Spoilers up until episode 5 to come, but at this point, I’m like a month behind with this take.
Why the hell did they need to use different actresses on House of Dragons? Rhaenyra and Alicent, two of the most important main characters. Ten year time jump happens right at the beginning of episode 5 with very little explanation. If you are checking your phone for 30 seconds to start this episode and look up, you will be lost. Rhaenyra is played by a completely different actress and she’s having a child. It took me 10 minutes to realize that this new face was Rhaenyra. The strange part is that most of the main characters were not replaced. Why did they do this? It’s so confusing.
People’s main take in response: “There’s a time jump! They had to!”
No, they certainly did not. The budget for this show is $20 million an episode and Milly Alcock is 22 years old. Rhaenyra is 17 before the time jump, and 27 after the time jump. You’re telling me that they made Brad Pitt age fucking backwards in Benjamin Button but you can’t make a 22 year old look 27? The new actress doesn’t even look like Milly Alcock, who to be fair, has an incredibly weird and unique face. I swear the next episode they’re going to put Meryl Streep in a blond wig and not tell anybody and just expect us to all realize Rhaenyra is now 55.