Fire and Blood

Okay now that we are done with season 2 of House of the Dragon we can discuss all of the fun and unnecessary deviations from Fire and Blood and why they were good or bad decisions. Season one ends with the death of the sweet baby boy, Lucerys. The greens have usurped the throne and war is brewing. At the end of the first season it was anticipated that season 2 would open with a son for a son. The internet was right…kind of. I think the general consensus was that it was a little underwhelming but let’s talk about the book events that were kept, and the ones that were changed in House of the Dragon season 2.

Now the first thing that I don’t think this show does very well in general is convey the passage of time. For Jucerys to have flown to the Vale and the North would have (and did in the books) take months. But the show really didn’t give us an idea of how long Rhaenyra was grieving, or how long it took Jace to get home after receiving the news of his brother's death. They made it seem like days and everything was pretty immediate.

Then we have the act of Blood and Cheese itself. Now I really don’t have any major problems with the way it was portrayed in the show. It was different, but I think that the impact was generally the same. At least from Heleana’s point of view. But this is where we have the issue of the writers fully omitting characters. In the book Heleana was forced to choose between her two sons, she picked the younger hoping he was too young to understand and then Blood and Cheese killed Jaehaerys anyway. And then we have the fact that Alicent was there with them…not fucking coleslaw. Now they did keep the part where Aegon rounds up and kills all of the rat catchers, the change comes with Otto’s reaction. In the book he simply brings cats to the castle to take the place of the rat catchers. The show response however is far more entertaining and shows just how exasperatingly stupid Aegon is as king.

This season actually starts to get into the dance itself so we really need to mention that Alicent is irrelevant at this point in the book. I really don’t even think she’s mentioned again until she dies. She has no place in the dance whatsoever so her neverending presence in the show is both forced and unnecessary. And that is why it is so irritating to see her on screen doing nothing. Because she literally has nothing to add to the story, she has no place in it.

Rook’s Rest went better than I expected it to. It was actually mostly book accurate and I actually really loved the design of the dragon fight, I think it was one of the better parts of the season as a whole.

Then we have some random deviations that make no sense to the story as a whole or the character development of anyone. Yes I am talking about Rhaenyra and Myseria. Look I love a gay storyline as much as the next queer but it just doesn’t do anything for either of their characters. I suppose it was put in there to make either of their deaths more impactful but if the audience can only experience grief through the characters then you did not do your job as a writer.

And of course, Daemon at Harrenhal. The book pretty specifically states that whatever haunted Harrenhal had no effect on Daemon and yet…the writers are so determined on destroying his character that we are having to experience these weird and very unsettling visions. And he’s out here saying that Rhaenyra can’t win and that if she wants to join him after HE takes King’s Landing she’s welcome to do so. Sorry, no. This directly goes against book AND show Daemon and it's crazy.

The rest of the things that happened this season were entirely made up…and not in a fun way. Every individual creative decision that deviated from the books came across like bad fanfiction. The season finale was truly terribly written and none of the characters are even recognizable from their book counterparts. The writers are truly pathetic excuses for creatives, and it's their own greed that is going to be the downfall of this show. The dance from Viserys being named heir over Rhaenys to Aegon’s youngest daughter dying takes place over about 300 pages. There is 0 reason that it should take 4 seasons to tell this story.