George RR Martin, the author of the game of Thrones Novels and the Fire & Blood Spin-off on which the HBO series House of the Dragon based, had a lot to say about a big change in the show. On September 4, Martin published a post on his blog is called “Beware the Butterflies” and describes in detail his concerns about a particular scene in the second season of HotDHowever, shortly after the post was published, Martin deleted it completely.
Based on the post, which you can read here in archived formMartin had serious problems with the way House of the Dragon Showrunners changed a moment known among fans of Fire & Blood as “Blood and Cheese”. In the showQueen Helaena is attacked in the castle by two intruders who demand that she tell them which of her two young children is a boy, ostensibly so they can assassinate the heir to the Iron Throne. Trembling, she offers them her necklace, but when they persist, she points to Jaehaerys, her son, whom the intruder quickly murders.
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In the novel, Helaena actually has three children, Jaehaerys, Jaehaera, and Maelor (Maelor is not in the series, although Martin claims in the now-deleted blog post that he was told he would be in season three). When Blood and Cheese (as they are called in the novel) break in, Helaena first offers her own life, then reluctantly shows Maelor, the youngest, for the assassins to kill. But the intruders realize that she is avoiding mentioning Jaehaerys, the next heir to the throne, and kill him anyway, with Cheese whispering to Maelor that his mother chose him to die before leaving the castle.
Martin claims he argued with showrunner Ryan Condal about the change, but not for long “or very heatedly.” Condal gave him sufficient assurances that he could accept the change.[He] apparently had practical reasons for doing so; they did not want to deal with the casting of another child, especially a two-year-old toddler,” Martin wrote. “Children that young are bound to slow down production, and it would have budget implications. Budget was already a problem with House of the Dragonit made sense to save money wherever possible. Also, Ryan assured me that we weren’t losing Prince Maelor, we were just moving him. Queen Helaena could still give birth to him in season three, presumably after she got pregnant towards the end of season two. That made sense to me, so I withdrew my objections and agreed to the change.”
Although Martin ultimately “still [loved]Although he hasn’t read the episode despite the changes, he has a much bigger problem with the alleged removal of Maelor, writing: “At some point between the original decision to remove Maelor, a major change was made. The Prince’s birth was no longer simply to be pushed back to Season 3. He was never to be born at all. The younger son of Aegon and Helaena was never going to show up.”
He then refers to the “butterfly effect,” the philosophical idea that a very small thing, as small as the flapping of a butterfly’s wings, can have a huge impact on seemingly unrelated things over time. Martin then warns readers about spoilers, writing, “If you’ve never read Fire & Blood Maybe it doesn’t matter because I’m only ‘spoiling’ things that happen in the book but might NEVER happen in the show.” I would like to warn you about spoilers, as the most important turning points in the novel now follow.
In Fire & BloodHelaena commits suicide shortly after the death of Prince Maelor. Popular with the common people, the people of King’s Landing flock to the streets demanding justice for their beloved ruler when rumors spread that Queen Rhaenyra killed her (as Rhaenyra had taken over King’s Landing by this point) rather than Helaena jumping out a window of the Red Keep. “It is the beginning of the end of Rhaenyra’s rule over the city, and ultimately leads to the storming of the Dragonpit and the rise of the Shepherd Mob, forcing Rhaenyra to flee the city and return to Dragonstone… and her death,” Martin writes.
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He continues: “Maelor alone means little. He is a small child, has no dialogue, does nothing of significance except die… but where and when and how, that does important. The loss of Maelor weakened the end of the Blood and Cheese sequence… it undermined the motivation for Helaena’s suicide, and that in turn drove thousands into the streets and alleyways crying out for justice for their ‘murdered’ queen. None of this is essential, I think… but it all serves a purpose, it helps tie the storylines together so that one follows the other in a logical and convincing way.”
Martin then ends his contribution threateningly with the warning that “bigger and more poisonous butterflies will come if House of the Dragon continues with some of the changes planned for Seasons 3 and 4…”
I find it funny that Martin never got so publicly bitchy about the end of game of Throneswhich not only deviated from his original but also created completely new storylines, since he has not yet finished the main novels. And I find it even funnier that he has such a scathing criticism of a series that, in my opinion, implements an adaptation in the right way. But maybe Martin did what so many of us who are incessantly online do and tweeted and deleted after he had a little clarity. We’ll see.
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