House of the Dragon season 2: Author on Blood & Cheese change
After days of wondering what George R.R. Martin had to say about House of the Dragon season 2, the author has finally made it clear … albeit briefly.
Here is the thing: After first saying that he was going to publish an entry on his blog about his issues with the season, Martin (who is also an executive producer on the HBO show) did … and then deleted it moments later. However, the internet is of course forever, and many people captured many of his thoughts. To be specific here, the biggest issue that he seems to have had was tied to the show’s changes the the Blood & Cheese incident in the premiere.
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Book readers have decried the change already, saying that removing the youngest child Maelor from the show did reduce Helaena’s choice and the brutality of the moment. However, Martin writes that there were reasons for it (per Variety):
“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. 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. Only the book readers would even notice its absence; viewers who had never read FIRE & BLOOD would still find the scenes heart-rending. Maelor did not actually DO anything in the scene, after all. How could he? He was only two years old. There is another aspect to the removal of the young princeling, however.”
Martin is referring at the end to the long-term consequences of Helaena’s choice in the books — without giving much story away here, the show’s change could alter dramatically what happens to Alicent’s only daughter in season 3 or season 4. Or, if nothing else, it could change the motivation behind it. Martin’s concerns are understandable, and we hope that Condal and the entire team do have a plan.
Related – When will House of the Dragon season 3 premiere on HBO?
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This article was written by Jessica BunBun.