Emma D’Arcy in ‘House of the Dragon’ season three Ollie Upton/HBO
House of the Dragon season 3 releases in the summer of this year, and while I’m still looking forward to it, my opinion of the series has changed in the time since season 2 was out. Upon rewatch, season one of HOTD is still fantastic. While it skipped a lot, it still did an amazing job in adapting George R.R. Martin’s world, while taking mild liberties with the storytelling. For instance, Paddy Constantine’s portrayal of King Viserys was amazing, and he did a much better job with the character than Fire & Blood did. Plus, I personally like that Alicent and Rhaenyra were made to be friends, as this was not the case in Martin’s original material.
However, season 2 took so many liberties that now it feels like we’re on the same path as Game of Thrones. As someone who was introduced to this world by the HBO series, I loved the show [for the most part] up until season 8. However, as I read the source material and do my “research” on the lore of Martin’s fictional world, I realize that GOT was a vastly different world than the books, and it seems as if the same thing is happening again. This was somewhat forgiven with the main show, considering Martin has not yet finished his book series, so the creators of the TV series had to come up with different storylines along the way.
This is not the case with House of the Dragon. Since this show takes place in the past, we know what happens. Both Fire & Blood and The World of Ice & Fire (plus many other moments in the main book series) detail what happens during the Dance of the Dragons. Even if you’re just a fan of the Game of Thrones show, you should remember what happens to Rhaenyra just from Joffrey telling Margaery. The point is, there really isn’t a need to stray from the source material, considering people are tuning in because they want to see this specific story adapted. While I am sympathetic that some things don’t track as well on screen as they do in the books, there are just way too many liberties that are being taken now.
If we zoom out for a moment and look at the most recent iteration of A Song of Ice and Fire that was adapted for the small screen, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was a massive success. For several reasons – the acting was amazing, the production value was good, and the storytelling was perfectly paced. Above all, though; the show perfectly adapted the story that it is based on. While there were some dialogue changes, a scene or two that didn’t exist in the books, and a liberty or two taken when it came to some aspects of the book that were left ambiguous, AKOTSK is pretty faithful to the source material.
And that’s the main issue – you have the source material right in front of you. USE IT. Let’s get into some specifics here. Here are a couple of examples of (in my opinion) good liberties that were taken in season one. When it was shown that Laenor’s death was staged so Rhaenyra and Daemon could be together, that was a good changes. When you showed that Aemon didn’t mean to kill Lucerys, that added something to the scene. However, the events still played out. Laenor was out of the picture. Lucerys was killed. The main events still happened, there were just minor details changed.
However, major changes were made in season 2 and it looks like there will be major changes in season 3. To focus on an aspect of the trailer for season 3 – Alicent will let Rhaenyra into King’s Landing? No. No, this should not happen. At this point, we are in such fanfiction territory that it isn’t funny. The show is literally having an identity crisis. While I liked that they made Alicent and Rhaenyra friends and then portrayed their fallout adoquently, now suddenly Alicent is perpetually sad, and the two of them are having constant meetings with each other where Alicent is literally willing to give up her son for Rhaenyra. Have Rhaenyra be a conqueror – let her and Daemon ride their dragons and take King’s Landing by force. Let’s not even talk about what season 2 did to Daemon’s character.
One of the glaring examples of season two not following the source material was its handling of Blood & CHeese – which, happened in the very first episode of the second season. George R.R. Martin’s world is bloody and it’s unfair and if you aren’t willing to adapt that then you simply should not be adapting it. It concerns me that we won’t see other gruesome scenes adapted simply because the writers don’t want to. Rhaenyra and Mysaria? Rhaenys’ reaction to Corlys’ bastards? Rhaenys having blonde hair!? (Okay, this is a critique from season one, but still).
Before this rant gets too long, the long and short of it is, there is a beginning, middle, and end to the Dance of Dragons. George R.R. Martin spent a painstakingly long time mapping out what happened during this time, so please let’s get back to it. House of the Dragon will end with season 4 and I’m becoming very concerned that by the time the show is done, it will be unrecognizable in comparison to what fans want. Which is THE SOURCE MATERIAL.
What’d you think of House of the Dragon season 2 and are you excited for season 3?
A girl with too many fandoms to count.
