House of the Dragon – Major differences between the series and the original
House of the Dragon certainly has some differences from the original Dance of the Dragons.
House of the Dragon TV series adapted from Archmaester Gyldayn’s work Fire & Blood in Game of Thrones. The movie has made changes compared to the book to be more suitable for the screen. Remember in 2019, the movie Game of Thrones created an explosion in the entertainment industry. The series quickly created its influence not only in film but also in culture and tourism.
3 years later, the prequel to this hit work, House of the Dragon, also quickly received attention. While the original Fire & Blood tells the story of House Targaryen when it ruled Westeros, notable and important events such as Aegon’s conquest and the civil war of the Dance of the Dragon, House of the Dragon explores the war. civil war and the events that led to it.
Because Fire & Blood is a fictional historical book with little entertainment, changes to bring a new atmosphere to the adaptation are inevitable. The following changes in House of the Dragon compared to the original were recognized by the author of Fire & Blood as beneficial to the film’s storyline.
1. The narrative structure changes
Regarding the structure of the original, Fire & Blood is written in the form of a historical book, compiled by a fictional character, Archmaester Gyldayn. From beginning to end, the book is told through this unreliable character. Meanwhile, House of the Dragon is a television series whose plot only adapts a small part of the centuries-long history in Fire & Blood, and the film also does not use Archmaester Gyldayn to narrate the story like in the original. Because of the unreliable nature of the narrator in the original, House of the Dragon has complete freedom to promote creativity in telling and building the film’s story.
As in, the first episode of House of the Dragon is built around two important events: King Viserys and Queen Aemma welcome their first son, and the tournament honors the baby’s birth. The fierce and thrilling battle scene is told in parallel with Queen Aema’s labor pains, although in the book, these two events do not happen exactly at the same time. However, the filmmaker’s choice of integration was considered by the audience to be a smart decision, as it brought thrilling suspense about both outcomes that determine the future.
Writer Ryan Condal and director Miguel Sapochnik interviewed IGN: “The interesting thing about the show is that it only has a little connection to the original work. Even though the events unfold similarly, things will be told very differently.”
Therefore, the goal of House of the Dragon is not to reproduce the original work, but to make viewers ask the question “Why did this episode happen?” and “How did that event happen?”
2. Explore more deeply into each character’s thoughts
Because the book uses a third-person narrator, it will be quite limited in exploring the characters’ inner thoughts. However, in the film, this issue is delved deeper and done in more detail.
Specifically, the movie gave Aegon a purpose when conquering the land of Westeros, which was his dream. A dream of fire and ice foretells the end of humanity. This detail helps the character develop more diversely, not just stopping at personal ambition, he acts for greater reasons.
3. Build strong childhood friendships
In the original books, Rhaenyra and Alicent were not particularly close before Alicent married King Viserys, but in House of the Dragon, they have been best friends since childhood.This is a logical change and adds emotional weight. Because the two were childhood friends and had deep feelings, the separation in the following episodes promises to be more emotional.
4. Many details are added
To be fair, Fire & Blood is just the foundation for House of the Dragon to develop. Filmmakers either exploit the details more deeply, or create new details that were not mentioned in the original work.
For example, the hunting episode in episode 3 took us on an extremely stressful hunting trip for all participants. And interestingly, none of this plot is in Fire & Blood.
The addition of this hunt is a great way to delve into these events and bring the tension between the characters to the forefront. This storyline highlights Rhaenyra’s worries about her title, Alicent’s attempts to placate her daughter
being singled out by his best friend, Visery’s indecisiveness… Although this hunt never explicitly occurs in Fire & Blood, it fits the filmmakers’ intentions perfectly.
House of the Dragon also took a key event from the book and made it the focus of an episode. The story of the egg takes up a large part of The Rogue Prince even though in Fire & Blood it is only presented in a few sentences.
5. Another ending
This is a commitment from the author of the original work. Although the book’s ending has not yet been completed, he stated that House of the Dragon will have a completely independent and different ending from the book. This commitment makes viewers extremely excited and will be nervous every moment to receive an unpredictable ending.
Conclude
Without relying too much on the original, House of the Dragon increasingly proves that the television series itself has a life of its own. It is predicted that the next episodes of House of the Dragon will be full of excitement, we can only wait and see what happens next.
