Beyond just being a prequel, House of the Dragon is similar to Game of Thrones in terms of its dark setting, gore, and storytelling. However, the time skips in the show are what sets it apart from its predecessor, which George R.R. Martin believes were a necessary addition.
So far, there have been two major skips in the show, with several additional smaller ones. The first large skip replaced the actors for Rhanerya and Alicent and the second replaced the actors who played their children. It's a lot to keep up with.
As reported by IGN, George R.R. Martin published a blog on his website regarding the latest episode, “Lord of the Tides”. Alongside praising the showrunners for their stellar achievement, the director also took the time to address the time skips in the show.
While this never happened in Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin believes that they were a good choice for the prequel. Defending the time skips, he wrote, “The Sopranos had 13 episodes per season, but just a few years later, Game of Thrones had only 10 (and not even that, those last two seasons). If House of the Dragon had 13 episodes per season, maybe we could have shown all the things we had to “time jump” over”. However, he said that the show would’ve risked being called ‘slow’ if it hadn’t included the time jumps.
In addition to this, he also dropped an interesting bit of information where he revealed that Viserys and Alicent have four children as opposed to the three shown in the series so far. According to Martin, the fourth child, Daeron, is currently in Oldtown. Furthermore, he also mentioned that telling the full story of the “Dance of Dragons” will take four seasons.
The recent episode also featured a flurry of emotional moments, including the notable “Crown Fall”. Apparently, the part where Daemon steps forward to help his brother put the crown back on and ascend his throne wasn’t scripted, which makes it even more impactful.