House of the Dragon brings George R.R. Martin’s history of the Targaryens to the screen, but adapting the source material was never going to be an easy task. The HBO series is based on Fire & Blood, Martin's fictional history of the Targaryen dynasty and the brutal civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, published in 2018. Unlike a traditional narrative, the book presents conflicting accounts of the major events. This gives the show a lot of wiggle room to interpret characters, change events, and fill in the gaps. 

But bringing Martin’s complicated history to television means making some difficult choices along the way. 

For most of House of the Dragon, Ryan Condal has been walking a tightrope between George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood and what TV needs. Speaking to Esquire magazine, the writer said he is no longer losing sleep over the changes made to Martin’s source material. The show has taken some major detours from the book to shorten the sprawling history of the Targaryens, including character arcs and reshaping events. As the series approaches its conclusion, Condal said that the team had to prioritize what worked for television, even if it diverged from Martin’s version. 

“People have to understand that I have 200 pages of prose to work with to make four seasons of television. And this stuff, believe me, keeps me up at night more than anybody,” Condal shared. 

Condal further said Esquire magazine that he knew he could not keep worrying about every tweak to Fire & Blood between seasons 2 and 3. He further said that he eventually had to trust his instincts. Some individual scenes and plot developments might not be what readers expect, but Condal believes that House of the Dragon is largely true to the source material. For the showrunner, the changes made in the adaptation are less troubling when they are understood as necessary adjustments between different media. 

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Now, these creative choices have resulted in some noticeable differences between the page and the screen. 

There are plenty of differences between Fire & Blood and House of the Dragon. In Martin’s book, the events are described by conflicting accounts of unreliable historians, but in the series a clearer version of what happened is often set up. The show also changes relationships, such as the childhood friendship between Rhaenyra and Alicent, includes the prophetic dream of Aegon the Conqueror, and omits or changes characters such as Maelor and Nettles. Major battles and character fates have been changed as well, giving familiar events a decidedly different shape. 

Ultimately, House of the Dragon is recognizably rooted in Fire & Blood, but it is a far cry from a scene-by-scene adaptation. What Condal has done is typical of the realities of translating a fragmented historical narrative into a character-driven TV drama, even if it means altering relationships, motives, events, and character arcs. Those departures may frustrate some book readers, but they allow the series to create its own narrative identity. For Condal, the challenge now is less about avoiding every change, and more about making them work. 

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Will House of the Dragon’s changes from Fire & Blood ultimately strengthen the story or disappoint book readers? Let us know in the comments.