*Warning: Contains spoilers for House of the Dragon season one.*
It’s official: House of the Dragon will return to our television screens on June 16, 2024. But it has already committed a significant error before restarting.
Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, and Olivia Cooke will return for the epic Game of Thrones spin-off series, which takes place about 200 years before Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister, and Daenerys Targaryen are born.
Despite the significant time gap, the core struggle remains the Iron Throne – the first season of House of the Dragon focused on the buildup to a civil war that would tear the Targaryen and Hightower dynasties apart.
The characters have divided into two factions: the Greens, consisting of Alicent Hightower (Cooke) and her son Aegon Targaryen (Tom Glynn Carney), and the Blacks, consisting of Rhaenerya Targaryen (D’Arcy) and her uncle Daemon Targaryen (Smith).
The Greens, called for House Hightower’s hues, want Aegon on the throne. The Blacks, called after House Targaryen’s colours, believe Rhaenerya should be queen instead. Believe me when I tell that, in classic Westeros fashion, hundreds of pints of blood will be spilled during the battle over who gets to sit in the great chair.
Unfortunately, the struggle between the Greens and the Blacks has never been limited inside the show’s realm. HBO is acutely aware of this, as seen by the release of two new trailers.
If you’re not acquainted with what happened on social media during season one, imagine opening a door to a room full of people talking really loudly and aggressively about something you want to relax and enjoy.
Imagine closing the door to block out the noise, only to discover that you can still hear all of the shouting.
That’s what it’s always been like to be a neutral watcher of House of the Dragon: frantically attempting to ignore debates over who is better between Alicent and Rhaenyra, instead focusing on the wider anti-war and anti-patriarchal tale being delivered, but being unable to do so.
And because to a choice made by those in charge of advertising season two, the shouting will only become louder.
On Wednesday, HBO released a dozen or so character posters for season two, each with the slogan ‘All must choose’. 24 hours later, they followed up with not one, but two trailers for the new season.
A Green trailer and a Black trailer.
Now, just from a marketing standpoint, it’s a brilliant move. What large TV programmes need right now is interaction, which they will receive in plenty. Blacks will dispute with Greens, and vice versa, casual viewers will believe they must choose a side, and those who do not watch at all will have FOMO.
Whoever came up with the concept has earned their next year’s salary.
However, if you look at any relevant House of the Dragon content on social media, you’ll notice some serious squabbling between Green and Black supporters over which trailer has the most views, which actors are more attractive or less attractive, and which trailer represents their’side’ better or worse.
The shouting is already becoming louder.
Furthermore, the official House of the Dragon account has captioned each clip with a request to ‘pledge your fealty’. It’s an offer that the fandom’s most ardent members have already excitedly embraced – even the Domino’s Pizza UK account has put its support behind the Blacks.
If this was just for pleasure, there would be no problem. We adore stories because we may fall in love with imaginary people and get devoted to them. Game of Thrones would not have taken off if we didn’t have characters like Tyrion Lannister, Jon Snow, and Daenerys Targaryen to connect to as they navigated the terrible realm of Westeros.
However, vowing fealty to characters in this realm has long since lost its appeal. What begins as fun and games gradually devolved into online harassment, abuse, and even assaults on cast members.
People on Instagram have already accused individuals on opposite sides of’supporting Team Incest’ and ‘backing the B*tch Queen’. It’s all terrifyingly evocative of how terrible things became during the first season in 2022.
Emily Carey, who portrayed a young Alicent Hightower in season one, was still a teenager when the first season of House of the Dragon premiered. The poor lady had to close her Twitter account several times because she was constantly receiving abusive remarks regarding her character and performance (from Team Black fans).
Sara Hess and Clare Kilner, two women who wrote and directed episodes in season one, received sexist abuse on social media from Team Green followers for portraying some Green characters negatively.
Years previously, Sophie Turner, a Game of Thrones cast member, was forced to abandon social media due to harassment over her depiction of Sansa Stark.
And, outside of the Game of Thrones fanbase, consider the experiences of Star Wars actors Kelly Marie Tran, Ahmed Best, and Jake Lloyd, who played roles that a certain audience decided it didn’t like.
HBO’s decision to embrace this toxic culture contributes to the nastiness and pettiness that are prevalent in fandom culture today. It appeals to people who see House of the Dragon not as a TV show but as a spectator sport, not as art created by creative individuals but as trash to be chewed up and spat out.
And not only does this current marketing campaign miss the point of a series that explicitly depicts the incomprehensible negative cost of war and conflict, but it also ruins the experience for everyone watching – from fans to casual viewers, all the way up to the cast and creative team – and it’s disappointing to see HBO so willingly play into it.
"It's all the choosing sides that made everything so horrible."
– Shireen Baratheon#RIP #asoiaf > #GoT pic.twitter.com/0MD4GyOc4E
— GameOfThrones Quotes (@AsoiafGoTQuotes) June 8, 2015
A fan account for Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, WeThrones, described the pair of split trailers as ‘proof that [fandom] wars are profitable and even encouraged by studios.’ It’s hard to disagree.
In Game of Thrones, Shireen Baratheon (Kerry Ingram), one of the few innocent individuals in the saga, reads a history book about the events depicted in House of the Dragon.
Her father, Stannis (Stephen Dillane), asks her if she would have supported the Greens or the Blacks if she had been alive during the conflict.
‘I wouldn’t have chosen either side,’ Shireen says. ‘It was all the choosing sides that made everything so horrible.’
We should all absorb the meaning of Shireen’s words before it’s too late.
Watch episodes of House of the Dragon on NowTV.
Source My Celebrity Life.