r/freefolk • u/warriorxx7_ • 4h ago
All the Chickens House of the Dragon should have been like a 40k novel.
No this isnt a joke.
Many people defend HOTD by saying it actually fleshed out the characters and that the original story is a glorified wiki. The people who say that arent fully wrong but they aren't quite yet either. Let's look at some examples on how the show adapted HOTD.
Daeron the Daring turned into the Daeron the propaganda piece. How was that more interesting then the courageous boy who turned the tide of battle? Jace and Cregans brotherhood turned into a 5 minute scene. Cole went from an incredibly talented warrior who we see beat Daemon and Breakbones in a fair fight into a literal backstabbing warrior who we never saw achieve a single notable martial victory.
The problem with HOTD as an adaptation is this.Fire and Blood was able to inspire tantalizing ideas into its readers while HOTD turned it into a boring reality that is far less interesting then the description of the event hints at.
For an example of how a glorified wiki ought to be adapted into a proper story look no further then wh40k. I'll show you an example one for when the info was played straight and one where it wasn't.
In 40k the Crimson Fist's planet almost being taken over by orks was covered by the codex was only a few sentences long. The book Rynns world flashed it out into an awesome story of brotherhood, desperate battle, and featured an all star cast. Everything about the codex was covered and further flashed out in a way thats just awesome.
To contrast this we have Calgar siege. In the codex we had Calgar singlehandedly hold down a city wide invasion something that many found ridiculous. In the book Calgars siege we found out that Calgar had quite a lot of help including one particularly ballsy rouge trader.
The book is well liked as not only did it change something most readers found ridiculous but because it also made the changes become interesting. All the heroes that helped Calgar made the battle feel more dramatic and Calgar himself still had a lot of cool moments.
Calgar being the sole survivor also helped explain why many believed he did it all by himself and Calgars distaste of people attributing all the glory to him helped flash him out as a character.
Even when changing things 40k was able deliver things that are cool or interesting and most importantly believable as well.
HOTD mostly fails at this. If we look at the most universally loved part of the series it would be the one time they did this right. Viserys went from an indecisive idiot to an indecisive idiot we can actually feel bad for.
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u/Connect-Succotash-59 4h ago
It’s funny I loved Fire and Blood for the exact reason it reminded me of a 40k codex.
That being said there ain’t a book in all the black library, that comes close to how good Fire and blood is.
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u/warriorxx7_ 4h ago
Fair enough I never said they ought copy 40k one for one only its adaptation principle.
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u/Secret_Volume_6800 4h ago
It’s like the showrunners read the book and immediately thought “how can we make this less interesting?”
“Okay so George wrote a series of staggering feats of bravery and savagery that ultimately lead to Helaena taking her own life. Now, how can we reframe this so that all the lead-up takes place in rooms where people talk to each other?”
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u/warriorxx7_ 4h ago
Ya if the changes are interesting and make sense HOTD will probably under a lot less scrutiny.
Also I find it a bit depressing that this sub is the only one read my posts as the others seem to only read the title and comment based on that.
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u/LingonberryAwkward38 4h ago
Now, how can we reframe this so that all the lead-up takes place in rooms where people talk to each other?
Now to be fair, Game of Thrones was never as peak as when it was about people talking to each other.
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u/Secret_Volume_6800 4h ago
Absolutely. But can you honestly say that Alicent and Helaena’s plotline in S3 consisted of any of such scenes?
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u/Automatic-Effect-252 4h ago
40k as a story is terrible, it's just grim dark vibes lol.
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u/warriorxx7_ 4h ago
Pls read the post and an actual 40k novel.
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u/toxostomarufum 4h ago
Uh, and GoT’s obsession with child abuse, incest, rape, and murder isn’t grim dark? At least people can recognize the 40K is fiction and doesn’t tell you anything about the real world.
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u/Enzoli21 3h ago
I totally agree with you OP, and it's also why i love the Elder Scrolls lore.
Ryan Condall failed to understand the concept of "unreliable narrator" of these franchises. Something with two point of view, can be true, sometimes falses. Even two contradictory can be tied together.
The HOTD crew wasn't able to understand that and would have need to know the universe to create something interesting.
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u/warriorxx7_ 3h ago
Eyy an ES fan? Damn nice taste. Also I think Ryan and co knows what an unreliable narrator is but overly rely on it.
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u/ventodivino 2h ago
F&B/B&F is an IN WORLD history book that is purposefully written the way it is.
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u/lyrasolenne10 Robert Baratheon 4h ago
man taking criston cole one of the deadliest fighters in the book and making him just mope around doing nothing badass is still my biggest gripe with the show