Nearly a month has passed since the second season of House of the Dragon came to an end with the Targaryen family tree smaller than it was a season before, and that was evidently enough time for Fire & Blood author George R.R. Martin to put his thoughts in order about what happened... or, more importantly, what was majorly changed from the pages of his book to Ryan Condal's HBO adaptation. As expected, he had a lot to say about Blood and Cheese, and despite HBO's response, I'm a little surprised that he didn't mention what I see as Season 2's second biggest omission.
George R.R. Martin Weighs In On Season 2
Spoilers ahead for the Blood and Cheese section of Fire & Blood. Fans knew that some blunt words were probably coming after Martin's dramatic post about House of the Dragon just last week, and Season 2 delivered enough changes from the book to speculate about what got to the author. In a post that has since been deleted from his Not A Blog website, Martin went into detail about the changes to the characters involved in Blood and Cheese (up to and including Cheese not having a dog).
His biggest issue? How Season 2 cut out Maelor, the third and youngest child of Aegon and Helaena in the book, whose existence was not only part of why the whole sequence was so much more heinous on the page, but continues to affect the story beyond Blood and Cheese. Martin wrote of his conversation with showrunner Ryan Condal:
When Ryan Condal first told me what he meant to do, ages ago (back in 2022, might be) I argued against it, for all these reasons. 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 late in season two. That made sense to me, so I withdrew my objections and acquiesced to the change
Martin went on to note that "Sometime between the initial decision to remove Maelor, a big change was made," and Helaena and Aegon's youngest child will never be born. While I won't get into spoilers here about how the absence of Maelor affects one character's game-changing decision, Martin certainly did by saying that it will happen for "no particular reason" in Season 3.
All in all, I'm not shocked that George R.R. Martin decided to delete his lengthy post about his problems with Blood and Cheese's omission of Maelor, since he was a lot blunter than I would have predicted. Still, what seemed like a minor change for practical reasons to start Season 2 will force massive changes for story reasons down the line, and reading the author's take on Maelor left me surprised that he didn't express similar sentiments about another omission this season.
First, though, HBO has a response to Martin's comments.
How HBO Responded To George R.R. Martin's Take
Martin had already deleted his post from his website by the time an HBO spokesperson responded (via Variety), but his comments were already circulating on the web. In a far more diplomatic statement than what the author expressed, the spokesperson said:
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. 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.
Some changes from book to screen are always necessary, and Martin had seen plenty of them happen over the years of Game of Thrones, particularly the later seasons after the show overtook the available source material. Still, as somebody who has been bothered by Daemon clobbering his first wife with a rock ever since that particular episode of Season 1, I'm certainly not one to judge about disliking seemingly minor changes.
Of course, adapting Fire & Blood is different from A Song of Ice and Fire, and not just because this particular chapter of Targaryen history has already been written in full by Martin as opposed to the unfinished ASOIAF. Fire & Blood is an in-universe history book penned by maesters in Westeros, so it's full of unreliable narrators and conflicting events.
That said, there are certain situations like the existence of Maelor – and yes, Daemon killing Rhea Royce – that aren't disputed by any of the sources in Fire & Blood, which leads to the change that I'm surprised George R.R. Martin didn't bring up in his post based on his logic about Blood and Cheese.
Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD for Fire & Blood. If you don't want to know what happens next, check out now and/or revisit the first two seasons of House of the Dragon streaming with a Max subscription.
What About Nettles?
The Red Sowing of Fire & Blood and House of the Dragon was used to find smallfolk with enough Targaryen blood to claim a dragon, with the same episode that dropped some info on George R.R. Martin's lost Targaryen featuring Hugh claiming Vermithor and Ulf claiming Silverwing. Readers know that perhaps the most important dragonseed of Fire & Blood is actually Nettles, who may or may not have Targaryen blood but tamed the dragon Sheepstealer by feeding him sheep.
And readers also know that Nettles and her ambiguous relationship with Daemon will push Rhaenyra to a breaking point (with no small amount of prodding from Mysaria) and eventually lead to Daemon's epic suicide mission to kill Aemond... that is, that's what readers would likely expect if the show had introduced Nettles. Instead, House of the Dragon seems to be merging Rhaena and Nettles. By George R.R. Martin's logic of how omitting Maelor will have a butterfly effect on later parts of the story, it would track if he feels similarly about cutting Nettles.
Rhaenyra snapping and ordering the death of a commoner who she thinks has seduced her husband makes sense for the Black Queen at that point in her storyline; Rhaenyra ordering the death of her niece/stepdaughter/cousin really doesn't. After all, parent/child incest is taboo even in the Targaryen family, which was a carryover from Fire & Blood to House of the Dragon if Daemon's reaction to dreaming about his mother is any indication. Surely she wouldn't believe anything unseemly between Daemon and Rhaena, right?
And as much as Maelor's absence from the show undercuts any motivation Helaena would have for leaping to her death from the guilt and madness of it all, I think a lot of readers are going to be upset if substituting Rhaena for Nettles undercuts Daemon's last stand above the Gods Eye lake.
Having read all of A Song of Ice and Fire as well as Fire & Blood, I'm confident in saying Daemon vs. Aemond is one of the most epic sequences that George R.R. Martin has ever written and would make for some spectacular television if it's adapted as closely as possible.
Only time will tell, however, and it's possible that Martin doesn't see the omission of Nettles the same way that he does Maelor. At the very least, it'll likely be some time before we find out what House of the Dragon Season 3 has in store. Variety has already confirmed that production won't start until early 2025, which likely means the next new episode won't air on HBO until 2026.
Martin closed his since-deleted Not A Blog post by warning of "larger and more toxic" twists to come if the show does go ahead "with some of the changes being contemplated for seasons 3 and 4," but nothing is seemingly certain at this point. For now, we can wait and see if Martin has more to say about House of the Dragon as the wait continues for his next chapter of A Song of Ice and Fire with the long-delayed Winds of Winter.
