House of the Dragon Sunday, August 21, 2022, and the responses to the show thus far have been positive from both critics and the more apprehensive fans. The show appears to be an excellent blend of what audiences have come to expect from Game of Thrones as well as unique choices that portend the new series will be its own creation. Unlike GoT, the source material of House of the Dragon, George R. R. Martin’s novel Fire and Blood, is not a narrative.
- Over half of the first season of House of the Dragon has now aired, and the changes to the source material range from minor details to major changes involving character deaths. There will always be changes when a work is adapted for the screen, but the number of significant changes are adding up quickly, leaving book fans wondering what implications they will have for future seasons.
It is a history book and reads more like a Wikipedia page, with many of the details of the story left out for a condensed timeline. The conceit of the novel is that it is an amalgamation of different points-of-views of events in Targaryen history; therefore, the creators of the series have a lot of leeway in how they decide to tell this story. While the creators have the ability to create their own details, there were still several specific changes they made to the source material that fans should know about.
Jaehaerys I Targaryen
The opening of the series is a prologue that explains and sets up the events that the series will cover. Audiences received a look at some characters that many would not have expected to see in the show’s timeline, namely, King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, the grandfather of Paddy Considine’s King Viserys.
In the lore of A Song of Ice and Fire, King Jaehaerys is one of the few “good” kings of Westeros. He is known as “The Wise” and was famously recognized for the waist-length braided beard he donned until his death. Jaehaerys in the show is only briefly seen, but it is notable that the “Old King” is depicted with a short, standard beard, a departure from his defining physical characteristic.
Laenor Vs. Rhaenys
Fire and Blood has a lot of lineage and successor-to-successor outlining that is difficult to follow even after multiple read-throughs. It was a good decision for the show creators to simplify where they could. For instance, in order to more properly convey the struggle women have being taken seriously in Westeros, show-runner Ryan Condal changed the Great Council prologue scene.
In the book, the choice of Jaehaerys’ successor is actually between Viserys I and Rhaenys’ son, Laenor, rather than Rhaenys herself, as depicted in the show. Jaehaerys’ selection of Viserys in the book is still due to Westeros’ preferring the male line to the female line, but the show simplifies this by having the woman herself up for selection.
Character Ages And Timelines
George R. R. Martin’s creations take place in a fantasy world that is heavily influenced by the history of the real world, and therefore many of the ages of characters in these stories reflect the real-world Middle Ages. This was a time when royalty were expected to marry and bear children at very young ages.
The ages of characters in the Martin stories are of similar young ages, but each of the shows has generally aged up their characters for obvious reasons. Rhaenyra, Viserys, and Aemma are all older in the show than in the book, and Alicent Hightower is aged down a few years so that she and Rhaenyra are closer in age.
In addition to playing with the characters’ ages, the timeline of events has been manipulated in order to make a more manageable sequence of events in the show. Using Rhaenyra as a frame of reference, in Fire & Blood, she was 4 at The Great Council Deliberation, 7 when Queen Aemma died and Rhaenyra was declared heir, 17 when she got married, 20 when she gave birth to her third son, and 23 when Laena died in labor.
Valyrian Eye Color
One of the original defining characteristics for the Targaryens was lost immediately when Game of Thrones debuted. Daenerys and her family are described by Martin as all having violet or indigo eyes. In fact, any character with the blood of old Valyria is said to share that physical trait.
But no characters from either the Targaryen or Velaryon household have been depicted with purple eyes. On the TV shows, their eyes are as pedestrian as anyone else. This is most likely because the lilac contacts for the actors ended up being too unrealistic looking and the show creators determined the platinum hair of the families was symbolic enough.
Alicent And Rhaenyra’s Friendship
The relationship between Alicent Hightower and Rhaenyra Targaryen ends up being one of the focal points of the series, and hints of their future conflict begin when Alicent goes to Viserys I to comfort him. House of Dragon’s main storyline begins with Rhaenyra and Alicent as close friends.
The first episode has many examples of the two spending time together and sharing important and emotional moments such as Rhaenyra’s coronation as heir to the kingdom. In the book, the two women are separated by about 10 years of age and while their relationship starts as amicable in the novel, it is not nearly as intimate as depicted in the show.
This change is perhaps the most critical in the series, because it adds personal weight to what was only ever political in the books. By showing their enmity emerging from personal betrayals, the entire tone of the story has been changed.
