One Time House of the Dragon Clearly Outshined George R.R.Martin's Books
In some cases, deviating from the original can lead to the creation of something beautiful.
The first season of House of the Dragon, a fantasy drama TV series based on the books by George R. R. Martin and a prequel to HBO's Game of Thrones, followed the original book, Fire & Blood, relatively closely.
And it clearly paid off, as the show was well-received by fans and critics, scoring 82 and 93% respectively on Rotten Tomatoes.
But the showrunners made a decision to deviate from the source material in the eighth episode, leading to arguably the most memorable and stunning moment of the entire season.
In this episode, King Viserys Targaryen, disfigured and debilitated by illness, enters the throne room to take his rightful place on the Iron Throne.
Barely able to walk up the stairs, he is helped by his brother Daemon, who then places a fallen crown on his head, acknowledging his status as King of the Seven Kingdoms.
Viserys is then confronted by Vaemond Velaryon, whose claim to be the heir of Driftmark is rejected in favor of Lucerys, the king's grandson.
In a public outburst, Vaemond denounces Rhaenyra, Viserys' daughter, as a whore and her children as bastards, prompting the king to threaten to remove Vaemond's tongue himself.
Before he can do so, however, Vaemond is beheaded by Daemon.
In the book, this scene played out very differently. Vaemond confronted Rhaenyra directly, and she had him summarily killed and fed to a dragon, Syrax.
At this point, Vaemond's family sought out Viserys to receive the Crown 's justice, but he ordered five of them to have their tongues cut out.
On his way down to give this order, he was sliced to the bone by the Iron Throne. Although he recovered from his wounds, he was never allowed to sit on the throne again.
Also, the whole scene of Daemon picking up the crown and placing it on his brother's head was improvised.
Such a simple but powerful scene that fans instantly loved it.
As Reddit user Holovoid pointed out: "Honestly that 3 minutes of a sickly man shambling his way to a chair was easily one of the top 5 moments of the entirety of Game of Thrones TV history for me. They did a great job."
House of the Dragon has already been renewed for a second season, although the release date has not yet been announced.