George R.R. Martin Critiques ‘House of the Dragon’ & ‘Game of Thrones’ for Mistake

George R.R. Martin has become noticeably more outspoken about HBO’s Game of Thrones in his recent blog posts. In his latest entry, even House of the Dragon didn’t escape his criticism. On Thursday, Martin wrote a lengthy post praising House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 4, but he took a tangent that got the entire fandom laughing. Martin expressed frustration over the TV shows using the wrong heraldry for House of the Dragon.

After praising the dragon fight in “The Red Dragon and the Gold,” Martin began to compare the dragons in his writing to other fictional depictions. He noted that his dragons have two legs and two wings, a design he strongly prefers over the four legs and two wings seen in other portrayals. Martin argued that the two-legged look is more natural and logical, pointing out that no real-life animals have wings and four legs. Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon adhered to this design on screen, with dragons like Drogon and Syrax featuring two legs and two wings. However, the discrepancy lies in the Targaryen banners.

Martin wrote that in medieval Europe, real-life sigils often depicted dragons with four legs, but he didn’t think such a design worked in his writing. “In my books, the Targaryen sigil has legs, as it should,” Martin explained. “Why would any Westerosi ever put four legs on a dragon when they could look at the real thing and count their limbs?”

He continued, saying, “For what it’s worth, the show got it half right (both of them). Game of Thrones gave us the correct two-legged sigils for the first four seasons and most of the fifth, but when Dany’s fleet hove into view, all the sails showed four-legged dragons. Someone got sloppy, I guess. Or someone opened a book on heraldry and read just enough of it to muck it all up. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.”

To Martin’s dismay, this incorrect and inconsistent sigil continued for the rest of Game of Thrones, and the issue wasn’t corrected in House of the Dragon either. He wrote, “A couple of years on, House of the Dragon decided the heraldry should be consistent with Game of Thrones… but they went with the bad sigil rather than the good one. That sound you heard was me screaming ‘no, no, no.’ Those damned extra legs have even wormed their way onto the covers of my books, over my strenuous objections.”

Many fans related to Martin’s fixation, noting that they could get just as granular about their own passions. Social media quickly filled with memes about dragons with four or more legs, many tagging Martin, HBO, and the team behind House of the Dragon. While fans sympathized with Martin, they did not seem intent on getting rid of their House Targaryen merchandise anytime soon.

House of the Dragon continues on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max. Martin’s books are available now in print, digital, and audiobook formats.

Source: Pop Culture