House of the Dragon repeats “sloppy” Game of Thrones error and George RR Martin isn’t happy

George R.R. Martin has praised House of the Dragon since it began, but despite his objections, it’s carried over one bizarre mistake from Game of Thrones.

Fans often read between the lines of everything Martin writes online (they even think the series is “cooked” after a seemingly suspicious post), but he’s been broadly positive about House of the Dragon.

After the trauma of Game of Thrones’ ending, it’s important to remember that he’s insisted both shows exist separately from his source material; there’s the series canon, and there’s book canon.

Nevertheless, some changes have got under his skin. In a new post, he complained about House of the Dragon’s Targaryen sigil, which features a dragon with four legs – something Martin strongly rejects.

HBO

“I designed my dragons with a lot of care. They fly and breathe fire, yes, those traits seemed essential to me. They have two legs (not four, never four) and two wings,” he wrote.

However, despite having its dragon’s anatomy right at the beginning, Game of Thrones made an unnecessary change to the Targaryen sigil.

“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,” Martin explained. 

“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.”

Unfortunately, House of the Dragon’s sigil is “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,” he added.

For more dragons, check out our guides on Vhagar, Balerion the Black Dread, and Vermithor, and make sure you keep up with our House of the Dragon Season 2 release schedule.