George RR Martin and HBO are both right about House of the Dragon

Earlier this week, George R.R. Martin published — and deleted — a blog post about his feelings towards the newest season of HBO’s House of the Dragon. The show is adapted from a portion of Martin’s Fire and Blood, a book dedicated to the history of the Targaryen family prior to the events of Game of Thrones.

In his blog post, Martin highlighted some changes in House of the Dragon that stuck out to him as having weakened the impact of events as they played out, and deteriorating future events that will take place in the show’s latter two seasons. While the blog post received mixed attention from fans of both the books and the shows, one thing remains clear: George R.R. Martin is right. But just as much as Martin is right, so is HBO.

What’s the deal with Maelor?

How one missing toddler can impact the whole show

The main contention of Martin’s blog post was the exclusion of Maelor, Aegon’s youngest son, from House of the Dragon. Maelor’s absence from the show has some major ramifications for one of season two’s most shocking events.

In the first episode of the second season, we saw Aegon’s eldest son, Jaehaerys, brutally assassinated by Blood and Cheese. While the event was harrowing to see on screen, it was also greatly softened in many ways from its book counterpart. In the book, Queen Helaena has to choose whether Blood and Cheese will kill Jaehaerys or Maelor. Helaena ultimately chooses Maelor, but they kill Jaehaerys instead after her impossible decision. While this was nowhere near the full extent of the differences, it is the most consequential discrepancy between the book and the show.

The crux of Martin’s issue with this change is the ramifications it will have later on in the story. In the book, Rhaenyra eventually retakes King’s Landing. In the ensuing chaos, Aegon’s remaining children are separately evacuated from the city. During this evacuation, Maelor is killed by a mob. It ultimately causes Helaena to commit suicide, due to her having previously been willing to give Maelor up to Blood and Cheese. Helaena’s death itself has further, very important, story implications.

Subtracting Maelor from the show means you lose very important context about why Helaena eventually dies, and the story beats farther from what it causes. Martin likens this to the butterfly effect — one small change with sweeping implications for the future. And while you might find it easy to wonder why they can’t just add Maelor into the story next season and riff on the same ideas differently, Martin said in his blog that Maelor has completely exited the show’s plans. Further divulging plans for the future of House of the Dragon, Martin revealed that Helaena committing suicide is still in the outline for the show’s third season, but the reasoning for why she does is not there.

More interesting than any of this is what Martin capped off his blog post with, “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…” He’s completely right to have concerns that these butterflies could deeply affect House of the Dragon’s future, but I don’t think those concerns land entirely on their feet.

Butterflies of all different kinds

The small changes that make an adaptation

HBO 

House of the Dragon thus far has made some significant changes to Martin’s Fire and Blood. It’s undeniable, and largely unavoidable. As much as it stings, there are some things that can work as words on paper, but never be feasible for a large scale production. But that reasoning doesn’t quite explain every change House of the Dragon has made.

One of the changes that strikes me most between the show and the book is the relationship between Rhaenyra and Alicent. In Fire and Blood, Rhaenyra is much younger than Alicent and the two really aren’t the close friends they’re portrayed as at the beginning of the show.

House of the Dragon’s change to have the pair be close friends as well as the same age adds a layer of drama to the show’s events that simply isn’t present within the book. But, this change also lessens the early rivalry Rhaenyra had with Aegon in Fire and Blood. However, that rivalry still naturally exists within the show due to them being the figureheads within the show’s main conflict.

In much the same way, I have no doubt Helaena’s suicide will eventually be circled around in a way that makes sense. Even if that means leaving out Maelor entirely. There’s a level of trust the team behind House of the Dragon has earned after two stellar seasons. I will more than happily eat my words if it ends up feeling anywhere near as contrived as anything from the final four seasons of Game of Thrones, but I just can’t see that happening at this time.

But, at the same time, I do understand Martin’s warning of potential “toxic butterflies to come.” I remember how seemingly minor and in service of good television the changes made in the Netflix adaptation of The Witcher seemed during the show’s first season. But then, the show’s second and third seasons completely validated any and all concerns that fans of the books had.

Martin’s concerns about the future of House of the Dragon are absolutely valid. And with his inside knowledge of the show’s future, those concerns carry even more weight. But, I don’t think his blog post is quite the scathing indictment of House of the Dragon that some online have made it out to be. HBO has still produced an absolute hit, which seems like a miracle after Game of Thrones’ disastrous ending.

Only time will tell if Martin’s concerns carry water, or if the team behind House of the Dragon can be fully trusted at the helm. But as of right now, I really don’t think there’s much good reason to think House of the Dragon will suffer the same fate as the show it was spun off from. But then again, I’m sure not many saw Game of Thrones’ decline coming at its halfway mark.