Why House Of The Dragon Was So Challenging, Explained By Martin

According to author George R. R. Martin, adapting his novel, Fire & Blood, for HBO’s House of the Dragon was challenging for a few key reasons. After the huge success of Game of Thrones, which is based on Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novel series, HBO greenlit House of the Dragon. The prequel show, which earned strong reviews from critics, follows a few key members in the Targaryen family as they compete for the Iron Throne.

During a recent appearance at HBO’s FYC event at the DGA on Tuesday, Martin explains (via Deadline), why creating House of the Dragon from Fire & Blood was such a daunting task.

What it comes down to, ultimately, is that the House of the Dragon writers had to do more of the storytelling heavy lifting because, unlike the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, Fire & Blood is really more of an “imaginary history book.” Check out Martin’s full comment below:

“There is a special challenge to adapting Fire & Blood which is significantly different from the books and stories for Game of Thrones. Those are five, soon to be seven I hope novels that are fully developed with the characters, the dialogues, the scenes it’s all there. Fire & Blood is an imaginary history book, that has a few scenes where I zero in, and I give you half page of a scene and I give you some actual dialogue but mostly its history. It’s an outline, and you can’t present an outline on television, so it has to be filled in. And that’s where [Showrunner Ryan Condal] and his staff of writers have done a marvelous job.

“In Fire and Blood, for example, it is stated that Queen Emma Arryn dies in childbirth and her son dies the following day. There is nothing about it being the most horrendous childbirth scene ever seen on TV. That’s all the work of [Condal] and his writers.”

Related: House Of The Dragon Season 2’s Release Update Is Disappointing… And Good

How House Of The Dragon Compares To Game Of Thrones

Like Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon follows a select few individuals competing for power, stabbing each other in the back, and displaying varying degrees of political finesse to achieve their goals. Martin’s comments, however, provide an interesting basis upon which to compare the two similar but different shows.

While Game of Thrones was a fairly direct adaption in its early seasons, later seasons saw the hit fantasy drama surpass the story that had been laid out in Martin’s books. Incidentally, this is also when the critical reception to Game of Thrones started sour somewhat. Although still pulling incredibly impressive viewership numbers as it entered season 7 and season 8, the show is widely considered to have declined in quality as the story reached its conclusion.

At least with season 1, House of the Dragon has not yet encountered this same problem. Although the writers had to fill in a lot of the blanks for themselves in terms of character arcs and more subtle story developments, season 1 sits at a lofty 93% on Rotten Tomatoes. It’s still early days for House of the Dragon, however, meaning the greatest challenges in terms of adapting Fire & Blood may still be yet to come.

More: Why Rhaenyra’s Mother Aemma Didn’t Ride A Dragon (Despite Being Targaryen)

Source: Deadline