Does House of the Dragon commit “high ASOIAF heresy”?

HBO held the world premiere for its new Game of Thrones prequel show House of the Dragon the other week, and by and large, the responses were effusively positive. “It’s an easy to follow premiere with vibrant colors and detailed texture. Absolutely a worthy successor so far,” wrote The Wrap’s Brandon Katz. “I’ll admit the series premiere of #HouseOfTheDragonHBO is really well done and I’ll definitely continue watching,” wrote Collider’s Steve Weintraub. Hype rising.

Everyone who gave impressions of the pilot enjoyed it, although the @BaldMove Twitter account said something interesting: “Here’s something I think I can say to stir the pot until 8/21,” they wrote. “There is something in the premiere episode of HOTD that would be considered high ASOIAF heresy were it not the active involvement and blessing of GRRM. I’m very curious what the theorycrafters will do with it.”

So apparently there’s something in the House of the Dragon that potentially contradicts the lore set up by George R.R. Martin in his A Song of Ice and Fire books. How intriguing!

Some things in House of the Dragon “feel like new information”

We don’t know what Bald Move could be talking about yet, but at least one other attendee at the premiere has weighed in. David Lightbringer, who has been making ASOIAF-themed content for a while, gave his take on whether the premiere episode contained “heresy,” which is a serious charge. “I didn’t think so,” David said. “I probably know what they’re talking about.”

"There are some things that feel like new information, and that might challenge some people that don’t want any new A Song of Ice and Fire information to come through the TV show or whatever, but I thought everything made sense…No, I wouldn’t say there was any heresy."

David, like Bald Move, mentions that Martin is involved with House of the Dragon, which is true — he’s signed off on stuff, seen and enjoyed the first nine of 10 episodes, and even helped get showrunner Ryan Condal hired. That said, he’s not in the writer’s room or anything, so the producers can and will make plenty of decisions without his input.

Based on what I’ve seen, House of the Dragon looks more faithful to Martin’s book Fire & Blood than I expected it to be; Condal has resisted changing any of the character names, for instance, and is using time skips to tell the story over a period of years even though that might become tricky to follow. I could see other showrunners wanting to compress events to make them more digestible. “I deeply love [Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin], as a man, as a writer, as a creator,” Condal said at the premiere event. “I love his world, that’s why I ended up here. I came here as a fan, I was hired because I was a fan.”

So far, everything I’ve seen backs up these statements, although I’m sure there will be changes, additions and subtractions. As for what specific point Bald Move and David Lightbringer are talking about, we’ll find out when the House of the Dragon series premiere airs on HBO and HBO Max on August 21.

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