Yes, this little tweak to the books made it easier to connect the prequel to the parent show — but at the cost of a good story.
House of the Dragon is yet another proof that a spinoff of a massively successful show can be a great idea. What Game of Thrones ruined for its fandom with the trainwreck season 8 finale, House of the Dragon managed to reignite, and now that season 2 is in the works, hopes are high for an even better second chapter.
However, the Game of Thrones spinoff was not without mistakes. Based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire and Blood, the show has still made several tweaks to the source material. Fans have admitted that the majority of those were for the best; but some of them are deemed unnecessary and even damaging to the show… like this particular one.
Who on Earth needed House of the Dragon to be about the Prophecy of Ice and Fire? The bloody Targaryen civil war, known otherwise as the Dance of the Dragons, was always about ambition and power play, not some kind of prophecy. However, the show decided to make it about Alicent’s misinterpretation of the prophecy that King Viserys revealed to her just before dying.
Now that the conflict is about “the chosen one,” and not the political intrigue, it kind of cheapens the world of Westeros in House of the Dragon, albeit not to the point of making fans drop the show.
It’s also hard to deny that House of the Dragon needed some sort of a deeper connection to Game of Thrones; and the out-of-the-blue prophecy was just perfect for that.
Still, making Rhaenyra and Alicent childhood friends-gone-sworn enemies was one of the biggest changes in House of the Dragon, with them almost reconciling… before Viserys ruined everything by mumbling the prophecy on his death bed.
Alicent believed that Viserys wasn’t quoting the prophecy but rather expressing the desire for their son, Aegon, to sit on the Iron Throne instead of Rhaenyra, Viserys’ first chosen heiress. This is what triggers the war in House of the Dragon; and by far, it’s the show’s worst change to the books.
It’s almost like the prequel needed another excuse to start the Dance of the Dragons, while in reality of the books, the ambition and desire for power was just enough for Team Black and Team Green to rip each other’s throats.
House of the Dragon season 2 is currently being filmed, and the premiere date remains to be set.
