George R.R. Martin’s Blog Was Briefly a House of the Dragging

Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO

Spoilers for the second (and possibly third?) season of House of the Dragon follow. 

Sorry, sir, but the internet is forever. On September 4, author George R.R. Martin hit publish — and then deleted — some critiques about HBO’s House of the Dragon. In a lengthy blog post, Martin took issue with some changes made from his book Fire & Blood. Specifically, he called out the fact that the character Maelor was not included, meaning that we didn’t get the “stronger” book scene of Helaena having to choose between two sons to kill. Martin suggested that showrunner Ryan Condal made decisions to help simplify budgets and shooting schedules, adding a bit shadily, “But simpler is not better.” According to Martin, Condal initially said that Maelor’s birth would only be delayed until season three, but the plan is now for the prince to never be born at all, which Martin feels would have a detrimental butterfly effect on other parts of the plot. “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,” Martin explained. “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.”

Martin previously blogged in December 2023 that he had spent two days having “lively, fun discussions” about the third and fourth season of House of the Dragon with Condal and other writers. However, it seems like the author might not feel that he’s on the same page as HBO anymore — Martin’s post concluded by ominously hinting that “there are larger and more toxic butterflies to come” if House of the Dragon goes ahead with some other changes now “being contemplated” for the third and fourth season.

“There are few greater fans of George R.R. Martin and his book Fire & Blood than the creative team on House of the Dragon, both in production and at HBO,” an HBO spokesperson said in a September 4 statement to Vulture. “Commonly, when adapting a book for the screen, with its own format and limitations, the showrunner ultimately is required to make difficult choices about the characters and stories the audience will follow. We believe that Ryan Condal and his team have done an extraordinary job and the millions of fans the series has amassed over the first two seasons will continue to enjoy it.” Condal also addressed concerns about departures from the book in a September 4 episode of the official Game of Thrones podcast. Around the 23-minute mark, he mentions Maelor, noting that the show compressed the book’s timeline, which meant that it was only believable for some characters to have children of a certain age. “We had to make some compromises in rendering that story so that we didn’t have to recast the whole cast multiple times,” he said. He acknowledged that the choice did have “a ripple effect,” adding, “We decided that we were going to lean into it and try to make it a strength, instead of playing it as a weakness.”

On the bright side of all this drama, we should note that Martin previously promised in a July 5 post, “Somewhere down the line, I will do a separate post about all the issues raised by Blood and Cheese… and Maelor the Missing. There’s a lot to say.” Just under two months later, he followed through on that promise. So it is possible! Look, after years of waiting, we’ll take any optimistic sign that The Winds of Winter is on its way, alright?