House of the Dragon features plenty of amazing performances and has lots of love and care going into it. Some have complained about certain aspects of the show, however. From fan complaints about the darkened lighting of House of the Dragon episode 7 to complaints about certain aspects of the writing, House of the Dragon is, by no means, perfect. But of course, such complaints are subjective, and sometimes the fanbase can go a bit far in its criticism.
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Condal addressed some of these House of the Dragon complaints in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter. With regards to the lighting, Condal stated, “…it’s hard to account for everybody’s everybody’s televisions and their calibrations and sometimes the file can get compressed. So the show can look very different than the thing that we saw and approved and released.” However, Condal seemed conscious of the criticisms, and said, “But look: It’s our job to take all that into account. These are one of the things that you learn in the making of a show – you take that knowledge into account when making season two and say, ‘How can we do better?’ The feedback was certainly heard. I get it. And we want the show to be a great viewing experience for everybody.”
House of the Dragon executive producer Sara Hess has recently faced the ire of parts of the fandom. There have been several changes to House of the Dragon’s source material - some of which worked, and some of which did not. Some did not like Hess’ decisions and she received a wave of backlash on social media in certain circles. “I was actually pretty horrified at the way Sara has been treated. She was horribly attacked in a way that’s completely unacceptable. She’s my right hand in this. We wrote the first season together – 85 percent of the writing in the first season is Sara and I. Nothing that was put on screen did not pass through my filter – or hers, for that matter," Condal said of the hate. “Nothing is done in a silo, it all comes across my desk, that’s my job, that’s how it works. And the idea that just because you don’t agree with something that happens in a fictional television show you can go and attack real people online remains a bizarre, alien and, frankly, horrifying concept to me. It’s why I don’t exist on social media.”
Ultimately, it comes down to the issue of parasocial relationships on social media. While in the fans’ minds, Hess is just an abstract figure for fans to latch onto with their House of the Dragon criticisms, Hess is actually a real person. Facing a tidal wave of harsh criticism and outrage, including calls for her to lose her job, Hess’ treatment is a bit overboard.
Criticism of House of the Dragon does not need to be vitriolic. Some fan complaints are perfectly valid (the lighting issue also plagued Game of Thrones’ final season in “The Long Night”), but they cross the territory into absurdity when creative decisions are taken as a personal attack. Fans have a great connection with these characters, which means something is going right, but the characters are fictional, and the crew is not.
House of the Dragon is streaming on HBO Max.
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Source: The Hollywood Reporter