Viserys’ Dilemma
House of the Dragon begins the series with one of the more gruesome scenes in the entire Martin universe. Aemma Targaryen is forcefully given a c-section by the maesters to rescue the child who is in breach. It is a horrific and gut-wrenching scene that was completely made up for the show.
In the novel, the only line regarding the event is that Aemma Targaryen died in childbirth and so did the child. But Ryan Condal added to the scene by giving Viserys agency and ultimately blame in the death of his wife. It is his decision to save the unborn child at the cost of letting his wife die. A decision that leads to him being responsible for the great tragedy of both son and mother perishing.
Daemon Vs. Criston Cole
In one of the most exciting scenes of the premiere, knights from across Westeros battle in melees and jousts in celebration of the upcoming birth of Viserys I’s son. It’s an action-packed and bloody tournament with some incredible directorial choices, including a point-of-view angle from a charging horse.
During one joust, Daemon and Criston Cole square off to see the final winner. Daemon is knocked off his horse, but the hot-headed prince angrily challenges Cole to battle. In Fire and Blood, Daemon and Cole battle in an agreed-upon honorable melee from the start and the fight is on more even ground. The TV show seems to be showing the violent and reckless nature of Daemon far earlier than the book.
The Catspaw Dagger
The Valyrian steel dagger that first appeared in season 1 of Game of Thrones apparently was around 170 years before the assassin attempted to kill Bran Stark. In the final scene of the first episode, Viserys I clearly shows the same dagger to Rhaenyra. It can also be seen on his person throughout the episode.
This dagger is a key item during the Game of Thrones story. Beyond its use as a weapon against Bran, it is also the very knife used to destroy the Night King in season 8. There has never been a clear explanation as to where the knife came from until now, so it is a new and fascinating reveal, particularly given the part it played in “Driftmark” when the cold war between Alicent and Rhaenyra finally heated up.
Aegon’s Prophecy
In probably the most stunning moment of revelation for fans of Games of Thrones and the book series, Viserys I revealed a family secret to Rhaenyra. The secret is that the reason the Targaryens conquered Westeros was because their original patriarch, Aegon I, had a vision of the long night and the White Walkers.
There are multiple, vague references to the many dreams and visions of the Targaryens throughout Fire & Blood, but nothing at all referencing that a member of the family foresaw the main conflict that would take place in Game of Thrones. This was a big surprise for all viewers, and audiences are looking forward to how important that piece of information will be as the series continues.
Viserys’s Attitude Toward Rhaenyra As Heir
Viserys names Rhaenyra as heir to take the title away from Daemon in both the book and series, but the next ten years go very differently. In Fire & Blood, “Princess Rhaenyra continued to sit at the foot of the Iron Throne when her father held court, and His Grace began bringing her to meetings of the small council as well.” Viserys was actively preparing Rhaenyra to be Queen, and didn’t allow anyone to suggest she should be replaced.
This is strikingly different in the show. In House of the Dragon, Viserys seems annoyed every time Rhaenyra tries to get involved in political matters, effectively encouraging others to undermine her. In addition, he outright considers replacing her with Aegon. Over the course of 24 years, the only time book Viserys mentioned changing the succession was when Rhaenyra refused to marry Laenor.
The War In The Stepstones
In the show, Daemon’s conquest of the Stepstones was used as proof of his wild nature, with Daemon jumping into a war with no regal support, surviving being severely outnumbered, and slicing Crabfeeder in half. It may have been a sensational battle scene, but nearly every detail was invented.
In fact, Fire & Blood barely acknowledges the war, stating, “it is not our purpose here to recount the details of the private war Daemon Targaryen and Corlys Velaryon waged on the Stepstones.” What readers do learn is that Viserys showered Daemon with gold to keep him out of the way, which led to Daemon winning most battles, culminating in him beheading Crabfeeder. The idea that he was a rogue underdog is completely fabricated.
Viserys’s Health
In the series, Viserys has health problems from the very beginning, which only get worse as time goes by. However, it’s a common misconception that Viserys was always sick, particularly going by the book. It’s unclear in House of the Dragon what exactly is wrong with Viserys, but he gets older and frailer with every passing episode, making fans shocked he survived the ten-year time jump.
