The latest episode of ‘House of the Dragon,’ HBO’s prequel series to the ‘Game of Thrones’ franchise, has become the target of review-bombing on IMDB. The sixth episode, titled ‘Smallfolk,’ which aired on July 21st, has been flooded with one-star reviews, plummeting its rating to a mere 6.2, the lowest of the entire series. The episode features a significant number of one-star ratings, particularly from Saudi Arabia, which constitutes one of the largest voting countries on IMDB for this episode.
The main source of ire for these scathing reviews appears to be a kiss shared between Queen Rhaenyra and Mysaria, two female characters played by Emma D’Arcy and Sonoya Mizuno, respectively. The scene, hailed as a success in LGBTQ+ representation, has sparked a wave of negative feedback from viewers.
Despite some criticisms regarding the slow-paced plot of the second season, many of the negative reviews explicitly target the kiss. Users like ahmedraheemjasim, who lamented the ‘unnecessary scene,’ and RetroRick, whose review title, ‘thou shalt not escape from the agenda,’ clearly signal their disapproval.
This backlash mirrors a similar incident last year involving another HBO series that featured LGBTQ+ characters, highlighting a recurring pattern of intolerance on the internet towards such representation.
However, ‘Smallfolk’ wasn’t entirely devoid of excitement. The episode featured a captivating scene where a dragon burns two people alive, one of whom slits his own throat amidst the flames. Despite this intense moment, the episode’s rating is clearly being manipulated by a vocal group of viewers who reject LGBTQ+ representation on screen.
The showrunners of ‘House of the Dragon’ should hopefully recognize the irrelevance of these manipulated ratings and continue to expand upon George R.R. Martin’s ‘Fire & Blood’ source material without succumbing to the pressure of online negativity.
