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If there’s one thing “House of the Dragon” loves, it’s time jumps (even though they messed with the pacing a great deal). The series slides audiences around the timeline on more than one occasion throughout Season 1, using flashbacks to provide context for important events and character decisions later on in the story. However, according to George R.R. Martin, there was a storytelling opportunity to go even further back in time via flashback — roughly 40 years or so — that the “House of the Dragon” team didn’t catch. Martin titles this hypothetical episode “The Heir and the Spare,” and truth be told, the concept sounds pretty interesting.
Martin’s pitch would put the focus on King Jaehaerys and his sons, Aemon and Baelon, showcasing the siblings’ friendly yet competitive relationship. Then, things would take a tragic turn. “Aemon dies accidentally when a Myrish crossbowman shoots him by accident on Tarth, then Jaehaerys has to decide who becomes the new heir,” Martin explained in an interview with Penguin Random House, noting that the thrust of the story from there would come down to Jaehaerys deciding if he should make Aemon’s daughter or Baelon his heir, hence the title of the episode — one would become the heir, while the other would get stuck as the spare.
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Of course, as George R.R. Martin himself admits, this idea presents its own set of challenges. Not only does it create more narrative ground to cover through flashbacks, but it means more recasting of various actors, making it a whole production unto itself. Sure, it’s intriguing on paper, but at the end of the day, “The Heir and the Spare” was just a tad too much for “House of the Dragon.”