However, in the book, he doesn’t have health problems until much later, 21 years after Queen Aemma’s death. After years of peace, Viserys had grown fat and weak. This resulted in him falling and getting badly cut by the Iron Throne, which became infected and caused significant future health troubles.
Prince Baelon
Prince Baelon was Viserys and Daemon’s father, and his death was the cause of the Great Council Deliberation. However, he has hardly been mentioned in House of the Dragon, except when Viserys was casting Otto aside as Hand to the King.
In that scene, Viserys states that his father was only Hand for five days before dying and being replaced by Otto. However, that’s a complete deviation from the book canon, where Baelon had been Hand for a full year. The only similarity is the length “five days,” which was how long it took Baelon to die from a ruptured organ.
The Strong Family
The Strong family may not be as powerful as the Velaryons or the Hightowers, but they definitely have a lot of influence on the main characters, particularly in the book. The Strong family enters the book the same year Queen Aemma died. Lyonel Strong joined the small council while his son Harwin was a gold cloak and his son Larys was a confessor (torturer).
Lyonel and Harwin were important figures at court for fifteen years before their deaths, which was the first time Larys was mentioned in any real capacity. While the show suggests he was a parallel for Game of Thrones’ Littlefinger, whispering in Alicent’s ear the whole time, he didn’t become important until after Viserys’s death. The show downplayed Lyonel and Harwin through the time jump, while amplifying Larys to a far bigger role than he held in the book.
Rhaenyra’s Disposition Toward Marriage
In House of the Dragon, Rhaenyra is actively opposed to marriage, screaming at Viserys about it at Aegon’s birthday celebrations and rejecting every suitor that he carefully arranged for her to meet. Trying to connect with her, Viserys agreed to let her choose. However, this was not the case in the book, where she was open to marriage in general, just not with Laenor.
Rhaenyra is staged as a rebel in the show, wanting to be able to follow her passions with whomever she takes interest in. This allowed the writers to ask why princes and kings can have mistresses, but female royals cannot. While this does a lot to heighten the gender conflict, it also makes Rhaenyra seem childish and naive, which is a disservice to her character and Alicent’s.
Daemon’s Exile
After Daemon becomes intimate with Rhaenyra in the book, Viserys banishes him from the kingdom, on penalty of death. However, the series has Daemon choosing to stay abroad, having been told by Viserys only to leave his sight. Because it was Daemon’s choice, he stayed away the entire time, so Laena went into labor and died in Pentos, not Driftmark.
However, book fans know that Laena and her children actually reconciled the brothers, allowing their family to move back to Driftmark. While there, Daemon and Laena become close friends with Rhaenyra, which impacts how Daemon acts after Laena’s death. These changes lead to many questions in the show, such as how long it took Daemon to return for the funeral, why Vhagar was around to be claimed by Aemond, and how Daemon and Rhaenyra would still be so close.
Marriage As A Way To Prevent Future Conflict
In “The Princess and the Queen,” Rhaenyra attempted to resolve the conflict between herself and Alicent by proposing a marriage between her son Jacaerys and Alicent’s daughter Helaena. This compromise would ensure both of their children would be able to sit on the Iron Throne, without Rhaenyra losing her own birthright.
However, the proposal was never made in Fire & Blood because Jacaerys was already engaged to Baela Velaryon from age four. However, Alicent did attempt a similar compromise, suggesting that Rhaenyra marry Aegon. Her idea was thoroughly rejected because of the age difference and the half-siblings’ open dislike for one another, but perhaps also because Rhaenyra could easily be killed just after her marriage to give Aegon a clearer right to the throne.
Meddling Parents
In Fire & Blood, the conflicts between Rhaenyra and Alicent are purely political. Rhaenyra wants the throne. Alicent wants Aegon to have it. Furthermore, the children pick up these beliefs naturally, hating each other by instinct.
However, House of the Dragon made the choice to have the older generations use their children as pawns, which is a thoroughly different motive. Rhaenyra and Alicent were friends until Otto turned Alicent against Rhaenyra. The children were seemingly friends until Alicent fills her sons with fear and hatred. Rhaenys spells this out when she tells Corlys that he killed their children with his ambition, but the younger characters had far more agency in the book.
