Differences in adaptation/House of the Dragon: Season 2

The following is a list of differences between House of the Dragon: Season 2 and Fire & Blood, the book from which it is adapted.

Unlike Game of Thrones, this TV series is based on a series of prequel novellas (collected in Fire & Blood) which are written as in-universe history books, not fully narrativized; as such they are outlines, and the TV series will have to fill in many details that simply were not present in the source material. Such inventions may not explicitly contradict the source material, but they will be noted.

General differences[]

Hugh Hammer and Ulf White were from Dragonstone in Fire & Blood, not King's Landing. There is also no mention of Hugh having a wife and daughter.
Oscar Tully was not the grandson of Grover Tully, but his great-grandson, nor was he the heir to Riverrun. The TV series merged the character of Oscar Tully with his father, Elmo Tully, and his older brother, Kermit Tully.
In Fire & Blood, by the start of the Dance, both Jaehaerys and Jaehaera Targaryen's dragons, Shrykos and Morghul, were already hatched.
In Fire & Blood, by the start of the Dance, Tessarion, the dragon of Daeron was already of fighting-size and she was ridden by him.

Heraldry[]

The royal standard of Aegon II is a golden three-headed dragon breathing golden flames on a black field. In the TV series, the field is green and the dragon is not breathing flames.

The lamb of House Stokeworth is not specified as regardant, therefore it is implicit that it faces left, as is default.

Differences by episode[]

"A Son for a Son"[]

Queen Alysanne was hosted by Lord Alaric Stark, not by Rickon Stark. Also, King Jaehaerys did not come with her.
Queen Alysanne's dragon, Silverwing, is the only dragon mentioned that would not fly past the wall. Jaehaerys never tried with Vermithor (he was not present in the north at the time, having stayed in King's Landing to help mediate a dispute between the Archon of Tyrosh and the Prince of Pentos).
Rhaenyra did not go to the Stormlands to search for Luke's remains.
In Fire & Blood, it was Arrax's severed head and neck that washed ashore near Storm's End, not one of his wings.
In Fire & Blood, Otto never publicly or privately praised Aemond's actions above Shipbreaker Bay. Instead, he berated Aemond, shouting "You only lost one eye. How could you be so blind?", aware that Aemond's murder of Lucerys had destroyed any possibility of the Blacks accepting a peaceful resolution.
It is Jace, not Daemon, who referred to Vhagar as a "hoary old bitch."
Alyn and Addam of Hull did not work for the Velaryon fleet, but served on their mother's trading cog. Alyn did not save Corlys's life during the War for the Stepstones, which ended the same year he was born.
Alyn is described to have a silvery hair and purple eyes.
Floris Baratheon was not betrothed to Aemond, but to Larys Strong.
There is no mention that Alicent sent apology letters to Rhaenyra.
There is no character in Fire & Blood named Jerard.
Grover Tully is not described as fat.
There is no mention or insinuation of Alicent and Criston Cole being in a sexual relationship.
Hugh lived on Dragonstone, not in King's Landing.
There is no indication that Larys Strong convinced Aegon to dismiss Otto as Hand of the King.
Jeyne Arryn asking for a dragon to guard the Vale in exchange for her allegiance is one of two possibilities presented, being from Grand Maester Munkun's True Telling. Munkun's account is generally considered to be more reliable than the other, from the testimony of the fool Mushroom, who claims that Lady Arryn offered Jace her allegiance if he could bring her to climax with his tongue.
Alicent's mother is never named in Fire & Blood.
Daemon did not order Rhaenys to go with him to kill Vhagar.
Blood was not presently a member of the City Watch during the Dance of the Dragons. He had been dismissed from the Watch after beating a whore to death in a drunken rage.
There is no mention that Blood had a personal vendetta against House Hightower, nor that Cheese was motivated by the prospect of paying off his gambling debts.
Daemon did not personally hire Blood and Cheese to perform the assassination, but via a middleperson, a pale foreign woman who turned to be Mysaria.
Mysaria did not leave King's Landing, and was not arrested by Daemon or anyone else.
Blood did not use violence against Cheese.
By this point in the story, Aegon and Helaena had two sons, not just one. The younger, Maelor, was also present at the assassination of his older brother Jaehaerys, along with Jaehaera, Helaena, and Alicent. Blood and Cheese bound and gagged Alicent (along with killing one of her maids, to prevent the alarm being raised, and the queen's guard) and held her and Helaena's children hostage, forcing Helaena to choose a son to be killed. As she hesitated, Cheese warned her that Blood might grow bored and rape Jaehaera. Weeping, Helaena chose Maelor, reasoning that he would be too young to understand what was happening (or maybe because Jaehaerys was King Aegon's firstborn son and heir). Cheese then mocked Maelor, telling him his mother wanted him dead, and grinned at Blood, who proceeded to cut off Jaehaerys's head with a single blow of his sword. The pair then fled with Jaehaerys's head, while Helaena screamed.
Helaena did not try to bribe the assassins; instead, she pleaded them to kill her instead, but they refused.
The books do not mention how old Erryk and Arryk Cargyll were when they joined the Kingsguard.
There is no mention in Fire & Blood that Torrhen Stark, or anyone else, initiated a tradition of offering one in ten men from the Starks' household to the Watch.
Torrhen Stark bent his knee to Aegon the Conqueror not because he believed Aegon could unite the seven kingdoms, but because he received reports about Aegon's victories (particularly the Burning of Harrenhal and the Field of Fire) and decided it would be fruitless to fight the Targaryens.
The meeting between Aegon the Conqueror and Torrhen Stark, during which the latter bent his knee to the former, did not take place at the Wall but on the south bank of the Trident.
There is no mention in Fire & Blood that Cheese had a dog.

