‘House Of The Dragon’: One Beard Ruins The ‘Game Of Thrones’ Universe

The gore and nudity-filled world of Game of Thrones is back, thanks to the premiere of House of the Dragon – the show so epic, HBO had to callously eradicate dozens of other shows just to make room for it, apparently. But there’s a major, universe-shattering problem with this series, and it has to do with King Viserys Targaryen’s facial hair …

As we all know, members of the Targaryen family, the titular House of the Dragon, all have extremely platinum hair. But for some reason, Viserys’ stubble, which is verging on becoming a full-on beard, is decidedly of the salt and pepper variety – so where the hell is the pepper coming from? The same goes for his eyebrows too, by the way. Obviously Daenerys on Game of Thrones had darker eyebrows too, but with the beard hairs, Viserys looks less like a genuine Targaryen and more like a divorced dad at a Renaissance Fair. 

Couldn’t actor Paddy Considine have gotten his beard bleached for the role? Or, barring that, maybe the show loses just one dragon and uses some of its visual effects funds to lighten his chin follicles and fix this glaring problem? We get that this may sound petty; after all, why would one dude’s beard make or break the integrity of a fantasyland that contains literal magic and time-traveling pop stars?  

But in the run-up to the premiere, the creators have repeatedly highlighted the series’ realism when it comes to things like the historical sexual violence against women – which critics pointed out isn’t really a thing when the “history” was entirely made-up by one guy using a shockingly old word processor. So why are we striving for accuracy to this degree when so many of the characters are clearly wearing goofy wigs? 

The House of the Dragon showrunners also bragged that they painstakingly made sure there were no Starbucks cups visible in the show – and while there’s not a single coffee cup in sight so far, you have to admit that the ruler of Westeros kind of looks like King Dog The Bounty Hunter, The First. 

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Thumbnail: HBO