House of the Dragon: 5 changes from the book that made the show better
HBO’s flagship TV series House of the Dragon is coming back for its second season. While we don’t have a firm release date yet, word is it's coming out in early summer, which I bet means we’ll get a May/June release, which is slightly later in the calendar year than when HBO usually chose to release Game of Thrones seasons back in the day.
House of the Dragon is based on George R.R. Martin's book Fire and Blood, which was released in 2018. The novel is written as a fictional history of the Targaryen dynasty rather than in the same third-person limited style of Martin's Song of Ice and Fire series. Fire and Blood spans roughly 140 ears of history in Westeros over the course of 700 pages. Because of its style, many details are glossed over or described only briefly. Martin purposefully keeps some things vague to keep with the conceit that the book is being written by an in-world historican with incomplete information.
In adapting this tome, the producers of House of the Dragon were forced to make several changes and elaborations. Adaptation can be a tricky enterprise, and the modern TV era is littered with series that didn’t make the jump as successfully as fans would hope.
Thankfully, House of the Dragon does not fall into this category. While not every change was liked by fans, some of the changes made were inspired and added depth and drama to an already good story. Improving on the writings of the legendary George R.R. Martin is never easy, but in a few instances, House of the Dragon managed it.
Below are the show changes that improved upon Fire & Blood the most. (Beware book and show SPOILERS below).
1. Alicent and Rhaenyra were best friends before Alicent marries Viserys
In Fire & Blood, Alicent Hightower and Rhaenyra Targaryen never had a friendship like the one portrayed in House of the Dragon. Unlike in the TV adaptation, in the novels Rhaenyra is nine years younger than Alicent when Alicent marries her father King Viserys at the age of 18. The book describes their relationship has “amicable” but that is all.
In House of the Dragon, the showrunners and scriptwriters made a deliberate choice to change this dynamic. Rhaenyra and Alicent are much closer in age, and share their youth together. In the first half of season 1, we see Rhaenyra and Alicent having lessons together, gossiping, and going memorably moon eyed over the young knight Criston Cole. Their friendship benefits the show enormously, giving a relatable emotional core to this story a family conflict that grows dangerously out of control. Each feels betrayed by the other. This is a vast improvement on the book, where their dynamic could easily fall into the ‘evil step-mother’ trope, with Alicent trying to displace her step-daughter in the line of succession in favor of her own children.
As season 1 ended with the brutal death of Rhaenyra’s second son at the hands of Alicent’s second son, it will be interesting to see how their old friendship plays a part in the drama to come.