"Rhaenyra the Cruel"[]

Blood endured thirteen days of torture in the Red Keep, and never mentioned his accomplice or that they'd been hired by Daemon, telling his torturers only that he'd been hired by a woman matching Mysaria's description and that he'd been taking Jaehaerys's head to Harrenhal, in hopes of getting a bigger reward from Daemon.
There is no mention of King Aegon II personally executing Blood. By all accounts, he was simply tortured to death.
Alicent's reaction to Jaehaerys's murder was rage, not grief. She ordered Larys to find out the names of Blood's wife and children so she could have them killed in retaliation, but the book sources do not say if this occurred.
In Fire & Blood, Cheese escaped capture despite an extensive manhunt by the gold cloaks. His historical fate is not recorded.
Ulf had pale white hair, not grey, and was therefore known as "Ulf White" or "Ulf the White." Furthermore, he was from Dragonstone, not King's Landing.
Rhaenyra was never referred to as a kinslayer; Aemond was.
There is no mention that Rhaenyra expressed sorrow for Jaehaerys's death, nor that she chided Daemon for the murder (it is unclear if she knew he had hired the assassins).
Otto's dismissal as Hand of the King took place in the throne room, not Aegon's private chambers. Alicent was also present, and tried to defend her father's record of loyal service, but Aegon refused to be swayed.
In Fire & Blood, Otto was dismissed as Hand not for berating Aegon for his impromptu mass execution of the Red Keep's rat catchers, but for several other diplomatic failures Aegon held him responsible for: a spate of pro-Rhaenyra rebellions by noble houses in the Reach (including Houses Beesbury, Tarly, and Caswell); Prince Qoren Martell and Lord Dalton Greyjoy rejecting the Greens' offers of alliance; and Otto's failure to swiftly form an alliance with the Triarchy to provide naval support to break the Velaryon fleet's blockade of the Gullet.
In Fire & Blood, Otto did not remove and throw his chain of office at Aegon's feet; Aegon tore it from Otto's neck and tossed it to Criston Cole.
In Fire & Blood, Otto never returned to Oldtown after being dismissed as Hand of the King, nor ever implied he intended to mentor Prince Daeron as a potential heir to Aegon. He reportedly remained in King's Landing.
Aemond never showed any remorse, privately or publicly, for his killing of Lucerys.
In Fire & Blood, Rhaenyra and Mysaria did not meet in person until later in the war. At the time, Mysaria had gone into hiding in King's Landing after Blood identified her as the woman who hired him. Rhaenyra did not send her anywhere.
There is no mention that Mysaria is scarred.
Rhaenyra never sent Baela and Moondancer to spy on King's Landing in Fire & Blood as Baela was only 13 at the time and Moondancer was a juvenile dragon still too small to ride. Both remained on Dragonstone until near the end of the Dance.
In Fire & Blood, it is debated whether Rhaenyra, Jacaerys, or Joffrey were Arryk Cargyll's intended target for assassination.
Neither Mysaria not anyone else noticed Arryk, but until he confronted his brother.
Accounts differ as to the nature of Arryk and Erryk's final battle. According to the singers, when the brothers encountered one another, they professed their love one another as they drew swords, dueled for almost an hour, fatally injured one another in the same moment and died in one another's arms. According to the fool Mushroom's testimony, the duel lasted only moments with both brothers cursing the other as a traitor. Erryk cut off Arryk's sword arm at the shoulder, and Arryk grabbed Erryk's cloak, pulled him close and drove a dagger into his belly. Arryk bled to death before guards arrived, while Erryk died four days later, despite Maester Gerardys's efforts to save him, during which time he alternated between screaming in pain and cursing his brother.
Addam is described to have a silvery hair and purple eyes.

