5 things House of the Dragon could have done better

5. Consequences don’t really exist, do they?

House of the Dragon kind of feeds on the notion that consequences are nothing but figments of our imagination. Imagine a world where Tyrion’s arrest in Game of Thrones didn’t set off a chain reaction of events. Would the Seven Kingdoms stay unshaken and unchanged? House of the Dragon has the opportunity to do what Game of Thrones never did: to paint a picture of a Westeros where the spark of rebellion doesn’t truly ignite into the flames of war, where destinies are rewritten and alliances take many turns. House of the Dragon has the power to challenge our grasp of causality and reshape our understanding of the world that George R.R. Martin gifted us with (although we are still missing a book or two, sir).

But. Let’s go back to our favorite person to pick on for the moment: Ser Cole. When he murdered Joffrey in front of every single guest in that wedding, he… walked away. The King was there. The Kingsguard was there. He killed the princess’ husband’s (boy)friend and walked away, no punishments, no stern talking-to, no death penalty, nothing. Why no consequences? The only thing that comes out of this is that he and Alicent become besties, united by their hatred of Rhaenyra. He becomes Alicent’s bodyguard, essentially.

Every single time Daemon does something bad, like castrating citizens of the realm out in the open, sleeping with whore after whore, casually murdering his own wife, or taking a freaking dragon egg for his “child” who was never even conceived in the first place, he’s always just sent away. There’s no real punishment for our favorite morally grey character. He goes away, does something incredibly brave to atone for it, and all’s well. Why are there no consequences?

One ticket to Westeros, please.

The Targaryens are some of the most interesting and well-written characters in the Game of Thrones universe. There’s a lot of potential for House of the Dragon to keep on soaring, reaching even greater heights if it can fix these issues.

With everything that will unfold in season 2 keeping us all in suspense, we can only hope that the story can slow down now that we have a grip on the basics, and we can truly enjoy the bloody feast we have coming our way.

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