History Series / HouseOfTheDragon

** In the book, the Velaryons have the same white skin as their fellow Valyrians, the Targaryens. In the show, Corlys Velaryon is black. His hair is Valyrian-white but black-textured, and he wears it in dreadlocks. His children Laenor and Laena are mixed-raced, as are Daemon's children with Laena.

* AnyoneCanDie: The show is based on the world of Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire, so this was to be expected.

* WickedStepmother: Alicent channels the energy of this trope as an older adult but is also a more nuanced examination of it. On the surface, she is bitter, spiteful, paranoid and petty towards her stepdaughter. However, it is not so simple because her suspicions about Rhaenyra are correct. She is increasingly unhappy and lovelorn in her relationship with Viserys, but is still devoted to him, fussing over him and bearing him four trueborn children. Meanwhile, Rhaenyra has been lying to her, to her father, and to the realm ''constantly'' for ten years, bearing three obvious bastards and having the gall to insult everyone's intelligence by calling them legitimate Velaryons (although by modern real-world standards, Rhaenyra isn't doing anything wrong). When she brings the matter to her husband, he tells her essentially to shut up, never speak of it again, and that to do so would be treason. By the time she confides in Larys Strong that she wants -- no, ''needs'' her father back as Hand of the King, it looks less like a WickedStepmother and more like a put-upon wife who [[CassandraTruth needs someone, anyone to believe her when she tells the truth]].

** Alicent's heir, Aegon, is ill-suited to be king. He's unserious, flippant, prone to drinking, doesn't want the ArrangedMarriage that's set up for him, and is a SerialRapist. Meanwhile, second son Aemond could be a creditable option. He's sharp, serious, pious, very well trained in combat, Vhagar-approved, and would be willing to enter the ArrangedMarriage his older brother rebuffs. And yet, TheCoup of the Hightowers-Targaryens crowns Aegon solely out of male-preference primogeniture and nothing else after the death of Viserys.

** Jacaerys (the Crown Prince in line after Rhaenyra) and Lucerys (the appointed heir of House Velaryon) struggle with this as well. Temperament and talent-wise, they acquit themselves pretty good. However, as is plainly shown by their appearance, they are bastards, and it undermines their efforts and self-confidence.

After Queen Consort Aemma dies in childbirth without bearing a surviving son, King Viserys Targaryen names his only living child Princess Rhaenyra heir apparent ahead of his [[InadequateInheritor volatile]] younger brother, Daemon. At the same time, Viserys then remarries to Alicent Hightower, the daughter of his ambitious Hand of the King, Otto Hightower, alienating Rhaenyra. While this second marriage produces several children who survive into adulthood -- including sons Aegon and Aemond -- Viserys makes the [[HeirClubForMen controversial decision]] to stand firm by his vow that his eldest daughter will succeed him, rather than one of her half-brothers. And as pressure mounts for Rhaenyra herself to marry and bear children, she walks a fraught path between following her duty or her desires; a balancing act made all the more difficult by the steadily growing passion between her and Daemon.

After Queen Consort Aemma dies in childbirth without bearing a surviving son, King Viserys Targaryen names his only living child Princess Rhaenyra heir apparent ahead of his [[InadequateInheritor volatile]] younger brother, Daemon. At the same time, Viserys then remarries to Alicent Hightower, the daughter of his ambitious Hand of the King, Otto Hightower, alienating Rhaenyra. While this second marriage produces several children who survive into adulthood -- including sons Aegon and Aemond -- Viserys makes the [[HeirClubForMen controversial decision]] to stand firm by his vow that his eldest daughter will succeed him, rather than one of her half-brothers.

* LikeFatherLikeSon: Rhaenyra repeats Viserys's mistakes. Both position their firstborn as their heir, but nonetheless choose to enter a second marriage which yields children with a more traditional claim, weakening their chosen heir's position. Both father and daughter deal with problems by avoidance. Viserys makes decisions as rarely as possible; Rhaenyra deals by saying ScrewThisImOuttaHere and removing herself from court for 6 years.

* ThemeTwinNaming: Two members of the Kingsguard are a pair of twins named Erryk and Arryk Cargyll. Subverted with Laena and Laenor Velaryon, who have rhyming names but are not twins (Laenor is older by a few years), and averted with Daemon's daughters, Baela and Rhaena, who are twins but have dissimilar names, and Lannister twins named Jason and Tyland, which seems to be a family tradition considering that another pair of Lannister twins from ''Game of Thrones'' also have unique names.