"The Burning Mill"[]

In Fire & Blood, the taking of Harrenhal preceded the Battle of the Burning Mill, as Daemon led Black-loyal Riverlords from Harrenhal to capture Stone Hedge, House Bracken's castle, while their soldiers were absent.
Aegon II was appalled, not gleeful when he received word of the Battle of the Burning Mill, as the defeat ensured the Greens had no supporters left in the Riverlands and proved Rhaenyra had greater support for her claim than Alicent and Otto had assured him. The defeat was a contributing factor to Aegon's decision to remove Otto as Hand of the King.
Simon Strong never expressed ill will towards his great-nephew Larys Strong, or any belief that Larys was behind the deaths of Lyonel and Harwin.
It was Jace's idea to send Joffrey to the Vale of Arryn, not Rhaenyra's. Joff also protested the decision until Jace told him he and Tyraxes were being entrusted to defend the Vale from attacks by the Greens' dragons.
Only Joffrey and Rhaena went to the Vale. Aegon and Viserys remained at Dragonstone, as did the dragon Stormcloud.
Rhaena brought three dragon eggs to the Vale, not four.
Gwayne Hightower never marched to war with Criston Cole; he'd been appointed to the gold cloaks to keep watch on their commander, Ser Luthor Largent, who was suspected to be a Daemon loyalist.
Baela and Moondancer never attacked Criston Cole. Both never left Dragonstone during the duration of the Dance.
Aegon the Conqueror is not recorded as having armor made of Valyrian steel (the only character in "A Song of Ice and Fire" known to possess such a suit of armor is Euron Greyjoy).
Martyn Reyne, Leon Estermont, and Eddard Waters were never made knights of the Kingsguard. Their characters do not exist in Fire & Blood.
Ulf's parentage is never specified.
Alicent and Rhaenyra never met secretly during the war.
Jace, not Rhaena, wrote to the Prince of Pentos.

