One Harsh Reality For House Of The Dragon Was Just Highlighted By GRRM's New Game Of Thrones Spinoff Review

House of the Dragon has faced some backlash over its changes to the source material, and an update from George R.R. Martin casts it in an even harsher light. Although the Game of Thrones prequel has largely been well-received, its handling of Fire & Blood has drawn some negative comments from fans of the book - and it didn't end there. Even Martin himself criticized House of the Dragon's changes, especially for the butterfly effect they would have on later seasons of the show (this came in a now-deleted blog post).

Much of the ire centered around Blood and Cheese killing Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen, a horrific event in both book and show, but with some notable changes in the latter. That includes cutting Prince Maelor Targaryen entirely - thus removing one of King Aegon II Targaryen's heirs - which will have an impact later on in the series. As the wait for House of the Dragon season 3 goes on, and HBO prepares to debut another Game of Thrones spinoff later this year, those are tricky waters it'll have to continue trying to navigate, but it's a problem it was always going to struggle with.

House Of The Dragon Was Always Going To Struggle To Be Faithful To The Book

Fire & Blood Is Not A Straightforward Book To Adapt

One of the advantages of making House of the Dragon is that it has a great story, and one that very much evokes Game of Thrones while being different enough. The Dance of the Dragons is an epic civil war that features lots of political machinations, feuding families, huge battles, and, of course, dragons. In a sense, it was a no-brainer for HBO to make it the first spinoff for its Westeros-based franchise. On the other hand, though, is that while there is a great story, it's technically not a very long or fleshed-out narrative for making a TV show.

Fire & Blood is a weighty tome, and only part one of Martin's planned two-part history of House Targaryen. But the Dance of the Dragons portion, even if you start from Viserys becoming king and going through to the clean-up after the war ends, isn't even 300 pages. Or, if you were to listen to the audiobook, it wouldn't even be 10 hours, which is shorter than House of the Dragon season 1. Compare that to Game of Thrones, where the first book alone runs over 30 hours in audiobook form.

That's not to downplay Martin's book in any way, which is a great read, but it's presented as an in-universe history book that draws on multiple historical accounts, most of whom weren't around at the time stuff happened. The discrepancies help make it fascinating, but also mean the characters and events can lack detail: there aren't true arcs the way you'd get in a novel, and it's difficult to adapt that format to the screen against a more definitive version of events.

Generally speaking, the show requires a lot of invention, which then also means things are going to have to be changed...

That doesn't excuse House of the Dragon all of its problems. Indeed, when it comes to Blood and Cheese, that actually seemed like one of the easiest sequences to adapt because it's so good as-written and didn't require much being changed or expanded. But generally speaking, the show requires a lot of invention, which then also means things are going to have to be changed, and so faithfulness was always likely to be a struggle.

Why A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Is Easier To Get Right

GRRM's Novellas Have An Advantage

Martin gave a review of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the next Game of Thrones spinoff, having now seen early cuts of all six episodes. The author was glowing in his praise, but what stands out in particular, given the context of his criticisms regarding House of the Dragon and how it has adapted Fire & Blood, is that he specifically calls out its faithfulness. He wrote:

"I’ve seen all six episodes now (the last two in rough cuts, admittedly), and I loved them. Dunk and Egg have always been favorites of mine, and the actors we found to portray them are just incredible. The rest of the cast are terrific as well. Wait until you guys meet the Laughing Storm. and Tanselle Too-Tall.
"A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS is an adaptation of “The Hedge Knight,” the first of the novellas I wrote about them. It’s as faithful as adaptation as a reasonable man could hope for (and you all know how increedibly [sic] reasonable I am on that particular subject)."

Although Martin has praised House of the Dragon in the past too, that he is so directly commenting upon the faithfulness of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, after his remarks about the other prequel, feels significant. Clearly, there are no changes with potentially harmful butterfly effects here, and that bodes well for the series, though it does reflect that this is a slightly easier book to adapt.

A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight

Drama

Action

Fantasy

Network: HBO
Directors: Owen Harris
Writers: George R. R. Martin, Ira Parker

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight is set in a time when the Targaryen dynasty rules Westeros.

The Hedge Knight, which is the Dunk & Egg story that will make up A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 1, is a relatively light and breezy read, especially by A Song of Ice & Fire standards. Nonetheless, it is a straightforward novel, with very clear character actions and story progression, unlike Fire & Blood. While this does still require some expansion - it's 160 pages, and around 3 hours in audiobook, for what will become a six-episode season, so there's some work to be done - it's an easier, more traditional starting point than adapting Fire & Blood.

A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Could Still Face Its Own Adaptation Struggles

HBO Still Needs To Make Sure To Get The Hedge Knight (& Beyond) Right

Dexter Sol Ansell as Egg looking over his shoulder in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

It sounds as though A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is on track to avoid House of the Dragon's problems, though that doesn't mean it will all be plain sailing when it comes to adapting the books. There are, of course, the aforementioned expansions required. Assuming HBO is aiming for around 50-60 minute long episodes, then it needs to flesh out some characters and scenes more than the book. But those should be relatively minor additions per episode, rather than having to invent too much to stretch something out across multiple seasons.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' release date is TBC, but Martin thinks it will be "late" 2025.

The bigger potential book problem for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and a stark contrast to House of the Dragon, is that they're not finished. Martin plans on writing several more Dunk & Egg novellas, and while their ultimate fates are known, the finer details of happens to them after the third and most recent book, The Mystery Knight, are not.

Upcoming Game of Thrones Spinoffs
Title	Description	Status
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms	An adaptation of George R.R. Martin's The Tales of Dunk & Egg novellas	Season 1 releasing in 2025 on HBO and Max
House of the Dragon	Ongoing Game of Thrones prequel, telling the story of the Targaryen civil war, the Dance of the Dragons	Season 3 expected in 2026; season 4 will be the last
Aegon's Conquest	The story of King Aegon I Targaryen and the conquest of Westeros with his sister-wives, Rhaenys and Visenya	In-development
10,000 Ships	A spinoff about Princess Nymeria, who led her people the Rhoynar to Dorne after a war with the Valyrian Freehold	In-development
Nine Voyages	An animated show about Corlys Velaryon's Great Voyages, where he sailed around the Known World	In-development
The Golden Empire (unofficial)	An animated show set in empire of Yi Ti, which is in the far East of Essos	In-development
TBC	Another live-action Game of Thrones spinoff	In-development
TBC	Another animated Game of Thrones spinoff	In-development
TBC	A Game of Thrones movie	In-development

There's probably enough to avoid Game of Thrones-sized issues after overtaking the books, especially as it's so much more contained, but that's a bigger worry than fidelity to the source material. Nonetheless, as it stands, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is incredibly exciting, especially after Martin's approval.

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