Game of Thrones Creator Addresses “Toxic” Story Changes in House of the Dragon

Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin is throwing major shade at House of the Dragon and some of the changes the show has made – and will make – to the lore he established in his book “Fire & Blood”, which chronicles the history of House Targaryen. 

In a seemingly now-deleted post in his “Not a Blog” personal journal, Martin went down the rabbit hole of discussing the infamous ‘Blood & Cheese’ sequence from the House of the Dragon Season 2 premiere. He finally addressed the divisive changes to Blood & Cheese’s story in House of the Dragon – namely, the removal of a pivotal character from the sequence: King Aegon II and Queen Helaena Targaryen’s third and youngest child, Prince Maelor. The show only featured the twins Prince Jaehaerys and Princess Jaehaera, while Blood & Cheese forced Helaena to choose between her male and female child to be the one who lived. In Fire & Blood, it’s written that Helaena had to choose between all three of her kids, and chose Maelor to die as he was too young to understand. In a sadistic turn, Blood and Cheese killed Jaehaerys instead, leaving Maelor to live a life knowing that his mother was willing to sacrifice him. 

Prince Maelor’s arc doesn’t get any better later on: (MILD SPOILERS) The boy never made it past the age of three before he, too, was killed during the “Dance of Dragons” Civil War between the Targaryens. In fact, Maelor’s death (killed in a mob of commonfolk trying to capture him, while fleeing the war) became a powerful metaphor for just how unforgivably far the war between Queen Rhaenyra’s Black and King Aegon II’s Greens had gotten. 

In his blog post, George R.R. Martin revealed some of his own frustrations with the changes to Blood & Cheese’s story, saying “I found myself agreeing with both sides,” i.e., agreeing with those critical of the choice to remove Maelor Targaryen from the show. Martin then confirms that Maelor was never going to be a part of HotD: 

“Sometime between the initial decision to remove Maelor, a big change was made,” Martin wrote. “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.”

Martin likens cutting Maelor from the show to the “Butterfly Effect,” wherein one minor change causes a snowballing effect of many bigger changes down the line. He runs through some MAJOR SPOILERS about the latter part of the Dance of Dragon conflict, pointing out how one of the most brutal and shocking moments of that conflict (Maelor’s death at the hands of the mob) is no longer a possibility for House of the Dragon to depict. And judging from his words, George R.R. Martin is nervous (at best) and/or upset (at worst) that there is no certainty when it comes to replacing some bigger themes that come with that side story: 

“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 [REDACTED SPOILERSl… that’s a considerable loss.”

Game of Thrones Creator Teases “Toxic” Changes to House of the Dragon

If all that wasn’t controversial enough, Martin ended by outright casting a whole shadow of doubt on Hosue of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal and the work being done on House of the Dragon Seasons 3 and 4: 

“And 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…” Martin wrote. 

It seems likely that the powers-that-be at HBO and House of the Dragon caught wind of this post going up, and that’s why it just as quickly vanished from Martin’s blog page. Too late, though: this is surprising tension to be found between Martin and Condal. It’s also fuel for Martin to get flamed by some searing backdraft, if fans come at him about not cementing his lore in fully-completed texts for the shows to follow. We’re STILL waiting on those final two Game of Thrones books… 

Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon are streaming on HBO.