A slightly invented relationship
Before we start talking about the changes that the series has made, let you know that we are going to talk in great luxury about SPOILERS about episodes 4 and 5 of The House of the Dragon, so you are warned. The fact is that the HBO fiction, although it has the advice of the author of the novels, has made some quite substantial changes with respect to the original material that we are going to detail below.
First of all a key modification is the relationship between Rhaenyra and Sir Criston Cole. Although in the series they have such a close bond that the two end up sleeping, in the book there is none of this. Although it is true that they both like each other, it doesn’t go beyond that. So much so that there is a moment within the novel of fire and blood in which the heiress to the Iron Throne declares herself to her protector and, this, with intemperate boxes for such an occurrence, rejects her without thinking twice.
Also, a very relevant turning point in which the book and the series differ is in the fact of who takes the initiative to break the relationship. While in the writings it is Cole who rejects the princess, in the series we can see that it is Rhaenyra herself who decides to relegate her protector to the position of lover, since she is going to marry Leanor Velaryon.
Prince Daemon is not so cruel… for now
Another equally important change that the HBO series has altered is Daemon’s role regarding his wife’s death. Within the fifth episode of the series we see how the brother of King Viserys, after all the scandal with princess Rhaenyra, is exiled by the monarch. Then we find that he, in disguise, is heading to the kingdom of his wife, Lady Rhea. There, she will cause an accident while she is riding a horse that will leave her paralyzed and when she is on the ground… she will take advantage of it to finish her off.
After the death of his wife, we learn that since he has no heirs, neither Lady Rhea nor Daemon Targaryen, he will take over all his wife’s possessions. Well, inside the book written by George RR Martin King Viserys’s brother is not his wife’s killer, but she dies in a fortuitous equestrian accident, that is, without anyone’s intervention since that moment Daemon would be fighting against the Triarchy, as we saw in the third chapter of The House of the Dragon.
But given the above, a question comes to mind: why do they want to turn Daemon into such a cruel murderer in the series? Well, there is a theory that this change would have been caused to reinforce his personality that he will be able to do anything to one day occupy the seat of the Iron Throne.
And you? doDo you like these changes? Or would you have liked them to leave it like in the books?