In its short 8 episodes, House of the Dragon has established itself as a viable successor to Game of Thrones. The series, which is set around 200 years before the original series’ events, has given us a slew of new characters to root for, as well as some great storylines and conflicts that are directly related to the prophecy of the ‘Prince that was Promised,’ completing the circle in the Game of Thrones universe.
Martin claims in a recent blog post that the Targaryen saga could be told in just four seasons of 10 episodes, although the original series ran for eight seasons and provided ample time to develop the characters and plot. Martin briefly discussed the time leaps in the series in his most recent blog article. Each subsequent episode has added a few years to the timeline, beginning with Rhaenyra and Alicent in their youth as portrayed by Milly Alcock and Emily Carey, and ending with the older versions of these characters, portrayed by Emma Darcy and Olivia Cooke.
The first episode began in 101 AC and brought the audience up to the present day. Martin praised the way that co-showrunner Ryan Condal had managed the time leaps, writing, “I believe (co-showrunner) Ryan (Condal) has handled the jumps, very well.” He also gushed over “both the younger Alicent and Rhaenyra and the adult versions, and the actors that portray them.” Although Martin’s books delve deeply into the history of the Targaryen family and focus on events that really divided the characters, he wishes the series “had more time to explore the relationship between Rhaenyra & Ser Harwin, the marriage of Daemon and Laena & their time in Pentos, the birth of various & sundry children, & everything else we had to skip.”
The author adds confirms that Alicent delivered Viserys four children (3 sons and 1 girl), and that their youngest son Daeron is “down in Oldtown, we just did not have the time to work him in this season.” “If House of the Dragon had 13 episodes every season, maybe we could have shown all the things we had to time hop,” the author wondered. Nevertheless, the author is cognizant of the fact that some viewers could have grumbled that the show was too “slow” or “nothing happened.” He went on to say, “It is going to take four complete seasons of 10 episodes each to do honour to the Dance of the Dragons, from start to end,” revealing that he was overjoyed that they still had 10 hours in each season to tell the narrative.
House of the Dragon returns with all new episodes every Sunday.