On Jan. 18, 2026, the first episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premieres on HBO. Right off the bat, you can see the difference between this and Game of Thrones. Most of House of the Dragon’s characters are analogues, or at least funhouse mirror versions, of those from Game of Thrones. The moral message of Game of Thrones is not, in my view, that being good doesn’t matter. Despite sharing the same universe as Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, it’s a very different sort of story.