According to The Hollywood Reporter, George R. R. Martin (A Game of Thrones, Fire & Blood) confessed his grievances with HBO’s House of the Dragon season two in personal blog post that has now been deleted. As the novelist of Fire & Blood, which was adapted to House of the Dragon for television, Martin outlined his disagreement with changes in the show that could impact the story in future seasons. It was announced in August that House of the Dragon will end with its fourth season, according to mxdwn.
One of Martin’s major criticisms for the latest season was familial changes to Aegon Targaryen and Helaena Targaryen’s bloodline. As per The Hollywood Reporter, Aegon and Helaena have three children in Fire & Blood, while in House of the Dragon, they only have two descendants. Two-year-old Maelor Targaryen was removed from the plot of the show, which Martin commented would cause a “butterfly effect” in the series.
Spoilers Ahead! A big part of not including Maelor in season two caused changes to the “Blood and Cheese” sequence, where a hit is placed on Aemond Targaryen, but the thugs assigned to kill him settle for one of Helaena’s children. In Fire & Blood, Helaena is forced to choose which child should be killed. She offers her own life but ultimately chooses Maelor, with the thugs killing her son Jaehaerys instead. In House of the Dragon, Helaena tries to bribe the thugs to spare them, but she chooses Jaehaerys outright when that fails.
To these changes, Martin said, “Helaena shows more courage, more strength in the book, by offering her own life to save her son. Offering a piece of jewelry is just not the same…As I saw it, the ‘Sophie’s Choice’ aspect was the strongest part of the sequence, the darkest, the most visceral. I hated to lose that,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. Martin claims to have argued against not including Maelor with showrunner and co-creator of House of the Dragon, Ryan Condal (Colony, Hercules). However, Martin did not fight with “much heat” as the production logistics behind cutting Maelor for the series made sense.
Martin continued to name important plot points within his novel that are yet to occur in the series, but with Maelor out of the picture, he voiced his concern about whether they would be included in the show. He said, “Will any of that appear on the show? Maybe… but I don’t see how. The butterflies would seem to prohibit it … From what I know, that seems to be what Ryan is doing here. It’s simplest, yes, and may make sense in terms of budgets and shooting schedules. But simpler is not better … Maelor by himself means little. He is a small child, does not have a line of dialogue, does nothing of consequence but die… but where and when and how, that does matter” via The Hollywood Reporter.
Martin detailed that “there are larger and more toxic butterflies to come, if House of the Dragon goes ahead with some of the changes being contemplated for seasons 3 and 4…” per The Hollywood Reporter. However, HBO responded to Martin’s comments by praising Condal’s work on the series.
HBO said via The Hollywood Reporter, “There are few greater fans of George R.R. Martin and his book Fire & Blood than the creative team on House of the Dragon, both in production and at HBO. Commonly, when adapting a book for the screen, with its own format and limitations, the showrunner ultimately is required to make difficult choices about the characters and stories the audience will follow. We believe that Ryan Condal and his team have done an extraordinary job and the millions of fans the series has amassed over the first two seasons will continue to enjoy it.