Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a hundred times more fun. Westeros is a great setting and telling a smaller story with self-deprecating humor means the show isn't constantly getting compared to GoT.

[–] zikzak025@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago

It also has two fatal flaws:

Like the Hobbit movies, they're trying to stretch a much shorter story into a multi-installment franchise.
Like the second half of Game of Thrones, the frequency of source material deviations keeps growing.

Who knows, maybe season 3 will set the ship straight, since supposedly season 2 was a consequence of the writers strike. But I feel like it's already past the point of no return. The show is trying to make most of the central cast sympathetic, when the point of the original story is that none of them are. And they're doing that because they're worried no one will want to watch multiple seasons of a show where everyone sucks, when it really should have just been a one and done miniseries.

[–] TheUnicornOfPerfidy@feddit.uk 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I disagree entirely. So far it's a masterpiece. The writing is definitely far far better than GoT. It's everything I wish I'd got from GoT and more. The thing I keep wondering is can people not get on with so many multi faceted strong female leads? But then everyone loved Daenerys for some reason, so it can't be that. Maybe it just takes itself too seriously for most people. Anyhow, we're all entitled to our own opinions and I know I'm an outlier, but for me it's easily the best TV being made atm.

[–] Ilandar@lemmy.today 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The thing I keep wondering is can people not get on with so many multi faceted strong female leads? But then everyone loved Daenerys for some reason, so it can’t be that

However, she was also made an object of sexual desire, both within the show and in the surrounding pop culture, from the very beginning. She went full nude very early on, as opposed to the female leads of House of the Dragon whose sexualisation has been a lot more subtle. Daenerys was also straight and played by a cisgendered woman, as opposed to Rhaenyra who is bisexual and played by a non-binary person.

I don't think all criticism of the show is unfair or bigoted, but the reception has definitely been somewhat influenced by right-wing grifter "reviewer" channels who try to create pile-ons for shows that exhibit feminist and/or non-conservative social themes.

[–] TheUnicornOfPerfidy@feddit.uk 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

This is a very interesting point and maybe does explain a large chunk of my confusion about the shows perception.

Anyway, I'm realy excited to have more of it, though I'm worried it'll be too influenced by what feels like unfair criticism.

[–] Ilandar@lemmy.today 2 points 2 days ago

I’m worried it’ll be too influenced by what feels like unfair criticism.

Hopefully not! Like you, I have been loving this show and its deep focus on the two female leads. It's crazy to me that people think Game of Thrones had better writing. Like maybe right at the beginning, but it was deteriorating the whole way through and basically went into freefall for the last few seasons. This one seems like it will be a more consistent journey and its narrower focus massively helps with that.