Buckle up, Game of Thrones fans: this bizarre break from canon
has literally changed the course of Westerosi history. Keep watching to find out how.
Considering the abysmal fan response that the final season of Game of Thrones received,
it's not surprising that many viewers were skeptical of House of the Dragon,
the latest show to come from George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Indeed,
the series was already dealing with some ugly backlash before its premiere, as the
casting of Lord Corlys Velaryon was met with a slew of racist messages across social media.
In addition to this hateful backlash, many other fans claimed that they refused to
watch the show on principle alone, citing the unsatisfying conclusion
to Game of Thrones and the different route that series took to the books' narrative.
Fortunately, one major difference between the two shows is that House of the Dragon
is based on a fully-completed story, which is chronicled throughout Martin's Fire & Blood.
As such, you might assume that House of the Dragon will have a much easier time sticking
to the canon of A Song of Ice and Fire, which ought to appease some of the more
vocal skeptics of the series. Unfortunately for some, however,
it appears that the show has already broken from the book series' canon in its very first episode.
Episode 1 of House of the Dragon features a scene in which a young Rhaenyra Targaryen
and Alicent Hightower read a book together deep within the Red Keep's Godswood.
"I want to fly with you on dragon-back,
see the great wonders across the narrow sea, and eat only cake."
Behind them is a white weirwood tree with a face carved into it, which is traditionally
worshiped by followers of the old gods. The inclusion of this particular weirwood not
only breaks the canon of the book series but of Game of Thrones itself. In the books, the King's
Landing godswood does not have a weirwood, but an old oak wrapped in smokeberry vines.
The false weirwood appears during Eddard Stark's stay in King's Landing, when he and his daughters
pray to the tree and give their thanks for Bran Stark's miraculous survival. We also see the Red
Keep's Godswood in the 4th season Game of Thrones episode "Two Swords," when Sansa Stark visits it
and conspires with Ser Dontos Hollard. In both appearances, there is no mention or
sight of the massive weirwood that appears in House of the Dragon, making its inclusion in
the prequel series a bizarre break from the established canon of the show and the books.
Although some fans might chalk this up to the simple fact
that House of the Dragon takes place more than a century before Game of Thrones,
it's worth remembering that we already know what happened to the weirwoods in southern Westeros.
Until this point, it has been implied that, if King's Landing ever had a weirwood,
it would have been destroyed by the Andals when they first came to Westeros. George R.R. Martin's
The World of Ice & Fire explains that, when the Andals first invaded Westeros, they burnt down
most of the indigenous peoples' godswoods in order to make room for the Faith of the Seven.
The destruction of these Godswoods was more concentrated in the south than it was in the
north — though the text does clarify that many of the more important southern castles were allowed
to keep their godswoods as a gesture of good faith. Although some might take this to mean
that the Red Keep's weirwood was spared and might have actually existed during the time of House of
the Dragon, Kings Landing as a whole wasn't even built until the invasion of Aegon the Conqueror,
several thousand years after the Andals invaded.
So, why would the Andals spare this specific tree, in a godswood for a castle that was not
yet built? We don't know. The truth is that the inclusion of the weirwood tree in House
of the Dragon amends the history we thought we knew about King's Landing and establishes that,
at one point in time, there was a weirwood growing deep within the Red Keep. That said,
it will be interesting to see what becomes of the tree as the series goes on,
as its absence in Game of Thrones suggests we should get some answers… eventually.