House of the Dragon Is Getting Review-Bombed for the Dumbest Reason

House of the Dragon has become a massive hit for HBO, but alas, audiences always have to find something to complain about, and this time it’s a kiss from the latest episode, ‘Smallfolk,’ that has people up in arms and review-bombing the acclaimed series over on IMDb. The moment came toward the end of the episode when Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) engaged in a sapphic kiss that sent sensitive snowflakes to the website to cast their stones, accusing the series of pushing “the agenda.”

Per Vanity Fair, the kiss has brought out the worst in folks, with IMDb users crying foul over the tender moment, which, according to Mizuno, was unscripted. So far, a whopping 35.3% of people have given the episode a 1-star rating, compared to 23.1% who awarded it 10-stars. User ahmedraheemjasim said that the moment will surely “drag the storyline to its doom,” while Rexiony claims that “we continue to watch unnecessary scenes just to make the series 1 season longer.”

“It appears that last-minute script alterations were made by an actress just before filming commenced, leading to an ultimately unsatisfactory outcome,” says samturkihome, referring to the kiss added by Emma D’Arcy.

“I don’t know why production companies think like this. You have a great story and novel. If you apply it letter by letter, you will succeed. But you are arrogant and add your own agenda, and you know what I mean,” says maam-23909. No, what do you mean, maam?

User mohareg further adds that they don’t want to be bombarded with “hidden messages” while watching TV. “Supporting hidden agendas and messages has gone too far. The presence of series and movies is for entertainment and relaxation from work pressures.”

Further reviews called it the “worst episode ever” and “a very trivial series,” with user afm-84692 adding, “It is very bad because inappropriate scenes were used that do not represent us religiously, ethnically, or socially, and this is unacceptable. Scenes like this are promoted by international platforms in order to pass this idea on and make it seem normal and unproblematic. Therefore, I say I hope that the next episodes will be free of such content.”

Yes, It’s 2024 and We’re Still Dealing With This

You would think that by now people would be used to seeing a same-sex romance on screen. After all, ‘Lesbian’ was the most viewed category on PornHub in 2023 (yeah, we went there), so it’s a wonder more people aren’t praising the scene in House of the Dragon. Sadly, some would rather hide behind their archaic beliefs and condemn hardworking writers and actors, rather than just going with the flow and accepting that LGBTQ+ people are, in fact, people, and have a place in entertainment as much as anyone else. It’s not an “agenda,” its representation, something that Hollywood is still struggling with in this day and age.

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Unfortunately, House of the Dragon is just another in a long line of shows, like The Last of Us, that have faced backlash over a same-sex relationship, proving that maybe society hasn’t come as far as we’d like to think. With news of Benedict and a possible same-sex coupling being the focus of Season 4 of Bridgerton, we can undoubtedly expect Netflix to face the same ire as HBO, once again leading to another article like this one.