The Targaryen family has a lot of members. Sometimes it can get confusing to keep track of them, particularly when they’re named things like Aemond, Aegon and Daemon, not to mention Rhaenyra, Rhaenys and Rhaena. Then again, the complexity is part of the fun, and HBO’s show House of the Dragon has translated it pretty faithfully from the pages of George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood. But it’s also possible they’ve trimmed this family tree a bit…
HBO as an official House of the Dragon character guide on its website, which helps us keep track of who’s related to whom. The family tree shows that Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) and his sister-wife Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban) have two children: Jaehaerys Targaryen and Jaehaera Targaryen. We briefly met these two kids towards the end of season 1, although they didn’t get any lines; they were basically just in the background to establish that Helaena is a mother.
However, fans of Fire & Blood know that, in the book, Aegon and Helaena have a third child named Maelor, a boy. But he is not included in the family tree.
It looks like HBO has cut Maelor Targaryen from House of the Dragon
Does this mean that the House of the Dragon showrunners have decided to cut Maelor from the story? We note that characters like Daeron Targaryen, the fourth child of King Viserys Targaryen and Alicent Hightower, are included in the character guide even though Daeron didn’t appear or even get mentioned in the first season of House of the Dragon (in the book, he’s being fostered in Oldtown during this period, far away from King’s Landing). It sounds like the intention is to bring in Daeron next season. Leaving out Maelor seems intentional, or else an oversight that HBO may later correct. We may learn more as more details come out about season 2.
Cutting Maelor could have some consequences for the story. He factors into a key scene coming up in season 2, although saying anything more would constitute major spoilers. For now, we wait.
Season 1 of House of the Dragon is available to stream on HBO Max. Season 2 should be coming along sometime in 2024.
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