After Queen Consort Aemma dies in childbirth without bearing a surviving son, King Viserys Targaryen names his only living child Princess Rhaenyra heir apparent ahead of his [[InadequateInheritor volatile]] younger brother, Daemon. At the same time, Viserys then remarries to Alicent Hightower, the daughter of his ambitious Hand of the King Otto Hightower, alienating Rhaenyra. While this second marriage produces several children who survive into adulthood -- including sons Aegon and Aemond -- Viserys makes the [[HeirClubForMen controversial decision]] to stand firm by his vow to have his eldest daughter succeed him.

''House of the Dragon'', or ''Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon'', is a Creator/{{HBO}} series based on Creator/GeorgeRRMartin's book ''Literature/FireAndBlood'' from his [[{{Doorstopper}} epic]] {{fantasy}} series ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire''. It is a {{prequel}} to ''Series/GameOfThrones'', which adapted the main saga of ''A Song of Ice and Fire''. The showrunners are Creator/RyanCondal and Miguel Sapochnik (who also directed some episodes of ''Game of Thrones''), and composer Music/RaminDjawadi returned for the score.

* CrimeOfPassion: Ser Criston Cole and Lord Larys Strong are {{foil}}s. They are both in the service of Queen Alicent, and both have a track record of unhinged murder. Their relevant contrast is that Criston's killings are crimes of passion -- he really wants to be a KnightInShiningArmor, but his anger gets the better of him, though he regrets it later. Larys is even-tempered and always seems in possession of himself, and his killings are calmly premeditated.

* ISurrenderSuckers: Daemon waves a white flag at the Crabfeeder's army to draw them out. He keeps up the pretense until Dark Sister is taken from him, then goes on a killing rampage through their ranks.

* ProphecyTwist: [[spoiler: Viserys based much of his treatment of his beloved wife Aemma on a dream that his son would wear the throne of Aegon the Conqueror and all the dragons would roar. He naively presumed that it was a good thing.]]

** The two Targaryen factions are called "the Blacks" and "the Greens" in the book because of the colors of the dresses Rhaenyra and Alicent wore during the tournament to celebrate Viserys and Alicent's 5th wedding anniversary. And while the series draws attention to Alicent wearing a vibrant green dress at Rhaenyra and Laenor's wedding, with some people discussing the deeper meaning the color has for House Hightower in times of war, Rhaenyra was wearing a ''white'' wedding dress, yet her faction is still referred as "the Blacks". Possibly just because it's the more traditional Targaryen color.

** When Alicent lashes out during the an-eye-for-an-eye debacle, this is followed up with a scene of her in her own quarters regretting her actions.

* AndThatsTerrible:
** This is one of the ways the show frames the Greens as villains and Blacks as heroes (if anti-heroes). With the Greens, morally dubious actions are followed up with reminders -- ''from them!'' -- that this is wrong. With the Blacks, morally dubious actions are breezed past. The Blacks basically glamourize their own actions, and the audience is meant to follow those cues and view the actions likewise. The Greens view their own deeds as questionable, and so the audience is meant to do likewise.

* AndThatsTerrible: This is one of the ways the show frames the Greens as villains and Blacks as heroes (if anti-heroes). With the Greens, morally dubious actions are followed up with reminders -- ''from them!'' -- that this is wrong. With the Blacks, morally dubious actions are breezed past. The Blacks basically glamourize their own actions, and the audience is meant to follow those cues and view the actions likewise. The Greens view their own deeds as questionable, and so the audience is meant to do likewise.

** Jacaerys and Lucerys Velaryon are in their teens when their younger half-brothers, Aegon and Viserys Targaryen, are born.

* AndThatsTerrible:
** This is one of the ways the show frames the Greens as villains and Blacks as heroes (if anti-heroes). With the Greens, morally dubious actions are followed up with reminders -- ''from them!'' -- that this is wrong. With the Blacks, morally dubious actions are breezed past. The Blacks basically glamourize their own actions, and the audience is meant to follow those cues and view the actions likewise. The Greens view their own deeds as questionable, and so the audience is meant to do likewise.

** Rhaenyra and Alicent have a WeUsedToBeFriends relationship that's entirely absent in the book.