'House of the Dragon' Makes Me Want to Believe in Dragons Again
On House of the Dragon, dragons in media, and my goals to read more fantasy
I didn’t anticipate that a TikTok would make my heart twinge in comfort and nostalgia — and in a long-held love for dragons that I didn’t realize I had.
The TikTok my friend sent me insinuated that if you grew up watching the children’s show Dragon Tales, you’d like House of the Dragon now. It was right! And it made me think about the dragon-scaled tethers in my life. I went from a young girl who religiously watched Dragon Tales, Pete’s Dragon, and American Dragon: Jake Long (Who else remembers when the Jonas Brothers sang the Season 2 theme song?) to an adult who bawled her eyes out during How to Train Your Dragon and has become utterly obsessed with the Game of Thrones prequel series.
I always knew that I would love How to Train Your Dragon. (Toothless is adorable! What’s not to love about his relationship with Hiccup?) But I didn’t see House of the Dragon coming. Game of Thrones was never my thing, but over the last few months, I was drawn to its prequel series — and the promotional rollout of its second season. How was I not supposed to be interested in Max unveiling a 270-foot installation of Vhagar the Dragon anchored to the Empire State Building as part of its global “Raise Your Banners” campaign in New York City?
But I didn’t watch How to Train Your Dragon, which came out in 2010, until February of this year, and I only started watching House of the Dragon this summer. So, I wanted to know what drew me back to dragons as an adult.
