After HBO finished their adaptation ofGeorge R. R. Martin’sA Song of Ice and Firenovels,Game of Thrones, they instantly got to work brainstorming ideas for spin-offs. The first to air isHouse of the Dragon, based on Martin’s history of House Targaryen presented inFire & Blood. Set almost 200 years before the events ofGame of Thrones, when House Targaryen was at its strongest, it chronicles the civil war called The Dance of the Dragons, which began their decline and killed off their dragons.
LikeGame of Thronesbefore it,House of the Dragonhas been well-received for its complicated and nuanced characters, and for how it dives into the various motivations they have for pursuing their ends by any means necessary. However,many changes were made during the adaptation process, partially because Martin wroteFire & Bloodas a history bookinfluenced by biases and written to be intentionally vague.
10Ser Laenor Velaryon
As the eldest truebornson of Lord Corlys Velaryon(Steve Toussaint) and Princess Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best), Ser Laenor Velaryon (Matthew Carver,Theo Nate, andJohn Macmillan) was an accomplished sailor and warrior who rode the dragon Seasmoke. He was also secretly gay, but still went along with marrying Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly AlcockandEmma D’Arcy) to strengthen House Targaryen and House Velaryon relationships. Their sham marriage came to an end when Laenor was killed by his jilted lover, Ser Qarl Correy (Arty Froushan), and Rhaenyra was quick to marry her uncle, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith).
The biggest change to Laenor made in the show is that his death was staged using a poor Velaryon guardsmanas a stand-in corpse, so that he and Qarl could live their lives in Essos. While at first, this seems like a nice ending that allows him to live a free life and Rhaenyra to marry Daemon without issue, it kind of makes Laenor a selfish character who has no problem breaking his parents' hearts not even a day after the funeral for his sister, Laena (Nova Foueillis-Mosé,Savannah Steyn, andNanna Blondell), not to mention abandoning Seasmoke. It also doesn’t help that it happened right after Laenor swore that he would try to be a better husband to Rhaenyra and father to her children by Ser Harwyn Strong (Ryan Corr).
9Hugh Hammer
One of the many Targaryen bastards of King’s Landing, Hugh (Kieran Bew) works as a blacksmith who keeps his parentage hidden so he can make his own way in the world. He is a loving husband to his wife, Kat (Ellora Torchia), and does what he can to provide for her and their sick daughter as the war causes a shortage of food and gold. His greatest flaw would be that he put too much faith in the nobility, causing him to stay in King’s Landing longer than he should, because he believed King Aegon II Targaryen (Ty TennantandTom Glynn-Carney) would pay him for his service.
In contrast to the show’s devoted husband and father,Hugh Hammer from the bookwas a much more brutish individual. He was known to beat people to death with his bare hands, and taming the second-biggest Targaryen dragon, Vermithor, inflated his ego to dangerous levels of arrogance. So far, show Hugh has only punched a man to collect food for his family, but he’s shown himself to be way more selfless and noble, especially when he saved the life of another dragonseed when he tamed Vermithor. Time will tell if Hugh keeps his good heart, or if the horrors of war will see him become closer to his book counterpart.
8Rhaena Targaryen
Unlike her older sister, Baela Targaryen (Shani SmethurstandBethany Antonia), Lady Rhaena Targaryen (Eva Ossei-GerningandPhoebe Campbell) has no dragon of her own. Thus, she was sent to the Vale of Arryn with Queen Rhaenyra’s youngest children, Joffrey Velaryion (Oscar Eskinaz), Aegon, and Viserys Targaryen, and dragon eggs. During her stay, she discovers evidence of a wild dragon in the Vale, but is tasked with accompanying her half-brothers to Pentos by Lady Jeyne Arryn (Amanda Collin). However, Rhaena slips away from the procession and tracks the dragon down.
In the books, Rhaena spent the majority of the war in the Vale until one of her eggs hatched into a pink dragon named Morning, symbolizing a hopeful future for Westeros and House Targaryen after so much death. The show has insteadmerged her storyline with that of Nettles, a mysterious young woman who tames the wild dragon Sheepstealer, and is implied not to have any Targaryen blood. Combining these two stories might give Rhaena more agency in the plot, but alongside robbing show-watchers of a fascinating side-character,it taints Rhaena’s character by making her selfish enough to abandon her family and the eggs entrusted to herby her Queen to go chasing dragons through hostile mountain landscapes.
7Aemond Targaryen
The second son of King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) and Queen Alicent Hightower (Emily CareyandOlivia Cooke), is as opposite to Aegon as Daemon is to Viserys. Where his brother is apathetic and self-indulgent, Aemond (Leo AshtonandEwan Mitchell) is a brutal warrior who claimed Vhagar, the largest living Targaryen dragon. According toFire & Blood,Aemond’s actions in the war were those of a cold and arrogant killer, best demonstrated when he slew Lucerys Velaryon (Harvey SadlerandElliot Grihault) outside of Storm’s End in retribution for his lost eye.
House of the Dragonfleshes out Aemond’s personality something fierce, making him a more nuanced and believable character. He is given an inferiority complex born from his mother’s negligence and his brother’s teasing, driving him to prove himself through shows of strength and take his duties seriously by brushing up on history and tactics. Thedeath of Lucerys is also changedinto an accident, with Aemond losing control of Vhagar while chasing after his nephew, reminding him and the audience of the destructive power the Targaryens are playing with.