"The Red Dragon and the Gold"[]

Neither Aemond nor Aegon are mentioned to have learned High Valyrian, nor Aemond to have shamed Aegon before the small council.
Aemond did not attempt to get Aegon II killed during the Battle at Rook's Rest, either by delaying Vhagar or otherwise.
Aegon II did not join the battle unexpectedly. He and Aemond waited with their dragons for the right moment, then attacked Meleys simultaneously, thus all three dragons got entangled, then crashed on the ground.
Gwayne Hightower was not present at the Battle at Rook's Rest.
Rhaenys never encountered Alyn of Hull: Corlys deliberately kept Alyn and his brother Addam out of Rhaenys's sight to avoid enraging her.
In Fire & Blood, Lord Grover Tully's grandson was Elmo, not Oscar (who was his great-grandson). Grover wished to declare for the Greens, but with the uncertain state of the war, Elmo declared his refusal to let House Tully die for the sake of his grandfather's decision and kept House Tully neutral in the early stages of the Dance. Grover was furious, but too ill to override his grandson's decision.
No regent for Lord Benjicot Blackwood is mentioned in Fire & Blood.
There is no mention that Alicent got pregnant by anyone except Viserys, nor that she ever used moon tea.
There is no mention that moon tea has unwanted side effects.
Oscar and Daemon did not meet personally.
Rhaenys was killed by Vhagar's fire while still in the air, not by the fall.
Rhaenyra was absent from the war council due to her grief over Lucerys's death.
The conversation between Daemon and Alys Rivers does not occur in the book; in fact, there is no mention they ever interacted.
Daemon did not have any nightmares during his stay at Harrenhal.

"Regent"[]

In the book, the Raids on Bracken lands took place before the Battle of the Burning Mill; in the show, the order is reversed.
The Freys joined Daemon without posing any demands. Jacaerys Velaryon never travelled to the Twins to negotiate with them.
In Fire & Blood, the Riverlords joined Daemon en masse when he raised his banners at Harrenhal. An army comprising of Houses Frey, Piper, Roote and Darry joined Daemon in attacking Stone Hedge while the bulk of the Bracken forces were absent at the Battle of the Burning Mill.
None of the riverlords complained about the atrocities the Blackwoods performed at the Brackens' lands; on the contrary, several of them (Darrys, Rootes, Pipers, and Freys) joined Daemon against the Brackens.
Daemon never ordered the Blackwoods to carry out a terror campaign to force House Bracken to submit in Fire & Blood; in Fire & Blood, Ser Amos Bracken (son of Lord Humfrey Bracken) was killed at the Battle of the Burning Mill. When his bastard brother, Ser Raylon Rivers, led the Bracken survivors back to Stone Hedge and found Daemon in control of the castle, holding Lord Humfrey hostage, he surrendered to save his father's life.
Neither Aemond nor Alicent nominated themselves as a regent. Ser Criston nominated Aemond, and no one objected.
In Fire & Blood, it was Alicent, not Aemond, who ordered the gates of King's Landing closed following the Battle at Rook's Rest.
In Fire & Blood, Alyssa Targaryen did not possess the classic Valyrian coloring (silver hair and purple eyes); instead, she reportedly had dirty-blond hair, a crooked nose (having broken it when she was a child) and heterochromia (one green, one violet). There is no mention that Daemon or anyone else dreamed about her.
In the book, Forrest Frey's wife is called Sabitha.
In the show, Ser Criston reports that they lost 900 men; in the book, the Greens' losses were said to be 800; another hundred perished when Aemond and Criston took Rook's Rest and put its garrison to death.

"Smallfolk"[]

