Every Major Change House of the Dragon Made To Fire & Blood (& Why They Didn’t Work)

House of the Dragon draws inspiration from the core narrative of George R. R. Martin’s in-universe text, Fire & Blood. The source material is presented from the perspective of Archmaester Gyldayn of the Citadel. The show lifts curtains on Westeros two years before the Old King’s death, i.e., year 101 AC at Harrenhal, and picks pace in the ninth year of his grandson, King Viserys’ reign.

House of the Dragon isn’t a faithful adaptation of Martin’s Fire & Blood. It has taken creative liberties in developing characters, in the addition and subtraction of events, and their descriptions. The characters, plot progression, and narrative have suffered due to creative pitfalls.

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The Fight above Shipbreaker Bay And Rhaenyra’s Indecisiveness

In the lore, Fight above Shipbreaker Bay marks the opening of hostilities between the rival factions, as it is the first dragon fight of the Dance of the Dragons. The contenders are Aemond atop the gigantic Vhagar and the young Prince Lucerys above the swift and nimble Arrax. Aemond deliberately engages in this act of aggression in the books, while House of the Dragon portrays it as a midair chase and a bullying sequence that accidentally culminates in the death of a nephew at the hands of his uncle. Aemond does not intend to kill Lucerys in the show, creating a contrast with how the history book, Fire & Blood, remembers it.

In Fire & Blood: Daemon is at Harrenhal when he receives news of Lucerys’ death caused by his nephew, Aemond. He sends a raven to Rhaenyra, vowing, “An eye for an eye, a son for a son. Lucerys shall be avenged.” He masterminds the brutal Blood and Cheese incident, orchestrating the murder of a son of the Greens.

In House of the Dragon: Daemon personally brings Rhaenyra the grim news, and she subsequently flies off for a solitary trip to the scene of the assassination. Upon her return to Dragonstone, she looks like she’s equipped to lead the war. Yet, Rhaenyra takes a sitting duck position in the days that follow. She debates the course of the war, and whether she must wage it, when in fact it’s out of her hands. The Rhaenyra viewers remember from House of the Dragon Season 1 and the books, was determined to protect her and Jacaerys birthright to ascendancy. She rebukes Daemon for the retaliatory murder, citing mortality, despite knowing that that’s the casualty of war. Moreover, Rhaenyra’s attempt to renegotiate with Alicent is a significant departure from her character in the books. This debilitating mindset raises questions over the show’s portrayal of female leadership, and must women be written as soft and indecisive?

Daemon’s Stay At Harrenhal

Daemon flies off to Harrenhal following a disagreement with Rhaenyra.

In Fire & Blood: Daemon’s loyalty is unquestionable in the books. He takes Harrenhal in the name of his wife, to gain a toehold in the Riverlands and raise an army for Rhaenyra. He acts as her King Consort, not her equal and certainly not a superior.

In House of the Dragon: After the swift takeover of Harrenhal, Daemon demands the castellan, Ser Simon Strong, address him as king, and omit the title of Consort. He gives Willem Blackwood a free hand, who, in turn, commits mass atrocities against the Brackens in the Blacks’ name. He also mistreats Lord Grover Tully’s grandson and heir, Oscar, and loses his credibility among the locals. Ultimately, he is forced to execute Willem to secure the young Lord of the Riverlands as his ally.

Daemon ultimately bends the knee to Rhaenyra, thanks to Harrenhal’s in-house healer, Alys Rivers’ counsel. Through visions at the Weirwood heart tree, he realizes Viserys’ choice of heir was correct. This could have been achieved swiftly, but the show invested an entire season in a fairly simplistic plotline. House of the Dragon Season 2 underutilized Daemon’s character and overemphasized his lack of restraint and foresight.

Aemond Takes Over The War

Aemond orchestrates his ascension by burning his brother, Aegon the King, at Rook’s Rest. He rises as Prince Regent of the realm and vests Aegon’s authority into himself.

In Fire & Blood: Ser Criston Cole leads the van, while Aegon and Aemond are all set for aerial combat. King Aegon rides Sunfyre, Aemond rides Vhagar, and they are at the ready. Princess Rhaenys flies to Rook’s Rest to aid Lord Staunton in the siege. While she burns most of Cole’s men, she is ambushed by the Green brothers. Aegon II is incapacitated by Meleys’ fire at Rook’s Rest and plummets to his death.