6Helaena Targaryen
Despite Alicent’s objection to a marriage proposal between Rhaenyra’s children and hers, she allowed Aegon to be married to his sister, Helaena (Evie AllenandPhia Saban). She was the least remarkable of Alicent’s children in the books, described as a plump, happy woman who is horribly traumatized when she loses her son to the assassins Blood (Sam C. Wilson) and Cheese (Mark Stobbart). She did claim the dragon Dreamfyre, but rarely rode her.
Helaena in the show is practically a new character, which isn’t necessarily bad.Helaena is given prophetic dreamsthat hint towards major events, and quirky hobbies like studying insects. The only downsides to these decisions are that she is also emotionally detached from the world. She barely reacts to her son’s death, doesn’t offer her life to Blood and Cheese in exchange for his, and some of her dreams feel like they exist to force someGame of Thronesreferences.
Known as the White Worm, Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) was born in Lys, but eventually came to King’s Landing and found work as a prostitute. She caught the eye of Daemon Targaryen and became his lover, confidant, and information broker. Over time, she built a large spy network in King’s Landing and was able to help Daemon with numerous plots, including the Blood and Cheese incident.
The show tries desperately to make Mysaria the new Varys(Conleth Hill)—a spymaster who serves as a champion of the people. Unfortunately, she lacks Varys’s charisma, and often feels contradictory at times when she tries to defend the common people in one episode, then uses them as a weapon for Rhaenyra in another. She is also way more loyal to Rhaenyra than she was in the book, constantly heaping praise on her every time they’re together, and even kissing her at one point.
4Daemon Targaryen
While his older brother ruled Westeros, Daemon lived a life of heroic exploits and dark dealings, earning him the title of The Rogue Prince. He alternated between serving by his brother’s side to flying off on his dragon, Caraxes, to see glory in war, often because of the political machinations of Viserys' Hand of the King, Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans). After marrying Rhaenyra, Daemon became her staunchest ally thanks to his decades of military experience and contacts within King’s Landing.
Daemon in the show is a lot more immature than his book counterpart, and terrible at waging war or inspiring men to fight for him. Whereas taking thecursed castle of Harrenhalwas enough to instantly bring the Riverlands to Rhaenyra’s cause in the books, show Daemon finds himself failing miserably to get the River Lords to follow him until he is bailed out by young Oscar Tully (Archie Barnes). Daemon also demonstrates a lot more wisdom in the book: he cautions against using dragons immediately due to how destructive such battles would be, whereas show Daemon constantly uses his dragon as an intimidation tactic, which doesn’t even work half the time.
3Rhaenyra Targaryen
Before the birth of his sons, Viserys declared Rhaenyra, the only surviving child by his wife Aemma Arryn (Siân Brooke), as his heir, and made the Lords of Westeros pledge to uphold her claim. While Rhaenyra learned much from her father about ruling, she also spent her younger years in reckless abandonment and had three children who lacked Targaryen features, leading many to believe they were bastards. When the Greens crowned Aegon as king, Rhaenyra was so furious she went into early labor and immediately began preparing to fight for her claim.
The big difference between the two versions of Rhaenyra is that the show strips her of her negative traits. Book Rhaenyra was the one pushing for war so she could claim her throne, and wanted vengeance on the Hightowers for undermining her and killing her son, Lucerys. In contrast, show Rhaenyra is turned into a paragon of virtue and kindness who is only waging war because Viserys passed to her a secret Targaryen prophecy, and is constantly trying to find a peaceful solution. This was probably done to make Rhaenyra a more likable protagonist, but it also robs her of nuance and presents the war in a more good vs evil light as opposed to both sides being bad.
2Alicent Hightower
The names of Rhaenyra and Aegon’s factions, the Blacks and the Greens, came from the different colored dresses worn by Rhaenyra and her stepmother, Queen Alicent Hightower, during a tournament. While the show makes both women the same age, book Alicent is significantly older than Rhaenyra, having come to court during the reign of her grandfather, King Jaehaerys I Targaryen (Michael Carter). When Alicent birthed her and Viserys' children, she began to resent that Rhaenyra remained the heir, and began scheming to gather allies and place Aegon on the throne when Viserys finally died.
In contrast to her power-hungry and manipulative book counterpart, showAlicent is depicted as a womantrying to gain power by playing into the oppressive system.Overall, she has a lot less agency: Otto is the one who schemes to put Aegon on the throne, while Alicent only goes along because she fears her children will be killed, and she thinks that Viserys changed his mind literally on his deathbed. Like Rhaenyra, the show has her serve as the voice of reason for her faction that is trying for peace, but it’s undermined when, at the end of Season 2, she plays favorites by offering to surrender King’s Landing to Rhaenyra and leave her sons to die if she and Helaena can escape.
1Viserys I Targaryen
Chosen by popular vote to succeed Jaehaerys at the Great Council of 101, Viserys' reign was peaceful, but tumultuous. His inability and unwillingness to deal with the animosity growing between his family members set the stage for a horrible civil war, yet he is still remembered as a friendly and foolish king in the book. This gave the show a lot to work with when it came to expanding his character, and the result hadMartin himself saying that it was betterthan what he wrote.
The show expands on Viserys' character by showing him as a man torn between duty, love, and prophecy. He was depicted as a man more than a king, struggling to keep going on after the death of his wife while balancing two branches of his family that hate one another and the cutthroat world of noble politics. Considine’s performance solidifies it with this air of tragic grace that makes you empathize with Viserys even if, by all accounts, he wasn’t the best king. When one of the show’s most powerful moments is seeing an old man walk across a room to sit on a chair, you know that the character has surpassed his book version without question.
