hanging off the edge of a cliff how will he survive, tune in next week to find out".

As far as the Marry Sue issue goes can you imagine how great it would have been(assuming this wasn't a prequel were talking about) if Damon had run into that cave and you saw the villain hiding in the shadows as he ran past and then just cut his head off from behind? My single favorite moment in attack on titan was when the main character got eaten by one of the giants at the end of an episode, so clearly a thing happened and lead into the deeper plot of the series, but that moment between one episode and the next where I thought oh this story is actually about those two supporting characters not the obvious anime protagonist had me really excited to keep watching because if the "hero" lacked plot armor then all the stakes were real no stormtroopers who cant hit your hero no deus ex machina saves like real actual stakes... needless to say the show continued to be enjoyable but less so. Heck maybe do a video on the intentional uses of marry sues and character death.

[lordofbeasts]

I think an adjacent issue with providing poor resolution is the constantly never providing consquences for the characters actions. An example from two series I've read is the MC makes a decision that jeopardizes the safety of others either under their protection or in a relationship with them, being lead to be believe they died or may cause others in the future to die only to get handed a solution to the problem or that character miracolously avoided being slain. It has made me drop series solely because I can't take that mindless approach to character anymore, especially, when everyone in the book praises their intelligence or thoughtfulness. I see this in many litrpg, fantasy, or cultivation novels andits disappionting because they have good premises but fail in execution of making it engaging. The few I like to tend to do these well, the characters change book by book, even if the main character doesn't change much other characters do and they have opinions that make them feel more fleshed out.

[malifex]

I might argue that Alicent had some of the more complex character progression this season. She starts out staunchly imperial, self-assured, and sharply critical. She is absolutely certain that her late husband intended for her son Aegon to rule, legitimizing all her assumptions and paving over her ethics. Its only after she gets exactly what she wants that she starts to realize how naive she is.

Her sons are uncontrollable. Aegon is a buffoon and cruel, and Aemond is calculating and dismissive. Neither are a benefit to the realm. Helaena proves to be the least harmful of the Green lineage, but like Alicent, she largely lacks agency as the despotic sons take over.

We start to see her dissociation during small council meetings, with clever use of rising white noise indicating her anger. This is only augmented after her admittedly improbable meeting with Rhaenyra where she realizes she is entirely wrong on the foundation of her stubborn certainty about her familial claim. Admitting to herself that she was wrong changes her. She starts to undermine her own sons. She protects Helaena but mocks Aegon, only to realize that her poor parenting has largely made him what he is.

The resolution is that her worldview unravels. She recognizes that Aemond would be another Maegor the Cruel and chooses the people, her smallfolk, over the ambitions of her House, even at the cost of her firstborn. I'm cerainly not claiming that she ends up in a better place, but she has some pretty strong changes in motivation and ideals by the end. She's chosen peaceful life with little to no power over grappling at influence by the final credits, which is pretty significant.

[falconknight]

Forgot how much the Crabfeeder unseen final battle I found unsettling and unsatisfying. Season 2 I hope will just be a stumble and we’ll see improvement in season 3, thanks for your thoughts though! I honestly think they meant to not end it like this before production problems, but what they chose to do instead feels just as unsatisfying sadly

[Undone]

For me it is the absolute character derailment of virtually every character in order for the viewer to side with team black. The unwillingness to engage with these characters on a genuine level and have their story pan out as they should.

Rhaenyra IS irresponsible and does not care about the small folk, she has always done as she pleases(it is her charm).

Daemon does not care about the legacy of the targaryans or the future. He doesn't even want the throne for its own sake he just wants to be close to viserys(it is his charm).

The valareyons have lost their son (they believe), their brother and are about to lose their family seat the person they suspect killed their son and the person who definitely did kill their brother.

When these characters act so differently in a manner that is unearned you lose trust.

Alicents surrender is one of the worst things ive seen in ASIOF media. It is completely counter to the character the show has built and it doesnt make sense in universe either

[Sundji]

It's funny because I literally don't remember the crab feeder at all

[Kei-zxnf]

Ugh, I'm SO glad I stumbled upon your channel. Your advice is refreshing (as an aspiring fantasy writer who has scoured the internet for helpful advice). Immediate follow. Additionally, I just wanted to mention you have a beautiful and entertaining manner of speaking, thank you!