In July George R.R. Martin told fans he would soon share his thoughts on “everything that’s gone wrong” with House of the Dragon. That tantalizing tease suggested he was ready to spill a whole lot of Moon tea. Well, he sure was. The author did more than just discuss his issues with the adaptation’s divisive second season. Martin spit fire and blood about his concerns in an already deleted blog post where he explained why he’s worried about what showrunner Ryan Condal has planned for the series’ final two seasons, in a screed that was the literary equivalent of the Night King bringing down the Wall.
In a quickly deleted post titled “Beware the Butterflies” at his Not a Blog, Martin opened up talking about the split reaction to House of the Dragon‘s “Blood and Cheese” sequence from season two’s first episode. Some readers thought the show’s version came up far short of the more emotionally wrenching one found in Martin’s Fire & Blood. ( I wrote the series “botched” the sequence entirely.) Martin was far kinder in his assessment, which included a lot of praise for the series’ take, even though he agrees book readers are right “the scene in the book is stronger.”
Martin also wrote about how Ryan Condal explained the practical reasons behind these changes, along with how the show would later introduce a missing character cut from that vital scene.
The author’s analysis of House of the Dragon‘s “Blood and Cheese” comes across as tough but fair. Martin has real, well-founded criticism, but understands why certain changes were made. His assessment reads as wholly diplomatic.
“Diplomatic” does not describe the rest of what he wrote. At best it read as highly critical. At worst it came across as downright antagonistic and angry.
Martin explained he only briefly argued about the changes to “Blood and Cheese” because Condal shared his plan to introduce a missing character later. In Fire & Blood Aegon and Helaena have a third child, a younger son named Maelor. His presence (or lack thereof) greatly alters the nightmarish sequence for everyone involved. That’s also true of Maelor’s future role in the story.
While not a major character himself, two-year-old Maelor is a major impetus for important future events. Except Condal apparently later changed his mind and decided to never introduce Maelor to the show. That has clearly (CLEARLY) displeased Martin.
In his post he went into a spoiler-heavy explanation of the massive “Butterfly Effect” the “Missing Maelor” will cause going forward. (If you haven’t read Fire & Blood and don’t want anything from House of the Dragon spoiled we’re going to keep them to a bare minimum here. Martin’s post does not, so tread lightly if you seek out a copy.)
Martin made no attempt to hide his frustration—if not downright anger and disappointment—with Condal, the show, and even HBO whose budget limits he insinuated are causing problems. Here are some of the standout lines from his post (emphasis our own):
- …Could maybe make Maelor a newborn instead of a two year old, but that would scramble up the timeline, which is a bit of a mess already. I have no idea what Ryan has planned — if indeed he has planned anything…
- From what I know, that seems to be what Ryan is doing here. It’s simplest, yes, and may make sense in terms of budgets and shooting schedules. But simpler is not better.
- In Ryan’s outline for season 3, (character) still kills (themself)… for no particular reason. There is no fresh horror, no triggering event to overwhelm…
- 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 (multiple major moments) well… that’s a considerable loss.
Forget coming in hot. Martin came in on Balerion the Black Dread. And that was true before his final line went full scorched Westeros. He delivered a preemptive shot across the bow at Ryan Condal and House of the Dragon.
- 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…
…Yeah. Yeah.
That’s as subtle as Bronn and as diplomatic as a Dothraki. This was George R.R. Martin making clear he thinks House of the Dragon is heading to the same fate as Game of Thrones, which completely fell apart during its panned final two seasons.
How much of this post is a result of Martin’s frustration with the prequel itself versus how much is this a response to Game of Thrones‘ ending? Only he knows that. But he has previously talked about how he wasn’t as involved with the original show’s latter seasons. And since it seems he’s been unable to prevent fundamental changes he feels strongly about during House of the Dragon‘s first two, this might be the only way he thought he could help the series course correct before it’s too late.
Will it work? Or will this deleted post backfire on him? Will it ostracize him from HBO, Condal, and the show even more? And if it does, will it hurt other spinoffs, including the currently in-production A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms?
Well, very quickly, HBO issued a statement defending Condal and his choices for House of the Dragon. Later, Condal himself appeared on House of the Dragon‘s official podcast, From Book to Screen, sticking to his adaptorial guns.
“I stand behind the adaptation of how the plot unfolded,” Condal said. “I have talked about this quite a bit, but I will just say it in plain text: the children that we had in the story were simply too young to be able to construct that narrative exactly as laid out in the book. Period. I have lots of experience working with very young performers. To ask two four-year olds to play through that level of drama, it’s just not a realistic expectation.”
He continued: “There’s also a practical element around the things that you can expose young children to on a film set. Yes, you can do clever cutaways, and dummies, and all those things. We wanted this to be a very visceral, subjective experience, not something that was very cut-y, and with closeups. And when you start actually breaking apart what happens in that room, and the things that are said, and the things that are done, it became such a challenge to think about and mount that we started looking for—what are the base elements of this story, that Daemon and Rhaenyra send assassins into the Red Keep, and as a result the king’s child and heir [is] murdered—and how do we dramatize that in a way that’s exciting, and visceral, and horrifying, and do it in the best way possible?”
Martin didn’t feel he was being heard in private so he aired a whole lot of dirty laundry out in public. We’re not sure Meslidandre herself could divine in her flames what that will lead to.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist who agrees entirely with George R.R. Martin on this matter. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.
Originally published September 4, 2024