HoD: George RR Martin criticises change of 'Blood and Cheese' scene, HBO reacts

The Game of Thrones author George RR Martin opened up about the issues he has with the changes made in the fantasy drama House of the Dragons according to The Hollywood ReporterMartin shared his views in his blog mentioning that the cocreator and showrunner Ryan Condal has made significant changes in his novel Fire amp Blood adaptation which he is not happy about as he feels that the alteration in seasons two as well as three and four can cause serious problemsAlthough his post was deleted within hours HBO also replied to it by issuing a statementIn the show Aegon and Helaena have two young children the 6yearold twins Jaehaerys and Jaehaera In the book they have three theres an even younger brother 2yearold Maelor In a sprawling show with many characters for viewers to remember having one less child seems like a rather routine adaptive choice But Martin notes this is resulting in a butterfly effect of consequences as shared by The Hollywood ReporterThere are certain changes in season two like the Blood and Cheese scene two persons who were hired to murder Jaehaerys in front of his mother But in the book the sequence was presented in a different wayMartin elaborated about the same saying I still believe the scene in the book is stronger The readers have the right of that The two killers are crueler in the book I thought the actors who played the killers on the show were excellent but the characters are crueler harder and more frightening in FIRE amp BLOOD I would also suggest that Helaena shows more courage more strength in the book by offering her own own life to save her son Offering a piece of jewelry is just not the same As I saw it the Sophies Choice aspect was the strongest part of the sequence the darkest the most visceral I hated to lose that And judging from the comments on line most of the fans seemed to agreeI argued against it for all these reasons Martin mentionedI 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 twoyear 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 he addedMartin continued Sometime between the initial decision to remove Maelor a big change was made The princes birth was no longer just going to be pushed back to season 3 He was never going to be born at all The younger son of Aegon and Helaena would never appearMaybe but I dont see how The butterflies would seem to prohibit it From what I know that seems to be what Ryan is doing here Its simplest yes and may make sense in terms of budgets and shooting schedules But simpler is not better Maelor by himself means little 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 matterHe further talked about the death of a character and how the way it was shown in the show as compared to its depiction in the book None of that is essential I suppose but all of it does serve a purpose it all helps to tie the story lines together so one thing follows another in a logical and convincing manner thats a considerable lossAnd 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 he addedLater HBO responded to the post with a statement There are few greater fans of George RR Martin and his book Fire amp 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 itMartin is a cocreator of House of the Dragons