House of The Dragons, which is based on the book Fire & Blood, describes what happened 200 years before Daenerys Targaryen, one of the last Targaryen left alive in the series Game of Thrones. It traces the history of King Aegon I Targaryen’s conquest of Westeros and his long reign.
Three years after Game of Thrones came to an end, the prequel series House of The Dragons has taken GOT fans back to Westeros, but this time to tell a completely different tale. The storyline of this prequel centres on conflicts within House Targaryen that finally resulted in the Dance of the Dragons, a civil war between the Blacks and the Greens, two opposing Targaryen factions.
The main focus of the show is "Heirs of the Dragon" and "The Death of the Dragons" from the Fire and Blood series. King Jaehaerys I Targaryen's long reign comes to a close in the first book, and the issue of Prince Viserys Targaryen and Princess Rhaenys Targaryen's right to succeed him follows. The civil war between the Blacks and the Greens, The Dance of The Dragons, is the main subject of the second book. The ten-episode long season one of House of The Dragons features the coronation of King Viserys I Targaryen and concludes with the onset of the Dance of The Dragons with Aemond Targaryen’s dargon Vhagar killing Lucerys Velaryon and his dragon Arrax.
The showrunners, Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik have worked hard in terms of how well the show has adapted the book. The freedom to experiment within the historical context is one of the intriguing aspects of adapting a history book, even if it is fictional. Because Fire & Blood rarely goes into scene-level detail, House of the Dragon is free to create new scenes and enlarge existing ones.
Each episode in the series is similar yet different from the books. Analysing the first five episodes in the series, let’s talk about these similarities and differences.
Episode 1 – The Heirs of the Dragons
It comes down to Viserys Targaryen and his cousin Princess Rhaenys Targaryen in the first episode for the lords of Westeros to decide who would succeed King Jaehaerys I Targaryen. In the book, however, Rhaenys had already been ruled out as a contender due to her gender, but she was now fighting for her son Laenor Velaryon to win because of his rights via her.
Less of a shift, but the series has also developed the relationship between Lady Alicent Hightower and Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. This is undoubtedly done to create greater tension within them when the two start to fall apart later in the series. In the book, Alicent is actually almost ten years older than Rhaenyra; however, the show depicts them to be of the same age. In the book, Alicent was seventeen years old, but Rhaenyra was even younger - seven years old.
According to the book, Viserys was 26 years old when he was named the heir, making him older in the series. He is also referred to as "The Young King" in some places. At the time of his second marriage, Viserys was not even 30 years old.
Episode 5- We Light the Way
There are a number of changes when comparing episode 5 to the book Fire and Blood. There is no indication in the book that Daemon was to blame for Lady Rhea's death, but it is made obvious that he would have benefitted from it. Rhea's fall causes her to linger in anguish when she tries to stand, and she eventually passes away in excruciating pain. In the book, however, Rhea also passes away following Rhaenyra and Laenor's nuptials.
In the series, it is made clear that Alicent's learning the truth about Rhaenyra's intimate sexual relations caused her to turn on her old friend and adopt the Hightower color of green for her clothing. However, she had a falling out with Rhaenyra much earlier in the book, and she had also pushed for her son Aegon to wed Rhaenyra rather than Laenor, but Viserys stopped her because of her ambition.
The way Criston and Rhaenyra's romance ended matches one of the stories in the book about how he eventually came to loathe her. One story says he recommended they run away together, but she ignored him out of obligation, which made him angry. In the other story, Rhaenyra tried to seduce Criston, but he refused her because of his vows, therefore their relationship never blossomed.
Episode 9 – The Green Council
This episode also features a number of changes made in show. Since Princess Rhaenys Targaryen was absent from King's Landing during the death of King Viserys and the coronation of King Aegon II Targaryen in the book, her scenes, particularly the key climactic one with her dragon Meleys, are exclusive to the television series.
A fresh addition to the series is the tale of Alicent misinterpreting King Viserys' reference to Aegon the Conqueror and not her son Aegon.
In the book, Alicent is less sympathetic to Rhaenyra; she claims that the Princess will kill her children and that they must act to stop her. Ser Criston further criticizes Rhaenyra and Daemon, claiming that they would undoubtedly build a palace of wickedness if the Princess were to ascend to the throne and that the kingdom would be cursed if her illegitimate son Prince Jacaerys Velaryon did so after her.
The dispute between Alicent and Ser Otto regarding their shared history and the succession process is also a creation of the show.
Episode 10 – The Black Queen
Events being different from the book in this episode are also high in number.
While Rhaenyra seeks a diplomatic resolution in Fire and Blood, Daemon is undoubtedly the person who fosters conflict. However, the book never depicts Daemon physically hurting Rhaenyra during their arguments.
No page from Alicent is presented to Rhaenyra and Ser Otto Hightower does not visit Dragonstone in the book with conditions. Grand Maester Orwyle travels to Dragonstone with conditions in order to have his chain removed and delivered to Maester Gerardys. Rhaenyra explicitly refuses Orwyle's demands in this scene from the novel, telling him that she will either take her half-crown brother's or his head and send him a message on Aegon's behalf.
Another instance is that he series portrays Vhagar as killing Lucerys on its own, and Aemond is shocked by what transpired. In the book, Prince Aemond Targaryen willfully kills Prince Lucerys Velaryon as he follows him on Vhagar.
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