HBO Responds to George R.R. Martin's House of the Dragon Criticism

HBO has responded to Martin's criticism, acknowledging "difficult choices" with the series.

By Nicole Drum

HBO is responding to George R.R. Martin's criticism of House of the Dragon. On Wednesday, in a now-deleted blog post, Martin made good on his promise from his August 30th post and went into detail about the things he felt had gone wrong with House of the Dragon's second season, specifically citing changes from the pages of his book to screen when it came to the "Blood & Cheese" plot from the season premiere and what it meant for the story further down the road as well as teased larger concerns in future seasons. Now, in their response, HBO acknowledges the "difficult choices" the series has had to make and expressed confidence in showrunner Ryan Condal and his team going forward.

"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,' the statement reads (via Variety). "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."

In his post, which has now been deleted, Martin outlined that one of his issues with House of the Dragon was the erasure of Aegon and Helaena Targaryen's youngest child, Prince Maelor, whose existence is a major part of the book's version of the Blood & Cheese storyline and has ramifications further along. Martin wrote that when Condal first spoke with him about the plan for Maelor, he came to understand the practical reason for it, but also was assured that the character was merely being postponed.

"I did not argue long or with much heat, however. The change weakened the sequence, I felt, but only a bit. And Ryan had what seemed to be practical reasons for it; they did not want to deal with casting another child, especially a two-year old toddler. Kids that young will inevitably slow down production, and there would be budget implications. Budget was already an issue on House of the Dragon, it made sense to save money wherever we could. Moreover, Ryan assured me that we were not losing Prince Maelor, simply postponing him. Queen Helaena could still give birth to him in season three, presumably after getting with child in late season two. That made sense to me, so I withdrew my objections and acquiesced to the change. I still love the episode, and the Blood and Cheese sequence overall. Losing the 'Helaena's Choice' beat did weaken the scene, but not to any great degree."

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But he went on to explain that with the character eliminated entirely, there could be impact to the final two seasons to the series, which is set to end with Season 4, by revealing potential spoilers based upon the book, but he also went on to suggest that there were more concerns with House of the Dragon, adding "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…"

What is House of the Dragon About?

Based on George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood, House of the Dragon is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones. In Season 2 of House of the Dragon, Westeros is on the brink of a bloody civil war with the Green and Black Councils fighting for King Aegon and Queen Rhaenyra respectively. The series is set to enter production on Season 3 in "earlyish 2025."

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