Watching the second season of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” prequel series “House of the Dragon” has been a lot like running into an old acquaintance from high school at a bar. You vaguely recognize them from afar. Perhaps they sat in the back during Ms.
Carp’s English Lit class. Or was it Chemistry? One thing is certain: You have no idea what their name is. This is how I feel, two years on , about 99% of the Targaryen family.
After casually devouring Season 1 as though it was not delivery, but DiGiorno, I still don’t know Aemond from Aegon. Try though I might, I just can’t keep track of these incest-loving, humorless platinum blondes. Clarity was never a problem during the eight seasons of “Game of Thrones,” even though there were far more individuals and plotlines to follow.
Yes, a mainstay of George R.R. Martin’s saga was Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys, but there were also plenty of easy, single-syllable monikers to aid digestion: Ned, Jon, Bran and Robb Stark.
Even the two-syllable folks — Jaime, Cersei, Sansa — were a cinch. Not true of “Dragon”’s crew of identical sounding royal letter-mush: Rhaenyra, Halaena, Daemon, Aemond, Aegon , Jacaerys, Viserys, Larys. Jeez.
Is that a cast list or a password generator? Adding to the mania, while the original series’ ensemble included members of several different vying houses flung all over Westeros, most of “Dragon”’s denizens are Targaryens and live in just two castles. All of them look pretty much .
