GRRM himself and the A Song of Ice and Fire (Fire and Blood to a lesser extent) books seem very blackpilled on war if not resolutely anti-war, with the dragons presumably meant to signify enormous sentient weapons of mass destruction.
However, Game of Thrones, the adaption, watered down that message pretty substantially since the battles and dragons and sensationalistic violence seemed to be the primary draw for the masses and not the nuanced critique of war and nuclear weapons that the books were intended to be, even if obviously the execution wasn't perfect given how much people love Tywin Lannister (although to be fair, that's because Charles Dance is exemplary).
Conversely, House of the Dragon is honestly more explicitly anti-war than the original HBO series, like there is zero catharsis whatsoever in the battles. Jacaerys Targaryen dies in the most anticlimactic way, the show cuts the dramatic soundtrack altogether, he drowns unceremoniously while shot through with arrows, and to the cheers and jeers of his enemies. Rhaenys Targaryen kamikazes herself at the Battle of Rook's Rest, realizing that her and her dragon's life is forfeit so she might as well die honorably.
Rhaenyra Targaryen takes the throne with surprisingly little fanfare, her husband cutting through the guards in Kings Landing as if they're made of butter, and clumsily beheads Otto Hightower with tears streaming down her face. She's never really used a sword before, she's never killed a man, but she does it and can't help but feel horrified at taking a human life despite Otto plotting against her and her family for over 20 years.
Despite GoT having many prominent women characters played by talented actresses, it reads as much more masculine than HoTD, which ultimately is about Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower, both of whom don't even have the courtesy to be nubile ingenues but are instead mothers in their 30s with grief and bite and enough baggage to sink the Titanic.
There's a sort of glamour and thrill to the battles in GoT, Blackwater, the Battle of the Bastards, the Long Night; our valiant heroes emerge victorious despite losing their loved ones. Tyrion Lannister saves his city and his family, Arya Stark kills the Night King, Sansa Stark watches watches her rapist and abuser be eaten alive by his own dogs, and it's cathartic in a way the violence in HoTD never is.
After the Battle of the Gullet, and the death of his grandson Jacaerys, Corlys Velaryon says, "If this be victory, I hope I never see another." He's an old man, his wife and two children have predeceased him, he's seen enough sorrow and horror and death for ten lifetimes, and he wants to stop fighting but it gives him a purpose he'd otherwise lack.
Criston Cole has the right of it.
There is no glory in death, in being burned alive, in being cut open by your husband in the hope you deliver a living son, in being beheaded by a woman that has been yearning all her life to be right where she is and still can't fill the grief inside of her.
I just can't help but believe that at least some of the criticism HoTD receives is because of these aspects, because it's about two women that are impossible to sexualize or deify, because the audience and also the characters in it, even Daemon by the end given that he goes clear-eyed into his murder-suicide at the God's Eye, know that there is no possible ending to their story except tragedy, because the history books have been already written.
As Joffrey Baratheon tells Margaery Tyrell, “Rhaenyra Targaryen was murdered by her brother, or rather his dragon. It ate her while her son watched. What's left of her is buried in the crypts right down there." Rhaenyra, the girl that we met in episode 1 of HoTD, passionate and beautiful and so very alive, died long before her physical body gave out, bit by bit as her sons were taken from her, and maybe, just maybe, she's been dead since the very beginning.
Look at it like this: If GoT is about watching House Stark rise from the ashes and triumph despite the tragedies it endures, HoTD is about watching Rhaenyra Targaryen die, it's about Alicent Hightower watching Rhaenyra die. Alicent is the Final Girl, the Final Woman, she outlives everybody she's ever loved, and by her end, she welcomes death like an old friend, maybe one with the face of Rhaenyra as she once was, laughing and feisty and full of life and love.
It's a resolution with no catharsis so naturally, I expect the general audience to riot.
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