In House of the Dragon: Aegon II, unaware of Cole and Aemond’s trap, flies to battle on a whim. He enters the scene before Aemond and Vhagar take flight and prove no good in the skies. Aemond’s assault on his brother is another example of how House of the Dragon chose to sacrifice a perfectly good narrative (Aemond becoming Regent and Protector of the Realm during Aegon’s year-long recovery) for shock value. As a result of this gross miscalculation, the Prince Regent now fights a two-pronged war – one against his stepsister and another against his mother and the escapees, Larys Strong and Aegon.

Alicent’s Lack of Agency And Aemond’s Rise

Despite capably ruling in her ailing husband’s stead, Alicent was still deemed less competent than the men at the Council. As is expected, the same men (Tyland Lannister and Jasper Wylde) who previously snubbed Rhaenyra, chose Aemond as Regent. This quorum of men also included Larys Strong at first, but Aemond alienated him in subsequent events.

…but the Dowager Queen is a woman.

In Fire & Blood: The Greens aren’t nearly as fractured in the books as in the show. While King Aegon II does dismiss Lord Hand Otto following the Blood and Cheese incident, that’s the extent of their internal squabbles. It is Otto who writes to the Triarchy in the books, and not Aemond. All of these deviations, whether sidelining Alicent or Aemond’s senseless executions, such as the burning of Sharp Point, failed to create an immersive narrative. Currently, the Greens’ strategy remains unclear with only Wylde and Cole left in the play.

In House of the Dragon: The show repeated Game of Thrones‘ formula of extensive depiction of violence and aggression. It’s unacceptable that Aemond took out his anger on Sharp Point after Rhaenyra raised an army of dragonriders. He alienated the Master of Whisperers, and the heir to Harrenhal, Larys, by denying him his rightful promotion as Hand. Furthermore, he insulted him as a “toad” and instructed him to find the missing Otto Hightower. As time passed, the council became smaller and Alicent was shown the door. She’d previously led matters with subtlety and shrewdness with Orwyle and Larys’ counsel, but come the war, she was forced to seek comfort away from the capital.

Are Dragons Nomadic?

When the dragonless Princess Rhaena discovers the presence of a dragon in the Vale, she confronts Lady Jeyne Arryn at once. She is told the dragon flew from Dragonstone to the Vale at the start of the war:

Ranging more broadly for food… my Maesters surmise. It is large and formidable but alas, wild.

This did not sit well with Martin, who took to his Not A Blog blog to clarify that dragons (even untameable ones) aren’t free-ranging beasts who travel from place to place but make their own lairs. He wrote:

My dragons are creatures of the sky. They fly, and can cross mountains and plains, cover hundreds of miles… but they don’t, unless their riders take them there. They are not nomadic. During the heyday of Valyria there were forty dragon-riding families with hundreds of dragons amongst them… but (aside from our Targaryens) all of them stayed close to the Freehold and the Lands of the Long Summer. From time to time a dragonrider might visit Volantis or another Valyrian colony, even settle there for a few years, but never permanently. Think about it. If dragons were nomadic, they would have overrun half of Essos, and the Doom would only have killed a few of them. Similarly, the dragons of Westeros seldom wander far from Dragonstone. Elsewise, after three hundred years, we would have dragons all over the realm and every noble house would have a few. The three wild dragons mentioned in Fire & Blood have lairs on Dragonstone. The rest can be found in the Dragonpit of King’s Landing, or in deep caverns under the Dragonmont. Luke flies Arrax to Storm’s End and Jace to Winterfell, yes, but the dragons would not have flown there on their own, save under very special circumstances. You won’t find dragons hunting the riverlands or the Reach or the Vale, or roaming the northlands or the mountains of Dorne.

In Fire & Blood: A “skinny brown girl” named Nettles succeeds in claiming one of the wild dragons of Dragonstone, named Sheepstealer. She conditions it by bringing fresh mutton every morning and eventually gets to ride it on behalf of the Blacks.

In House of the Dragon: The wild dragon’s presence in the Vale is a significant departure from Martin’s lore and the biggest disservice to it. The novelist called for the need to ground fantastical elements to make the plots more realistic and believable. Rhaena gaining a wild dragon after all this while will only serve as a spectacle of visuals as the show advances.

House of the Dragon Season 3 is currently in the early stages of development.

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