George R.R. Martin calls out ‘House of the Dragon’ changes, warns of more 'toxic’ tweaks
As promised in his Aug. 30 blog post, “Game of Thrones” creator and author George R. R. Martin has gone into detail about what he thought went wrong with HBO’s “House of the Dragon” Season 2.
As promised in his Aug. 30 blog post, “Game of Thrones” creator and author George R. R. Martin has gone into detail about what he thought went wrong with HBO’s “House of the Dragon” Season 2.
Martin called out specific changes from his original work, “Fire & Blood,” and what the “Game of Thrones” prequel’s showrunner Ryan Condal has adapted for the screen, as well as upcoming plans for the final two seasons of the show.
Martin’s biggest critique, laid out in a since-deleted Wednesday blog post titled, “Beware the Butterflies,” was around differences between the “Blood & Cheese” plot line in the “House of the Dragon” Season 2 premiere, which features the death of a child character, and the story as its told in “Fire & Blood.” “House of the Dragon” has eliminated one character, Aegon and Helaena Targaryen’s youngest son, Prince Maelor, entirely from the story, which Martin, who is co-creator and executive producer on the show, insists has larger repercussions for the future of the series moving into Seasons 3 and 4.
“When Ryan Condal first told me what he meant to do, ages ago (back in 2022, might be) I argued against it, for all these reasons,” Martin wrote. “I did not argue long, or with much heat, however. The change weakened the sequence, I felt, but only a bit. And Ryan had what seemed to be practical reasons for it; they did not want to deal with casting another child, especially a two-year old toddler. Kids that young will inevitably slow down production, and there would be budget implications."
"Budget was already an issue on HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, it made sense to save money wherever we could," he continued. "Moreover, Ryan assured me that we were not losing Prince Maelor, simply postponing him. Queen Helaena could still give birth to him in season three, presumably after getting with child late in season two. That made sense to me, so I withdrew my objections and acquiesced to the change. I still love the episode, and the Blood and Cheese sequence overall."
Rating: 5