By all merits, House of the Dragon is without a doubt a worthy attempt at rekindling the flames GoT extinguished, but it's for this exact reason that the show feels lackluster.

The atmosphere is great, that feeling of being back in Westeros but it's missing that spark which the early Seasons of GoT captured, where the world is shown to you through the eyes and words of the characters. It's precisely for this reason why House of the Dragon falls short.

If you had no knowledge of Game of Thrones, you would not enjoy House of the Dragon, that's just the way its written. It can not stand on its own and serves as a follow-up prequel to Game of Thrones.

The music is phenomenal but again, if you've never seen Game of Thrones, it would not have been as impactful as the show rides that nostalgia.

I also feel like a lot of the dialogue is tacky, they're speaking for the sake of just speaking without conveying any meaningful information. The middle to last seasons of GoT was truly guilty of this.

Also the sex scenes? Why? It's literally tasteless nudity that serves no purpose. Whereas the sex scenes in GoT serve a purpose. Here the sex scenes are quite simply a show of sexual frustration?

All in all, it's ok if you wanna revisit the world of GoT but don't expect that original magic as its long gone, HBO merely want to cash in your nostalgia.