Logging

TV: House of the Dragon Ep 2-3

I find myself wanting to watch more, whilst knowing it won't be very good. Characters don't seem very well sketched. I'm thrown off by the timeline. I find some of the moves rather predictable (but perhaps because I read the book years ago).

The public discussions regarding the casting and "wokeness" strike me as a smokescreen for the more interesting creative choices of the show. Do we buy there were black people in Valyeria? Why not? I can't find the energy to care very much one way or the other in these fantasy epics. Yet, I know what the "racists" are getting at: the shows are simply meeting the artificial diversity quotas imposed by the guilds and studios - so suggesting these are "creative" choices are a bit of a stretch. What I find somewhat interesting is that the "right" thing to do these days is make the fantasy worlds reflect the racial realities or woke rules of 2022, but in the case of HOTD, they are very deferential to the sexual politics of courtship of Westeros where a 50+ widowed king and a prepubescent 9 year old girl could be going on an internet walking date. The subtextual realities of our times bubble up to the surface - right wingers secretly letting their inner racists out while the left wingers let out their inner groomer.