As a huge fan of the Game of Thrones franchise—including House of the Dragon’s premiere season—I was so disappointed that I didn’t totally love the second installment. Airing last summer on HBO, the prequel story had so much potential, yet it just didn’t capture the same excitement it did in its first season. And, for many fans of the source material, Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin, that was because of the changes from the book.
Fire & Blood, written as a Targaryen history book spanning over 100 years, is a very complicated thing to adapt. While there are plenty of big events that go down, there’s much less of a narrative story; it’s written as facts rather than as a novel. And for many parts of it, major characters are not accounted for. So when HBO decided to adapt it for the small screen, the writers had to get creative.
Emma D’Arcy enjoys the creative liberties behind House of the Dragon
And while many fans haven’t agreed with these creative choices, star Emma D’Arcy finds the opportunity to take liberties “lovely.” Their recent comments during an interview with Awards Radar last month (just resurfaced by Collider) suggest that there will be more of that in the third season, to their excitement.
“There are big sections where Rhaenyra and Alicent disappear. On the one hand, I suppose it isn’t necessarily that ripe a source for us as actors, but [it] does mean that we have a ton of license, which is, frankly, lovely,” they shared.
This is true; Rhaenyra and Alicent are two characters who are noticeably absent during large chunks of Fire & Blood simply because they are not involved in the war. But because the show has established these two as, arguably, the two main characters, they have to appear more often—and thus, the story has to change.
I can’t knock showrunner Ryan Condal and the team of writers for this; if they’re trying to keep viewers invested in these two, they have to involve them in more scenes. But many fans have become very frustrated by this decision, feeling like the storyline between the pair just isn’t as interesting or convincing as other plot points.
From Rhaenyra’s Sister Act-esque adventure to her strange conversation with Alicent at the end of the second season, I can’t deny that some of their scenes—the ones that have been added for the show, specifically—are cringeworthy.
We recently asked our Facebook audience what improvements they want to see in House of the Dragon season 3, and one person pleaded for “no more Rhaelicent” because “they hate each other in the book.” We hate to break it to you, Domingo Rubies Aleman from Facebook, but you can expect more from them.
On top of the way it’s written, Fire & Blood is incredibly subjective, as it includes second-hand accounts of things that happened, told from what a maester has heard. Because of that, the House of the Dragon team has even more agency to make changes—for better or for worse.
As for D’Arcy, they’re not focused on all the details of the source material, despite having read the book.
“I have this sort of foggy knowledge. I mean, I know where Rhaenyra is heading,” they state. “Any sort of historical document tends to be deeply subjective and requires context for understanding. I feel that part of our job is to offer some of that context. But it’s funny, I wouldn’t go back to the book now, possibly until we finish this journey. House of the Dragon now needs to run its course.”
As fans, maybe we should follow D’Arcy’s lead.
House of the Dragon season 3 is currently filming and is expected to return to HBO and HBO Max sometime in 2026.
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