HBO's Games of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon is still garnering buzz and jokes. The creators recently winked at the Thrones staff having to edit out a rogue Starbucks cup from an episode, and now the creator of the books that the shows are based on, George R.R. Martin, is teasing audiences, too. His tease is just a bit bloodier.
Game of Thrones, in the first few seasons, was known for a series of shockers. Khal Drogo's murder and Ned Stark's execution were both big surprises to fans of the books and then the series, and in an effort to chase ever higher highs in that department, Martin conceived of the Red Wedding. It was the last and biggest shocker of both book and series, and he promises another for House of the Dragon.
Martin has been quite the scamp of the fantasy genre world, mainly for not finishing his series of epic novels that he began back during the Clinton presidency despite somehow finding time to concoct prequels and spinoffs of his beloved fantasy world and write for video games like Elden Ring - when he’s not spending time blogging about the NFL, of course. Now he’s back at it, lending his mind to the House of the Dragon prequel and promising a hugely gory shocker equal to the biggest of the books/show itself. "That scene is…you don’t want to use the word “enjoyable” for a scene like that, but it’s incredibly powerful," Martin said of the "heir for a day" scene during an interview with Vanity Fair. "It’s visceral and it’ll rip your heart out and throw it on the floor. It has the kind of impact that the Red Wedding had. It’s a beautifully done scene of something horrible."
The Red Wedding, the nastiest piece of work in both the book and television worlds of Game of Thrones. It was the name given to the miscarriage of a wedding Robb Stark, then the King of the North, was at when he, his new bride, and his entire entourage (including his mother, Catelyn Stark) were viciously slaughtered while under the roof of Walder Frey, who controlled an important checkpoint castle located on a massive, river-spanning bridge. Now, Martin has promised a shocker on that level—in plot terms, absolutely seismic—for House of the Dragon, too.
Whether this means anything, ultimately, is still up in the air. Making promises to fans of the franchise is a little premature for a show that’s a prequel to Game of Thrones, a show with a reputation for a poor ending, all of which can lead to it not being as well-received as the creators are hoping for. Set two centuries before the books and series fans know, it’s anyone’s guess if fans will still want to play this game—and the promise of dragons might not be enough.
House of the Dragon takes flight on HBO and HBO Max on August 21st, 2022.
Source: Vanity Fair