George R.R. Martin notes one Targaryen detail that is wrong in House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones. Based on Martin’s ongoing A Song of Ice and Fire series, HBO’s Game of Thrones introduces the Targaryens, including Daenerys, fifteen years after the great house had fallen. Based on Martin’s book Fire & Blood, House of the Dragon is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones and tracks the beginning of the end for House Targaryen through the devastating war of succession known as the Dance of the Dragons.

On the “Not a Blog” section of his website, George R.R. Martin noted one minor Targaryen detail that is wrong in both House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones. Posting a dissertation on dragons in the world of Westeros, the author discussed the discrepancy between how dragons are depicted in his books (with two legs) and on the Targaryen sigil in the two shows (with four legs). Read his full post below:

Dragons DO exist in the world of Westeros, however (wyverns too, down in Sothoryos), so my own heralds did not have that excuse. Ergo, in my books, the Targaryen sigil has two legs, as it should. Why would any Westerosi ever put four legs on a dragon, when they could look at the real thing and could their limbs? My wyverns have two legs as well; they differ from the dragons of my world chiefly in size, coloration, and the inability to breath fire. (It should be stressed that while the Targaryen sigil has the proper number of legs (two), it is not exactly anatomically correct. The wings are way too small compared to the body, and of course no dragon has three heads. That bit is purely symbolic, meant to reflect Aegon the Conqueror and his two sisters).

FWIW, the shows 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. A couple 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.

The History Of The Targaryen Sigil From Book To Show

Why Did It Change From Two To Four-Legged Dragons?

Way back in 1996, when Martin introduced dragons at the end of his novel, Game of Thrones, he decided to depict them with two legs. Despite being mythical beasts in a fantasy world, dragons having two legs is anatomically correct, as no animal on Earth with wings also has four legs. In turn, in Martin’s books, the dragon on the Targaryen sigil has two legs. Of course, the dragon on the Targaryen sigil having three heads isn’t meant to be anatomically correct, as it represents Aegon the Conqueror and his two sister wives.

However, the history of the Targaryen sigil in the shows, Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, is much more complicated. For the first four seasons and the majority of the fifth, Games of Thrones maintained the correct two-legged sigil from the books. However, when Dany’s fleet of ships is seen for the first time, the Targaryen sigils on the sails have four-legged dragons. It’s unclear why the change was made, as Martin simply attributes it to someone slipping up.

Years later, in House of the Dragon, the showrunners seemingly decided to keep the Targaryen sigil consistent with the later seasons of Game of Thrones and maintained the four-legged Targaryen sigil. However, House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal has suggested there is a reason for this, saying “every choice we made on this show, down to even smaller minutia than that [sigil], was made with a reason.” Condal suggests that audiences stay tuned and hopefully, it will all make sense in due time.

Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon are streaming on Max.

Source: George R.R. Martin