House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal explained why they decided to portray Aemond Targaryen causing the death of his cousin, Lucerys Velaryon, as unintentional, which is a major departure from the source material.
Speaking with Variety, Condal talks through the major differences between the House of the Dragon Season 1 finale and the book it’s based on, Fire & Blood. When asked why Aemond seemed to accidentally cause the death of Lucerys in the show, whereas in the book it seems to be intentional, Condal explained that the historians of Westeros may have not accurately reported on the aerial dragon battle over Storm’s End. George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, however, has narrators that might not be entirely reliable. “I don’t think any of them could purport to know what was going on in Aemond’s head,” Condal said.
While Aemond appeared to be shocked when his dragon, Vhaegar, tears through Lucerys and the much smaller Arrax, Condal wouldn’t necessarily refer to it as an accident. “I mean, Aemond got on his giant dragon and chased his nephew on his much smaller dragon through the clouds screaming and yelling at him, incensing his dragon and starting a fight,” Condal said. While the showrunner admitted Aemond probably didn’t intend for his cousin to die, he still did a “horrible, dangerous thing.”
Season 2’s Dance With Dragons
Condal added that Aemond’s dangerous behavior is the point of the whole story. “This is a war of many cuts that lead to a really, really bloody wound,” he said of the impending Dance of the Dragons. Condal has promised that Season 2, which will push the realm further into civil war, will feature more spectacles like Aemond and Lucerys’ battle in the Season 1 finale. “Series two will hit the rhythms people came to expect from the middle run of Game of Thrones, but it will have been earned, and viewers will feel the tragedies because we put the work in,” Condal promised.
In addition to much more spectacle, Condal also promised Season 2 will not feature any more major time jumps. “We tell the story in real-time from here forward. The actors are playing these characters until the end. We’re not recasting anybody,” he said. Time jumps, which made it necessary for actors to change, took place several times through the show’s first season. While fans have expressed they miss seeing actors like Milly Alcock as a young Rhaenyra Targaryen on their screens, Condal believed they needed to properly show the evolution of these characters to make the war to come that much more heartbreaking.
Season 1 of House of the Dragon is available to stream in full on HBO Max.
Source: Variety