Rhaenyra and Laenor
Viserys has to threaten Rhaenyra with disownment to get her to marry Laenor in the book and series, but everything about their dynamic changes from there. In Fire & Blood, they began to have a good relationship, but the death of Joffrey quickly ended that. While he did the bare minimum expected of him, Laenor spent most of his time away from Rhaenyra. Despite that, Rhaenyra was never considered a possible suspect in his death.
In the series, the two seem to have a very comfortable dynamic, allowing each other their affairs while otherwise supporting each other. After the major conflict about Aemond’s eye, Laenor promises to be the husband she deserves, rejecting his own dalliances. However, Rhaenyra then plots to get rid of him. While it’s uncertain whether she wanted him dead or just gone, she is the one to pull the strings when he was doing right by her, a major change from the book.
Aemond’s Proudest Moment
Aemond Targaryen was desperate to have a dragon, so it only made sense for him to try to claim the one that was most readily available to him. In Fire & Blood, he does sneak out to claim Vhagar, but he gets interrupted by a 3-year-old Joffrey Velaryon. He runs to Vhagar to keep from getting caught, and she chooses him for unknown reasons. When he returns, Rhaenyra’s other children are there to attack him. They fight, he taunts, and finally, Lucerys takes his eye.
However, Aemond is far more decisive in the series. He claims Vhagar with no one else around, winning her with a combination of bravery and Valyrian commands. Then, Baela and Laena bring the boys to stop him, at which point he hurts them and threatens to kill Luke. The illegitimacy claims are secondary, and the Velaryon boys seem heroic. This changes a childhood fight gone wrong into a calculated conflict, which feels like an attempt to make the audience hate Aemond from the get-go.
Alicent Forgets Her Place
After the fighting between the boys, the families gather to fix what’s wrong. While this was the most climactic moment so far in the series, it was relatively mild in the book. Alicent asked for one of Lucerys’s eyes, but Viserys shut it down quickly. He was harsher about the illegitimacy claims, but ended the conflict by sending Rhaenyra to Dragonstone while Alicent returned to court with him.
The show wanted this to be the most important moment in season 1, to quote Rhaenyra, because “now they see you as you are.” Alicent demanded the eye, but when Viserys disagreed, she tried to overrule him and asked Cole disobey Viserys’s orders. Then she stole Viserys’s dagger to attack Luke, looked on the verge of killing Rhaenyra, and sliced her arm open. This outburst was completely out of character and entirely invented for the show, leaving book fans to wonder why the writers need Alicent to come across as childish and malicious instead of merely ambitious.
Major Character Deaths
Fire & Blood has its fair share of bloody deaths, some of which fans expect will be too brutal to be recreated on screen, but some characters died in spectacularly different ways when they were adapted for the series.
In “We Light The Way,” Criston Cole beats Joffrey’s head in during Rhaenyra’s wedding celebrations. This was far too violent and illogical for Criston to face no consequences. In Fire & Blood, the two men meet as challengers in a tourney, and Criston beats him. However, it takes six days for Joffrey to die, with Laenor at his side the entire time.
In “The Princess and the Queen,” Laena Velaryon is in the midst of horrible childbirth when she gets up, heads outside, and orders her dragon to burn her. While this was a whole new take on “Dracarys,” it deprived Laena of her loved ones. In the book, she completed the labor but developed sepsis. While Daemon flew everywhere looking for better maesters, Rhaenyra was by her side. She did go for her dragon, but for a flight, not as a form of euthanasia.
In “The Lord of the Tides,” the last of 120 AC’s big tragedies comes when Rhaenyra and Daemon plot to kill Laenor. As in the book, the death comes through a swordfight with his lover, Qarl. However, there are two major deviations. The first is that the fight takes place in Corlys’s home, not the marketplace, which results in the body being thrown head-first into the fire. Secondly, the show reveals that Laenor did not, in fact, die. This is a major deviation from the source material and could have serious implications later on.
Loss Of Historical Speculation
Because Fire & Blood is written as a history, it frequently gives readers two or three different accounts of events, leaving it up to the reader to determine the truth. This element was completely eliminated in the series to fit a narrative structure, but it makes the characters less intriguing.
In the book, fans don’t know exactly what happened at any given time. Did Daemon kill his wife? Did Rhaenyra have an affair with Criston Cole? Who killed the Strongs? These mysteries made the story feel more real, since one person wouldn’t know everything that happened behind closed doors. However, the show left nothing to the imagination, nearly always choosing the most salacious of the rumors to be true.
