Nerdtalk: House of the Dragon and The Curse of Adaptations
Can there be faithful adaptations?
Recently there was the end of popular Game of Thrones show House of the Dragon, produced by Ryan Condal and George R.R. Martin, respectively. This is based off of the book Fire and Blood written by George R.R. Martin himself. The book and show are based off of the famous medieval fantasy series Game of Thrones, again written by George R.R. Martin (and honestly if you haven’t heard of him or Game of Thrones then…I can’t help you with the rest of this article).
The second season of the House of the Dragon adaptation has finished with conflicting views from fans and viewers both. Although the show has not been a one-to-one interpretation or adaptation to the book, the fans are split in between whether or not this makes the show good, bad, or just downright unwatchable.
Adapting a Series
There have been many adaptations of original fantasy books or comics over the years, even more so since the 90s and 2000s. Of course you have infamous adaptations like the Lord of the Rings Trilogy (Tolkien) and even more recently T.V. show adaptations of Manga/Anime and Video Games like One Piece or Fallout. Then you have the onslaught of Marvel and D.C. comic book adaptations that have continued to be shown to the public for decades now.
These adaptations have been popping up like wildfire and I do not think that there is any way that it will slow down any time soon. But with adaptations come with the territory to help keep that original material faithful to the big screen. And keeping the heart of the stories and characters alive.
Keep your writers close, and the Creator closer
I think what makes some adaptations so great and what makes others…lackluster, is the inability to truly nerd out and understand the source material of what you are adapting. Of course, any adaptation is going to take some liberties and is going to change some aspects. No adaptation is going to be 1 to 1 and some fans are going to have to deal with that or just not watch it. However, I think that to truly be able to take creative liberties, you either have to deeply know the material of what you are adapting or have the privilege of having the creator of the story be able to have input on what you are making. You cannot fall a victim to Hollywood-isms and the dramatics of typical cliche storytelling.
One of the best examples of this is the recent Netflix adaptation of the popular Japanese manga One Piece that came out in late August of last year. Now if you do not know One Piece, created by Eiichiro Oda or at least not familiar with the story, the short of it is: A fantasy adventure story about a pirate, Monkey D. Luffy, who starts to sail out into the seas to claim the title and treasure of The Pirate King. A very simple summary, right? Sure! But the story has lasted 20+ years and over 1100 chapters (as of right now) and has many characters and deep worldbuilding, that (in my VERY PERSONAL opinion) is on a level of Game of Thrones. The adaptation of the story was deeply monitored and consulted by Eiichiro Oda and the show runner (Matt Owens) was a long time fan of One Piece. From the stage production, the the casting, and most of the story adaption, many of the fans were very much satisfied and okay with a lot of the changes and adaptations of the story. Much of the success of that is the inclusion and collaboration between Oda and Owen. Many of the production decisions made sense, because it was through the eyes of the creator.
(Author’s Note: I am actually a super nerd about One Piece. I was very much a fan about the live adaptation, although there were some decisions that I didn’t like. But that didn’t make me hate the show or anything. And honestly, having that many positives for an adaptation is a big win for me.)
Obviously there have been Anime Live Action adaptions that have fallen flat like the Cowboy Bebop Netflix Adaptation. Where the script and the plot/vibes of the story was nothing short of lackluster and very much missed the mark of adapting the story and characters. Something that even Shinichiro Watanabe, Creator of Cowboy Bebop, makes note of himself saying “It was clearly not Cowboy Bebop and I realized at that point that if I wasn’t involved, it would not be Cowboy Bebop. I felt that maybe I should have done this. Although the value of the original anime is somehow far higher now.”
And you can tell through many of the other recent adaptations that many of them fall flat because of this reason. It loses all of its heart instantly and the fans can tell.
The Game of Thrones Curse
We all know of the many failings of Game of Thrones directors D&D, and the infamous fumbling of the last couple seasons of Game of Thrones. They had other projects promised and wanted to hurry the process of finishing up the show. There was an added difficulty to it, as the current Game of Thrones books were practically caught up to and there was no more canon material. The entirety of Game of Thrones, with the help of George R.R. Martin, was supposed to be meticulously spread about 10 seasons. But from D&D, their decisions had cut the story down two seasons and had not taken into account the advice of Martin.
House of the Dragon, following the book complete and full Fire and Blood book, has the entirety of the source material to work with. George R.R. Martin, had also agreed to work closely with directors and producers to make sure that the adaptation is done in a way that is faithful to the book.
