A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin called out Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon for a blatant error they made regarding the Targaryens, but he will be happy to learn that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will fix it. The early seasons of Game of Thrones were praised for their accuracy to George R.R. Martin's series of novels, but as the seasons progressed, fans noticed the show getting sloppier. The creator of Westeros also made sure to voice his displeasure with House of the Dragon Season 2 for how much it strayed from the source material.
The first official teaser for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was recently released, and it featured a flag with the Targaryen sigil on it. For the first time since the early days of Game of Thrones, which Martin also penned some episodes of, the sigil was entirely accurate to the source material.
In particular, the later seasons of the flagship series and the entirety of House of the Dragon have not created the Targaryen sigil the way Martin describes it in his books. The source material describes the Targaryen sigil to be a three-headed dragon with two legs and two wings. This is the exact design that was featured in the Knight of the Seven Kingdoms teaser, meaning that the upcoming show will follow the design that was explained in the book.
The early seasons of Game of Thrones got this correct as well. Throughout the first four seasons, the Targaryen sigil had two legs and two wings.
However, in Season 5, fans (and Martin) began noticing that the sigil had changed. Instead of only two legs, the dragon on the sigil featured four.
This was obviously a mistake, but it was never fixed. The four-legged dragon remained on the Targaryen sigil for the remainder of Game of Thrones.
However, much to Martin's dismay, House of the Dragon didn't fix the sigil. Instead, that show used the four-legged wrong one as well.
Martin publicly spoke out about this mistake on his official blog. He did not go about it in a rude way, but simply called the shows out for making the mistake. According to Martin, "the Targaryen sigil has two legs," and anyone in Westeros could "look at the real thing" and see how many limbs they have, which made Martin question why the shows would get it wrong:
"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?"
Martin then mentioned how both shows "got it half-right," and accused someone of getting "sloppy." The author even revealed that the incorrect design "even wormed [its] way onto the cover of [his] books:"
"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."
Martin will undoubtedly be excited that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms used the correct sigil. House of the Dragon using the wrong one seemed fitting, in a way, since Season 2 specifically strayed further from Martin's books, which was something that he was quite vocal about.
The author has gone on record saying that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is extremely faithful to his work, and that was confirmed in the show's teaser, seeing as how some of the dialogue was word-for-word from Martin's novellas. It seems as though the upcoming series using the correct sigil is signifying that the show will follow the source material in more ways than once, which is something many fans will appreciate.
The full teaser for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which is set between House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones, can be seen below:
Will House of the Dragon Season 3 Fix Its Targaryen Sigil Issue?
House of the Dragon using the wrong Targaryen sigil isn't that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but, as mentioned, it does almost represent the show's flaws. The way Season 2 played out was vastly different from what happened in Fire & Blood, especially toward the end of the season concerning Alicent Hightower and Rhaenyra Targaryen.
Considering both shows are distributed by HBO, it wouldn't be surprising if House of the Dragon Season 3 uses the right sigil. Season 3 could have easily used the same props as A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, but it is possible that it could still use the wrong one as well.
However, considering some of the fan response to House of the Dragon Season 2, it would not be surprising if the show made some changes and tried to follow Martin's work more closely. Some important events in the Dance of the Dragons will be coming up in Season 3, so many fans are waiting to see how the showrunners and crew will handle it.
