George R.R. Martin praises House of the Dragon actors, hints at issues with one storyline

We've coming up on the midpoint of the second season of House of the Dragon, and we're enjoying being back in Westeros. One of the best things about the new season has been how much the actors have stepped up, both those who shone in the first season and those who are only now getting their time in the spotlight.

Author George R.R. Martin, who wrote the book Fire & Blood, agrees. He couldn't say enough good things about the performers on his Not a Blog. "Emma D’Arcy has only one line in [season 2 premiere] 'A Son for a Son,' but they do so much with their eyes and their face that they absolutely dominate the episode; her grief for her slain son is palpable. Tom Glynn-Carney brings Aegon alive in ways we have not seen before; he’s more than a villain here, he shows us the king’s rage, his pain, his fears and doubts. His humanity. Rhys Ifans has been splendid as Otto Hightower every time he has been on screen, but he exceeded himself in 'Rhaenyra the Cruel.' His scene with King Aegon and Criston Cole after the ratcatchers are hanged just crackles with wit, tension, drama, a performance that cries out for awards attention. Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Fabien Frankel, Eve Best, and the other regulars were wonderful as well. The Tittensor twins were terrific as the Kingsuard twins, and their climactic swordfight is right up there with the Mountain and the Red Viper of Dorne, and Brienne’s fight with Jaime Lannister."

Martin was particularly impressed with Phia Saban, who plays King Aegon's wife Helaena Targaryen. In the premiere, Helaena is in the room when a pair of assassins known only as Blood and Cheese decapitated her young son Prince Jaehaerys, and Martin was blown away with her "wrenching, powerful, heart-breaking performance."

"Saban’s performance is especially noteworthy; very little of what she brings to the part was in my source material," Martin writes. "Last season HOUSE OF THE DRAGON essentially recreated King Viserys, giving him a much different backstory and far more depth than the jolly party-loving king I created for FIRE & BLOOD....The HotD team have done the same thing here with Helaena."

"In the book, she is a plump, pleasant, and happy young woman, cheerful and kindly, adored by the smallfolk...None of the strangeness she displays in the show was in evidence in the book, nor is her gift for prophecy.  Those were born in the writers’ room… but once I met the show’s version of Helaena, I could hardly take issue. Phia Saban’s Helaena is a richer and more fascinating character than the one I created in FIRE & BLOOD, and in “Rhaenyra the Cruel” you can scarcely take your eyes off her."

George R.R. Martin addresses book changes in House of the Dragon

Martin also loved that, in the show, the assassin Cheese has a dog, something that wasn't present in his original book. "I was prepared to hate Cheese, but I hated him even more when he kicked that dog. And later, when the dog say at his feet, gazing up… that damn near broke my heart," Martin wrote. "Such a little thing… such a little dog… but his presence, the few short moments he was on screen, gave the ratcatcher so much humanity.   Human beings are such complex creatures.  The silent presence of that dog reminded us that even the worst of men, the vile and the venal, can love and be loved."

Martin is in full agreement with everyone who's praised the second episode of the season, "Rhaenyra the Cruel." However, he's heard of some of the less-than-enthused reactions to the Blood and Cheese sequence at the end of the premiere episode, and while he doesn't outright say he sympathizes, he hints that he has some misgivings about it:

"The only part of the show that is drawing criticism is the conclusion of the Blood and Cheese storyline. Which ending was powerful, I thought… a gut punch, especially for viewers who had never read FIRE & BLOOD. For those who had read the book, however…

Well, there’s  a lot of be said about that, but this is not the place for me to say it. The issues are too complicated.   Somewhere down the line, I will do a separate post about all the issues raised by Blood and Cheese… and Maelor the Missing. There’s a lot to say.

For the nonce, I will just say that I really really liked “Rhaenyra the Cruel.” I liked it in London the first time I saw it, and I liked it even more on second watching."

As a fan of the show and as someone who's read Fire & Blood, I definitely felt let down by the Blood and Cheese sequence. For a scene where a mother is in the room when her young child is brutally murdered, I didn't feel much of anything, although I thought the fallout in "Rhaenyra the Cruel" was very affecting.

Fans have tried to analyze just went wrong with this scene. Our own Daniel Roman theorizes that it has something to do with the show's pacing, with the way the murder is framed as a mistake (Blood and Cheese were actually looking for the prince's uncle Aemond but couldn't find him), and because the show omitted Helaena's other son from the book, Maelor, which changes the dynamics of the scene.

We don't know exactly what Martin has to say about the scene, although given his mention of "Maelor the Missing," I imagine he has some thoughts about that particular cut as well.

I've leave you with some thoughts Martin shared about the adaptation process in general from a different blog post published before House of the Dragon returned for its second season:

"Everywhere you look, there are more screenwriters and producers eager to take great stories and 'make them their own.' It does not seem to matter whether the source material was written by Stan Lee, Charles Dickens, Ian Fleming, Roald Dahl, Ursula K. Le Guin, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Raymond Chandler, Jane Austen, or… well, anyone. No matter how major a writer it is, no matter how great the book, there always seems to be someone on hand who thinks he can do better, eager to take the story and “improve” on it. "The book is the book, the film is the film,” they will tell you, as if they were saying something profound. Then they make the story their own.

They never make it better, though. Nine hundred ninety-nine times out of a thousand, they make it worse."

If Martin ever does want to write "a separate post about all the issues raised by Blood and Cheese," I'll be reading. In the meantime, the next episode of House of the Dragon will air this Sunday night on HBO and Max, and I highly doubt it will disappoint anyone:

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