Now during the first season of HOTD, although there was some critiques from fans, most fans and even George himself was pleased with the adaptation. In season two, however, George has found himself displeased by the way that the directors are adapting the certain parts of the book. Finding that some of the logistical decisions and small characters choices, that irritate him enough to write on his personal blog about it. Something that he did similarly around season 5 and 6 about Sansa Stark and Ramsay Bolton’s plot line change from the book. Also spouting out how Hollywood producers, when given the chance to change and make their own “better” version, will inevitably change some key parts of the story. And the changes, may not be any better than the original. Which again falls into the grasps of the fears of Hollywood writing and production.
To Change or not to Change
I am not a book reader of the any of the Game of Thrones books. Although I have watched all of the shows and whatnot. Additionally, I have learned a lot about what was supposed to happen in the show and what they have changed, because of the inability for the Game of Thrones fandom to speak of the show in a spoiler free manner.
There are going to be book purists in every book to show/movie adaptation. Many would want to watch something that is almost identical to the things that they watched. This view is fair. They have read something that is so incredible and want to be able to put what they’ve read and see it on screen and produce a bigger audience. However, like many creators have said, every adaptation might not be adaptable to the screen. But Eiichiro Oda was able to make some of the changes work for the One Piece Live Action and people loved it! So what gives?
Well here are the two camps of opinions that I have basically made through the HOTD discourse.
You have to keep the adaptation as closely to the original as possible. Only making logistical changes, but still following the storyline and dialogue of the original.
You don’t have to completely follow the work identically, BUT the changes that you make has to be written well and make sense for the newer story that you are creating.
What made the One Piece adaptation work was reason number 2. The changes made sense, and the creator worked closely with other passionate people to make sure that it works well for the fans.
I think that the biggest issue for the House of the Dragon, specifically season two, is that there is not a lot of characters continuity between book and show. Additionally, there is a lot of the slight story changes that might not make too much sense due to the former.
Now the whole excuse for the changes made in the show is due to the fact that the book, Fire and Blood, is told as a “history book” or recounting of the Dance of the Dragons written from a Maester and other close sources in Westeros. Many parts of history may not be the “actual truth”, that is seen through the show. Now, this can be a fun aspect to play with if you can do it well. But for many fans, this aspect is taken too far and is not done in a way that makes sense for the original characters. There is a difference between interpreting canon and changing the canon to fit your interpretation.
The changes:
Much of the ferocity and “evilness” of the main two characters in the show Rhaenyra and Alicent, simply doesn’t exist anymore. I actually think that a lot of the main complaints about the show are seen the most through those two characters, respectively. Much of their vengefulness and scheming that was in the books is not in the show. Which is a lot of the appeal and conflict within the story. House of the Dragon tries their best to make many of the characters seem very morally gray and complicated (like Alicent) when in canon they are very angry and protective of their roles and duty.
That is not to mention a lot of the pacing in season two, alongside other weird writing changes that made some of the show difficult for some people to enjoy. Although there were many fans that did not like the lack of action this season and there seemed to be too much talking and therefore the season was boring. Which is an opinion that I more or less agree with but for different reasons. A lot of time in the show was also taken up by Daemon and his time in Harrnehal doing a Luigi’s Mansion simulator, just to realize that he respects his brother’s decision and wife. Or even all the times that they took to make Alicent and Rhaenyra meet up and talk to each other when they are in the middle of war.
(Another Author’s Note: I mostly dislike the placement of including Alicent in plot points more than how many times she was included in the book. I wanted more scenes and conflict between Aegon and Rhaenyra, and not too much with Alicent. I think they ran out of things to do with her.)
And I’m not going to even talk about the story changing the Nettles storyline and merging it with Rhaena. Something that I think that I think is to say that is the misinterpretation of not understanding a female character and also a very suspicious way of mismatching black female characters in a show. As well as the butchering of other characters that feel missed from adapting from book to show.
And although the writing is solid in some parts, and not so solid in other parts, I do somewhat enjoy the feeling of watching and enjoying the Game of Thrones world and story in different aspects. And I honestly don’t think it could be any worse from Game of Thrones Season 8.
This is all to say that there are obviously many different outlooks of the adaptations. People are going to overarchingly complain about the show and some of the decisions that it had made and will make in the future. People are going to complain about it and watch it in full, all the way to the end. Perhaps House of the Dragon will meet the same fate as the end of Game of Thrones. And perhaps there can be no complete faithful and careful adaptation for the series.
And although there have been a lot of tonal changes in the story, I don’t think this makes the show a complete miss, but I don’t think it makes the viewing entirely enjoyable for many hardcore fans either. Which I think is where the split discourse starts to show online over and over again.
Maybe we need to have the creators more involved with the production, so there is no confusion upon the viewers in the long-term. Banning the poor adaptability of the product. Or maybe we should all come to terms with the fact that there is rarely ever an original story that can be faithful and positively adapted and please most of the viewers.
Well whatever it is, I’m probably going to watch season 3 anyway! So if you aren’t completely tired of House of the Dragon, I’ll see you when the new season drops!