Fire & Blood author George RR Martin promised he would come forward with a blog post about what went wrong withHouse of the Dragonseason 2. Now, a few days after his announcement, Martin wrote a lengthy post on his blog and criticized HBO, along with the makers, for the changes they made while making Season 2.
House of the Dragonis undoubtedly one of the biggest shows on the planet right and has millions of fans. The first edition turned out to be massively successful and broke viewership records for the network. Even though Season 2 began with the same intensity, the final batch of episodes didn’t receive the same amount of love from the viewers. However, the author of Fire & Blood believes that diverging too much from the source material might be one of the reasons why season 2 ofHOTDdidn’t receive universal acclaim. Additionally, he warns that viewers should be ready for more “toxic butterflies” in the upcoming editions.
In asince-deleted blog post, the creator of theGame of Thronesuniverse opened up about how he had arguments with showrunner Ryan Condal about the Blood and Cheese sequences in season 2 of theHouse of the Dragon. The post suggested that the Blood and Cheese sequence in the book was much stronger than how it was depicted in the series. Moreover, the author claimed that Halaena and Aegon had three children and not just two as shown in the series. On the other hand, Martin said that Condal initially assured him that Maelor would arrive in Season 3. However, some massive changes were made on the way and the makers decided to not include Maelor in the series. Martin wrote, “Moreover, Ryan assured me that wewere 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. Sometime 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.“Additionally, the author noted that Halaena did more than just offer a piece of jewelry to the killers to save her child.
Although the author wrote a lot of other stuff about how things might look in Season 3, Martin warned the viewers and told them to get ready for more “toxic butterflies” in the upcoming installments. He said, “And there are larger and more toxic butterflies to come, ifHOUSE OF THE DRAGONgoes ahead with some of the changes being contemplated for seasons 3 and 4.“It is not uncanny for the makers and the network to take creative freedom to tell stories how they want to. Honestly, it could help the show get better and be more accessible to the viewers. But, when it comes to frustration, Martin was not the only one who got vocal about their disappointment with the show. While the season was generally well-received, a significant segment of the fanbase expressed strong displeasure over the frequent changes. One of the most criticized moments was the adaptation of the Blood & Cheese storyline, which many felt toned down the brutality of one of Martin’s most harrowing events. Meanwhile, the frustration only grew when fans learned that they kept splitting away from the books.
It’s quite difficult to judge whether Martin’s criticisms are valid or not, but he does raise a good point while mentioning Maelor’s omission in Season 2. His omission can change the course of the series and affect the narrative depth ofHouse of the Dragon. Moreover, hisobservation about the Blood & Cheese sequence lacking the same impact on-screen as in the book is undeniably accurate. It would be interesting to see if Martin’s comments are taken seriously by the makers or not. But the author’s decision to delete the blog post might have been taken after it spread like wildfire on the internet and prompted HBO to release a statement, providing support to the showrunners.
House of the Dragonseason 1 and 2 are available to stream exclusively on MAX.
