TV - Movies
How House Of The
Dragon Broke
Game Of Thrones
Canon In This
One Bizarre Way
By JASON CONNOLLY
THIS STORY CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR "House of the Dragon" Season 1, Episode 1.
SPOILER WARNING!
Considering the abysmal fan response that the final season of "Game of Thrones" received, it's not surprising that many viewers were skeptical of the latest show, "House of the Dragon." Citing the unsatisfying conclusion to "Game of Thrones" and the way that series seemed to change dramatically once the showrunners ran out of material from the book series.
Fortunately, one major difference between the two shows is that "House of the Dragon” is based on a fully-completed story. Unfortunately, however, it appears that the show has already broken from the books and TV series canon in its very first episode with the inclusion of a weirwood tree, deep within the Red Keep's Godswood, that shouldn’t exist.
For starters, it's important to remember that Kings Landing as a whole wasn't even built until the invasion of Aegon the Conqueror, several thousand years after the Andals destroyed the majority of weirwoods of the south — only sparing a few in established castles. So, why would the Andals spare this specific tree, in a godswood for a castle that was not yet built?
The inclusion of this particular weirwood not only breaks the canon of the book series but of "Game of Thrones" itself — in both projects, the King's Landing/Red Keep instead uses an old oak wrapped in smokeberry vines. This bizarre addition 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.