Not Every Fantasy Story Needs to End in Misery

I’ve always liked watching TV shows, but not just any shows. I’ve always had a thing for fantasy—House of the Dragon, Game of Thrones, The Lord of the Rings, that whole world. Those fantasy shows with a bit of magic and mythology.

I watched The Rings of Power and, honestly, I like it. Luckily—or maybe unluckily—I never read the books, so there’s nothing there to disappoint me.

I’ve seen a lot of people get upset whenever a show drifts away from the version they built in their heads after reading the books. But honestly, with The Lord of the Rings, I think the core idea has stayed pretty consistent.

An interesting comparison is House of the Dragon. That’s where the deviations from the original idea go completely off the rails.

I feel like I’m too old to be getting worked up over trivial frustrations.

But at least make the changes jaw-dropping. Instead, they’re operating on the George philosophy: “We already did something bad—let’s make it even worse.” The best example of that kind of petty writing was the ending of Game of Thrones, with that little glimpse where Bran the “disabled” goes, “Move aside, I’ll find the dragon.” That was nothing more than an attempt to leave a tiny escape hatch in case people didn’t completely bury them alive with tomatoes. Out of every possible ending, they somehow picked the worst one. Weak. Really weak.

It doesn’t even sell the idea that, in war, everybody loses. There’s no clear symbolism. Why is Bran king?

Nothing gives you that spark of understanding about the direction they wanted to take. It almost feels like they tried to leave everything to the audience’s imagination… except it didn’t really pay off. It looks more like they simply ran out of budget.

Do I even want to watch this anymore?

Honestly, I knew from day one that I probably wouldn’t like House of the Dragon.

Still, I have to admit they put in a decent effort during the first two seasons. I liked the dragons. What I genuinely appreciated was the attempt to give each dragon a personality closely tied to its rider. Take Daemon and Caraxes, for example. In some scenes, Caraxes almost mirrors Daemon’s personality—stubborn, impulsive, acting on instinct rather than reason.

But even that isn’t enough.

I wanted more. More personality. More depth. More hope that, maybe this time, not everyone would die… even though we all know they probably will.

The whole Sheepstealer mess feels completely out of place. It looks like they just wanted to cram more dragons into the story without actually developing either the dragon or the character riding it. It also felt like they were trying to push this whole narrative about rejected privilege. But the direction they took is just awful. Sheepstealer was one of the few stories where someone actually fought in the war, survived, and quietly walked away from the whole “dragon life.”

Sheepstealer was an ally of the Blacks, not their enemy.

He wasn’t ridden by Rhaena either, but apparently HBO couldn’t afford another character.

And the whole Rhaena storyline just screams, “Oh no… the poor rich girl.”

Those extra scenes with people chasing her? Four against one? Just boring. They feel rushed and forced, like nobody involved understood that less is more.

But who am I, really, to judge?

I’m just a guy on the internet.

And honestly, why even bother watching anything that comes after George R. R. Martin’s work? The whole thing just feels… sad. He feels sad.

The last episode made me realize—way later than it should have—that I don’t enjoy this anymore. I don’t want to pick a favorite character just to watch some old fat guy kill them off.

Nah. Real life is depressing enough. I don’t need my entertainment to be just as miserable.

That said, shout-out to The Rings of Power. So far, I think it’s been fantastic.

I also watched The Last Night at Tremore Beach on Netflix, and it was absolutely beautiful.

I’d rather spend my time with stories that at least give me a little hope that the main character might actually survive.

I don’t know if I’ll give House of the Dragon another chance.

At this point, it just feels like a waste of time.

We’ll see.

I can also Make it sound more like an American blog post while keeping your voice intact.