George R.R. Martin takes aim at changes in House of the Dragon season 2

Not long ago, Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin promised to reveal to fans "everything that’s gone wrong with House of the Dragon," HBO's Game of Thrones prequel show based on his book Fire & Blood. He's started to make good on that promise in a new blog post called "Beware the Butterflies."

In this post, which I suspect isn't his last, Martin drills down on a change made to the very first episode of House of the Dragon season 2, "A Son for a Son," which climaxes with the death of Helaena Targaryen's young son Jaehaerys, murdered by a couple of mercenaries known only as Blood and Cheese, who were sent into the Red Keep by Helaena's uncle Daemon Targaryen. Helaena's brother and husband Aegon is currently at war with Daemon's wife and niece Rhaenyra, and Jaehaerys is a horrible casualty of their conflict.

Before we go any further, I don't want to act like Martin is condemning House of the Dragon entirely here; he consulted on the production, and he called the episode itself "terrific." He does have problems with the Blood and Cheese scene, though, and thinks it's weaker than the book version. "The two killers are crueler in the book," he writes. "I thought the actors who played the killers on the show were excellent… but the characters are crueler, harder, and more frightening in FIRE & BLOOD." He also didn't enjoy how the show depicted Helaena's reactions to the event. "I would also suggest that Helaena shows more courage, more strength in the book, by offering her own own life to save her son. Offering a piece of jewelry [as she does in the show] is just not  the same."

But Martin's main problem with the scene was that it cut out a key character. In the book, Helaena and Aegon have three children: the twins Jaehaerys and Jaehaera, and a younger son named Maelor. In the show, Maelor is gone, which changes the dynamics of the scene, In Fire & Blood, Blood and Cheese make Helaena choose which of her sons — Jaehaerys or Maelor — will die. After offering her own life instead, she tearfully chooses Maelor, only for Blood and Cheese to kill Jaehaerys instead, a cruel twist of the knife. On the show, none of this can happen. Instead, Blood and Cheese ask Helaena to identify which of her twin children is a boy, Helaena identifies Jaehaerys, and then Blood and Cheese kill him. "As I saw it, the Sophie’s Choice aspect was the strongest part of the sequence, the darkest, the most visceral," Martin writes. "I hated to lose that. And judging from the comments on line, most of the fans seemed to agree."

Martin argued against making this change when House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal brought it up years ago, but he was placated by Condal's explanation:

"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.   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."

However, Martin goes on to reveal that, "[s]ometime between the initial decision to remove Maelor, a big change was made. The prince’s birth was no longer just going to be pushed back to season 3.  He was never going to be born at all. The younger son of Aegon and Helaena would never appear."

So now Maelor has been cut from the show entirely, not just pushed back. How does that change the story? In Martin's view, for the worst. Read on, but beware major SPOILERS for Fire & Blood below:

George R.R. Martin warns of the butterfly effect on House of the Dragon

Martin is concerned that removing Maelor will impact later parts of the story in a negative way. In the book, before Rhaenyra Targaryen invades King's Landing, Alicent Hightower takes steps to smuggle Helaena's remaining children — Jaehaera and Maelor — out of the city, fearing for their safety. Jaehaera reaches her destination and remains more or less safe, by Maelor and his escort, Ser Rickard Thorne of the Kingsguard, run into trouble. Rhaenyra has offered a reward for the return of Maelor to King's Landing. Ser Rickard and Maelor are traveling incognito, but once people in the town of Bitterbridge figure out who they are, they pounce. Ser Rickard is killed and a mob tears apart young Maelor as they fight over him.

When news of this reaches King's Landing, Rhaenyra is horrified, but Helaena is hit much worse. She's lost another son. Already in a fragile position, this new terrible news drives her to commit suicide. And that, in turn, sets off another important event: the people of King's Landing, who love the gentle Helaena but who are not happy with Rhaenyra at this point in time, revolt after a rumor spreads that Helaena didn't kill herself but was murdered. The riot rages out of control and eventually leads to Rhaenyra leaving the city.

But if the show doesn't have Maelor, it can't have the Bitterbridge scene, which means Helaena's motivation for killing herself will be undercut, or so Martin thinks. "In Ryan’s outline for season 3, Helaena still kills herself… for no particular reason," he writes. "There is no fresh horror, no triggering event to overwhelm the fragile young queen."

"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.   Losing Maelor weakened the end of the Blood and Cheese sequence, but it also cost us the Bitterbridge scene with all its horror and heroism, it undercut the motivation for Helaena’s suicide, and that in turn sent thousands into the streets and alleys, screaming for justice for their “murdered” queen.   None of that is essential, I suppose… but all of it does serve a purpose, it all helps to tie the story lines together, so one thing follows another in a logical and convincing manner.

What will we offer the fans instead, once we’ve killed these butterflies?   I have no idea.   I do not recall that Ryan and I ever discussed this, back when he first told me they were pushing back on Aegon’s second son.   Maelor himself is not essential… but if losing him means we also lose Bitterbridge, Helaena’s suicide, and the riots, well… that’s a considerable loss."

George R.R. Martin warns of "more toxic" changes to come on House of the Dragon

Around the time Martin published his blog post, HBO dropped a new episode of its House of the Dragon podcast focusing on book-to-screen adaptations, which seems like an attempt at damage control. Martin is a professional who's worked in TV for a long time and I doubt there's any real ill will between the camps, but this does give the appearance of a feud between creator and showrunner, which isn't a great look for the series.

Obviously, we can't know how losing Maelor will affect the narrative of House of the Dragon going forward. Personally, I envision a scenario where Helaena's suicide is still impactful even without the news of her youngest son's death; she has already lost one child, and when she kills herself she's a prisoner in her own home. I can think of reasons why her mental health might degrade.

But I also know that the House of the Dragon producers have made abundant changes to the text already, and I don't think they've always made the best ones. If I had to guess, I'd say that, come season 3, Helaena's suicide will have something to do with her talent for prophecy, a new element that the show introduced that wasn't there in the book. Maybe that will be very convincing and moving, but so far I think the show has over-relied on the idea of prophecy to motivate characters, rather than finding motivations within their hearts, so I'm nervous about it.

In the podcast, Condal talks about the importance of respecting and revering the source material, but says it's important to draw a line between "reverence and worship." In House of the Dragon season 2, I think the show was on the wrong side of that line. They haven't just made alterations; oftentimes, they've done the opposite of what Martin wrote in his book. In Fire & Blood, Alicent and Rhaenyra are in conflict, but by the end of the season they're working together. In Fire & Blood, Daemon Targaryen takes the castle of Harrenhal without much trouble, but in season 2 he fails at everything he tries. In Fire & Blood, it's possible to sympathize with characters on both sides of the war, whereas House of the Dragon Rhaenyra's cause is portrayed as righteous whereas her half-brother Aemond burns villages out of anger and is abandoned by his family members. I think this goes beyond "putting your stamp on the material" or tweaking things so they work better for TV. House of the Dragon is drifting very far away from the source material, and I see why Martin is worried.

Again, I suspect Martin has more than one post about this in him. "[T]here 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…" he writes ominously. Is this the beginning of a feud era for House of the Dragon, with creator pitted against showrunner, fan against fan as surely as green against black? It's a long road to 2026 and the release of season 3.

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