Larys Strong never proposed himself to become Hand of the King.
There is no mention that Aemond ever sought to reappoint Otto Hightower (who in Fire & Blood is not recorded as having left King's Landing following his dismissal) as Hand. In Fire & Blood, Criston Cole retained the position until his death.
The Small Council never proposed Alicent should marry Dalton Greyjoy to win House Greyjoy's allegiance.
It was Otto Hightower's idea, not Aemond's, to seek aid from the Triarchy to break the Velaryon fleet's blockade of the Gullet, while Aegon was still healthy. The Triarchy taking too long to respond to Otto's diplomatic overtures, among other failures, was the principal reason Aegon II replaced him as Hand.
Tyland Lannister is not recorded as being among the envoys the Greens sent to negotiate with the Triarchy.
There were never any wild dragons mentioned as living in the Vale of Arryn at the time of the Dance of Dragons.
Sheepstealer used to raid the east coast, between Driftmark and Wendwater, not in the Vale.
Daemon predeceased Lord Grover Tully, and Alys Rivers never travelled to Riverrun or played any part in Grover's death. According to Fire & Blood, Grover's grandson Elmo, who'd long opposed his grandfather's support for Aegon and kept House Tully neutral for the early part of the Dance, finally declared for the Blacks which, according to Mushroom, caused Grover to suffer a fatal stroke - but that happened much later in the book.
Rhaenyra never sent food to the starving people of King's Landing.
The people of King's Landing kept complaining to Aegon (not to Aemond) about the shortage of food, but it did not escalate to a full-scale riot.
There is no indication Rhaenyra and Mysaria had any romantic inclinations towards each other.
Mysaria was not barren; she got pregnant by Daemon (and miscarried).
Seasmoke did not seek Addam of Hull out; in Fire & Blood, Corlys brought Addam and his brother to Dragonstone so they could attempt to claim a dragon.
There is no information in the book about Mysaria's childhood or any family relatives.
Alicent and Criston were the only people who came to visit the injured Aegon.
Alys Rivers never supported the Blacks.

"The Red Sowing"[]

Hugh's mother is not identified in Fire & Blood.
Daemon never killed any Blackwoods.
Mushroom was the one who came up with the idea to search for and rally the dragonseeds.
Neither Jace nor anyone else objected to use the dragonseeds. In fact, Jace conducted the rallying of the dragonseeds, and promised them generous rewards.
Hugh and Ulf had no difficulties claiming Vermithor and Silverwing.
The Tullys joined the Blacks, but it was much later in the book, and without posing any demands to Daemon.
Larys never tried to help Aegon walk.
Silver Denys attempted to claim Sheepstealer, not Vermithor. Sheepstealer ripped his arm off, and while his sons were trying to staunch the wound, the Cannibal descended on them and devoured them all.

"The Queen Who Ever Was"[]

The burning of Sharp Point did not occur in the books. Aemond, however, laid waste to many lands, villages, and castles in the riverlands.
There is no mention of Brynden Rivers in Fire & Blood.
There is no subplot about Otto Hightower going missing and being held by a mysterious captor.
There is no mention that Daemon saw any visions, either in Harrenhal or elsewhere.
No one has ever demanded Helaena to participate in the war.
Rhaenyra never travelled to Harrenhal, nor met with Simon Strong in the books. She and Daemon were reunited by chance while they were on their way to the capital.
Alfred Broome never proposed Daemon should proclaim himself king in the books.
Sharako Lohar was a man in Fire & Blood, and is not recorded as having ever met Tyland Lannister.
There is no mention of Corlys renaming his flagship in the books.
The Triarchy agreed to join the Greens due to Otto's negotiations, and Tyland had nothing to do with that.
Alicent never secretly travelled to Dragonstone to negotiate peace with Rhaenyra, nor did she agree to sacrifice Aegon as part of it. In Fire & Blood, when the war turned against the Greens, she made two seperate peace overtures: firstly suggesting a Great Council to decide the succession, and then proposing splitting Westeros in two (Rhaenyra would rule the Crownlands, Vale, North, Riverlands and Iron Islands from King's Landing, while Aegon ruled the Stormlands, Reach and Westerlands from Oldtown), but Rhaenyra rejected both offers immediately and scornfully.
Larys never warned Aegon that Aemond sought to kill him.
There is no mention that Larys moved gold reserves from Harrenhal to the Iron Bank of Braavos. It was Tyland who moved three quarters of the Crown's gold to the Iron Bank and two other locations for safekeeping.
When escaping from the capital with Larys, Aegon took Maelor and Jaehaera with him.
Gwayne never confronted or threatened Ser Criston about his affair with Alicent.
Alicent did not inquire anyone about secret passages. Larys used one to escape from the capital, alongside Aegon and his children.
Nettles, not Rhaena, searched for Sheepstealer.

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