House of the Dragon's Biggest Book Omission That Changed the Show for the Better
House of the Dragon faced a problem opposite to that which plagued its predecessor, Game of Thrones.
Game of Thrones was adapting voluminous books, which plot was a tangle of tightly interconnected events. Simple lack of screen time meant that parts had to be omitted, yet omissions could (and did) create ripple effects, affecting other parts of the narrative.
But House of the Dragon 's main literary source, George Martin 's Fire & Blood, or at least the part of it that is going to be covered by the show, is relatively short (and Martin's earlier versions of the same story are even shorter). So, on the opposite, writers had to invent lots of new scenes to fill 10 episodes of Season 1 with.
Yet somehow they have managed to omit some scenes described in the book, and some of these omissions were quite crucial and important for character development. But not all of those omissions had changed the story for the worse.
For example, reducing the Triarchy to the Crabfeeder's horror-villain antics is quite an understandable change. Yes, politically these guys were important neighbors of Westeros at that time, but politics and other world-building elements are just not important when they contribute nothing to the story, and the Triarchy just wasn't important to the story of the Dance of the Dragons at all – they were nothing but a nearly faceless external foe, providing opportunities for some characters to distinguish themselves, and explanations as to why the balance of power swung the way the author wanted it to swing at certain points.
But the omission which probably benefitted the show the most was the omission of wedding of King Viserys (Paddy Considine) and Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey). Why? Because the show had changed their characters significantly.
In the book Viserys was nearing 30 when he married 18 years old Alicent, an age gap that is significant, but not too terrible. In the show, however, Viserys looks the actual age of his actor (Paddy Considine is 49) on his best days, before his gruesome illness really takes hold, while young Alicent, on the contrary, appears to be even younger than 18.
Given this, there was absolutely no way to film the royal wedding, without it making it look creepy and off-putting – their sex scene was revolting enough, but at least intended as such – and portraying Viserys in a villainous light.