‘House Of The Dragon’ Creator George R.R. Martin Doesn’t Like HBO Show
Apparently, Game Of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin isn’t happy with the way that HBO has adapted the Thrones prequel, House Of The Dragon. In a blog post that has since been deleted, Martin discussed what he felt went wrong in the show’s season 2, noting specific variations from his book, Fire & Blood, which the show is based on.
He was annoyed that House of the Dragon eliminated one character, a young child, Prince Maelor, from the story.
What Did George R.R. Martin Say?
The post read, per Variety, “When [showrunner] 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.”
He added, ““He is a small child, does not have a line of dialogue, does nothing of consequence but die… but where and when and how, that does matter.” He notes that without that death, some of the characaters actions either make less sense or carry less weight.
Does This Happen Often?
Occasionally, authors take issue with the way their books get adapted for the screen. It’s fairly well known that Stephen King did not like Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of The Shining, saying, “I feel the same because the character of Jack Torrance has no arc in that movie. Absolutely no arc at all. When we first see Jack Nicholson, he’s in the office of Mr. Ullman, the manager of the hotel, and you know, then, he’s crazy as a s— house rat. All he does is get crazier. In the book, he’s a guy who’s struggling with his sanity and finally loses it. To me, that’s a tragedy. In the movie, there’s no tragedy because there’s no real change.”
