House of the Dragon: The Red Sowing Books Included

July 29, 2024 6:40 AM - Season 2, Episode 7

(In case the label isn’t enough—this post is BOOKS INCLUDED since we haven’t had one recently) The war for the Iron Throne escalates, and Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen, in a crucial gamble, is prepared to risk everything in her urgent quest for dragon riders.

“Remember, Rhaenyra’s gambit last season to have Laenor fake his death and run away with Qarl, his lover, does not happen in the books. In Fire & Blood, Laenor and Qarl get into a loud, public argument. Qarl slays Laenor in a market square and escapes on a ship, never to be seen again...

[I]t’s almost certain that Hugh’s mother is Saera Targaryen...one of Old King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne’s 13 children...She’d fill her sister’s bedchamber with cats, knowing her sister was terrified of them. She once put a hive of bees in her sister’s chamber pot. She even stole all the white cloaks from the Kingsguard and dyed them pink. By age 11, she’d started stealing wine and ale and would arrive everywhere drunk.”—from Riley McAtee’s write-up for The Ringer

Anyone want to predict where we’ll end up in the season finale? Thoughts on the changes to the book canon (quote-unquote) up to this point?

posted by bcwinters (3 comments total)

I haven't been following fan forums as closely this year, but I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone emphasize this point before: the book is not canonical and it's differing from the show in any way is almost certainly just the POV book maester getting his history wrong. It's quite clever and plays to Martin's strengths IMO. Allows him to set up the structure of a grand historical epic without determining individual relationships, points of view, or other minor points in a way that constrains the TV production.

Now, I don't think the TV production has filled in the relationships in a way that makes the show more emotionally satisfying or deep than GOT seaons 1-4, but its an improvement over 5-8 at least, which isn't saying much. Plotlines focused on military strategy and tactics have been intriguing, including dragon rider stuff. Plotlines involving various main characters feeling isolated and stuck are a bummer: Rhaenyra, Alicent, and Daemon all suffer when they're cooped up in a castle bouncing off of their vassals and spinning their wheels.
posted by Hume at 8:40 AM on July 29 [1 favorite]

Didn't Hugh say that his mother was a sex worker at a King's Landing brothel?
posted by Saxon Kane at 1:55 PM on July 29

Didn't Hugh say that his mother was a sex worker at a King's Landing brothel?

I pulled up a subtitle file and Hugh says "She worked in a pleasure house. She was granted more freedom than most because of who she was. And because rich men paid more
to f*** a woman with silver hair."

According to Fire & Blood, Saera Targaryen was a sex worker in Lys and Volantis. Her parents were King Jaehaerys & Queen Alysanne; after the king had her lover Ser Braxton Beesbury put to death she was sent away to Oldtown to become a Septa but she fled.
posted by bcwinters at 2:29 PM on July 29 [2 favorites]