The second season of House of the Dragon completed its run not too long ago, but the controversies following the show are still lingering. It received a milder reception in comparison to its first season, and there’s good reason for that, a major one being straying sway from George R. R. Martin’s book, Fire & Blood. And Martin doesn’t like it one bit.
George R. R. Martin addresses House of the Dragon’s diverted storylines
Martin recently talked in a now-deleted post on his blog, Not A Blog, about how removing Maelor from the show set off a chain of butterfly events that completely upset the timeline, even removing major plot points from Fire and Blood. He reveals a major spoiler for Season 3:
“In the book, when word of Prince Maelor’s death and the grisly manner of his passing (pp. 505) reaches the Red Keep, that proves to be the thing that drives Queen Helaena to suicide. She could barely stand to look at Maelor, knowing that she chose him to die in the “Sophie’s Choice” scene… and now he is dead in truth, her words having come true. The grief and guilt are too much for her to bear.”
“In Ryan’s outline for season 3, Helaena still kills herself… for no particular reason. There is no fresh horror, no triggering event to overwhelm the fragile young queen.”
This would mean that not only Helaena’s death would be meaningless in the show, but the massive riot that follows would also be pointless considering there’s no Maelor in the storyline.
Credits: Max
House of the Dragon might stray away more from the book
Martin goes on to describe how these events will accumulate in a massive snowball that goes in a completely different direction. He warns that we might be looking at a completely different material than what’s written in his book,
“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 Bitterbridge, Helaena’s suicide, and the riots, well… that’s a considerable loss.
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…”
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