Game of Thrones captured/caught all of my interest and attention from very first episode. If I am not wrong, this would be true for many of the GOT's fans.
This wasn't true for House of the Dragon first season, at least, for me.
There must be other GOT fans who would agree with me.
Game of Thrones had too many characters and unfolded events belonging to them with every season, many were in the first season, and did justice in doing so. Every season of Game of Thrones piqued our interest and curiosity, even with every episode of every season. This could be the reason we, most of us, didn't like or get satisfied with the eighth season.
and, I didn't get satisfied with the first season of House of the Dragon because of the very reason.
GOT started with an incest scene, and nudity and many sex scenes through out the series. Except one or two, these scenes weren't out of context or felt being included forcefully.
This could be the reason for a small percentage of GOT's fans to be attracted towards the show, but, I am sure, this wouldn't remain the case for them, as well.
House of the Dragon also have a continuous incest side of the show, and lots of nudity and sex, it did felt to me like an old trick at the begining but then I thought about an other view - creator of the series likes to show that incest wasn't a new thing among the royals in GOT and it had very old roots.
I could be right in my first thoughts, though.
Honestly, I wasn't waiting for the second season of House of Dragon with that much interest or eagerness or keenness.
But surprisingly enough, season 2 of the House of the Dragon has all the flavors: High Standards of Dragon battles, clever dialogues, betrayals, revolutions and some unexpected twists and surprises.
There are many fabulous scenes in the second season and even better than Game of Throne's Dragon scenes that compelled you to keep going with the flow. Writer didn't give much of the reasons behind some of the scenes, that could be one of the reasons behind all the criticism this show is getting. Standards that Game of Thrones had set require this prequel to have a strong storyline and, so far, this show has shown otherwise, even after having an amazing character building, great cast, outstanding performances and excellent computer graphics.
As I said earlier, I wasn't too optimistic about the House of the Dragon after watching the first season, and, apparently, so was others. There was a lot of criticism about the House of the Dragon online and specially among Game of the Thrones community, I was one of them up until the 4th episode of the second season. End of the Season 2 has left me wanting for more, though.
Some of the characters came out very strong in this season, Prince Aemond is one of them. Aemond comes out as a very determined person who knows what he is doing. Unlike his brother, King Aegon II, he controls the council not the other way around. He relieves his mother of her duties in the Council. He sends his men to get the cooperation of free cities which wasn't attmpted before. He has all the intentions to make his grandfather the hand again and sends Lord Lary to bring him back. He even know about Lord Lary's real intentions at some level and this, again, shows how tight he has the hold of the situation he is under. Though, mostly, he was derived by the emotion of revenge, becasue of the hatred which he was carrying from his childhood for the humiliations he endured as a boy.
Queen Rhaenyra Kept trying to avoid Dragon War, she had the goodness of her people in mind. She knew there would be a massive bloodshed if dragons got involved in the war. Though, finally she realized there's no escaping from this situation and took some bold steps. She started to get the acquaintance of the bastard children of the House of the Targaryen. She even had to face the anger and disappointement of the dragon keepers, they left her on her own after this decision.
She had been proving herself worthy of the throne with her wise decisions. Unlike Prince Aemond and King Aegon II or even Prince Daemon, Queen Rhaenyra really wanted what was best for the kingdom and what to come next in the form of white walkers as prophesied instead of getting only the power and being a Queen which was her birthright and was announced by her father, King Viserys.
Prince Daemon had only one goal in his mind from the very begining and that was getting the power and became the King of all of the kingdom by any means necessary, all of his acts were were towards achieveng this very goal, he wasn't even honest with Rhaenyra.
Though, as the story progresses in the second seasons we saw that some events and almost a kind of prophecied dreams made him reconsider his actions.
It is obvious that a biggest and fiercest of all drogon has yet to come and a lot of exciting action with that, but the question is who would be the rider of that dragon, will it be among the legal daughters and sons who weren't chosen by any dragon yet or from the bastard sons and daughters of the House of the Targaryen.
If you have watched the second season, I think, you would have some idea who would that be.