House of the Dragon's uncool bloodline flowing through a vague 'family member icons' in a mock family castle to form a family tree or something was as awful as it was icky to behold.

Our artistic inclinations should be better than this fam

Game of Thrones is allowed because it served a huge narrative purpose in establishing the placement of the characters across the world each episode.

They never really got much play in the later lore, but generally these gods seem to be kind of Near Eastern in narrative aesthetic

Though Ted Peterson seemed to have recodified 'Baal' into 'Moloch Baal' before changing that into 'Molag Bal'. He also reintroduced 'Seth' as 'Sethiete' in a TES3 book

...imo I think it's almost always better to be daring and prioritize the *epic nuance* that details provide.

While retconning things isn't fun, I don't think most folks actually mind these contradictions very much as long as you're providing a worthwhile or ambitious experience

End rant

Extended family also allows for bonus characters to whom a protagonist has an existing connection with to pop up as needed.

It allows for cool story reveals about somebody's past, or to work through a problem a character is having on a personal level with folks they know and care about in some way.

It embodies the fact that *people* actually come from somewhere, and where someone comes from informs their views on the world and how they deal with situations.

Whether someone was the oldest or the youngest or somewhere in the middle of their family unit. Thems is some meaty details for character

I adore the nuance of a character who comes from an actual family. It gives that character stakes -- something to lose, people to connect to, people to be in personal conflict with, and people to let down.

There's nothing wrong with that, certainly people in the real world come from such backgrounds. But it's so overused as a background prompt for stories of all sorts, and it often results in boring blank slate protagonists that lack actual ties to the world at large.

For short-form or slice-of-life fiction, I totally get wanting to focus your story down to a core group of characters and not overscope it.

But far far too many stories have characters with dead parents and they're orphans with no ties but evil aunts and friends they make along the way.

💯💯💯

In addition, the globe from the game intro shows us a bunch of orbital bodies around Nirn as well!

Clearly pose #3 of pic #3 is classic Jagar Tharn

The film toyed with a number of standard dramatic tricks and tropes for hollywood. Maybe it works just by depicting things that haven't been put to screen honestly in years past; I can't think of another story I've experienced that has covered women's basic training

It's worth just checking out yo!

Thanks, I Hate It