Warning! Spoilers ahead for House of the Dragon season 2 and Fire & Blood, the show’s source material.
George R. R. Martin explains how Maelor’s absence in House of the Dragon will create a big butterfly effect problem. Based on Martin’s Fire & Blood, the HBO Game of Thrones spinoff show premiered in 2022, chronicling the onset of the Targaryen civil war more than 100 years before the time of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke). House of the Dragon season 2 introduces a number of new characters from the source material, but one notable absence is Maelor, the third child of King Aegon Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) and Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban).
In a new post on his Not A Blog, Martin explains at length how the decision to not include Maelor will have consequences for the House of the Dragon story moving forward. The author reveals that showrunner Ryan Condal made the decision due to changes in the show’s timeline compared to the book, as well as for practical production and budgetary reasons. He warns, however, that Maelor not existing in the show means that several key events from his novel, notably events at Bitterbridge, now can’t be included, which will have a butterfly effect. Read Martin’s blog excerpt below:
Sometime between the initial decision to remove Maelor, a big change was made. The prince’s 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 appear.
Maelor is a two year old toddler in FIRE & BLOOD, but like our butterfly he has an impact on the story all out of proportion to his size. The readers among you may recall that when it appears that Rhaenyra and her blacks are about to capture King’s Landing, Queen Alicent becomes concerned for the safety of Helaena’s remaining children, and takes steps to save them by smuggling them out of the city. The task is given [to] two knights of the Kingsguard. Ser Willis Fell is commanded to deliver Princess Jaehaera to the Baratheons at Storm’s End, while Maelor is given over to Ser Rickard Thorne to be escorted across the Mander to the protection of the Hightower army on its way to King’s Landing.
Willis Fell delivers Jaehaera safely to the Baratheons at Storm’s End, but Ser Rickard fares less well. He and Maelor get as far as Bitterbridge, where he is revealed as a Kingsuard in a tavern called the Hogs Head. Once discovered, Ser Rickard fights bravely to protect his young charge and bring him to safety, but he does not even make it across the bridge before some crossbows bring him down, Prince Maelor is torn from his arms.. and then, sadly, ripped to pieces by the mob fighting over the boy and the huge reward that Rhaenyra has offered for his capture and return.
Will any of that appear on the show? Maybe… but I don’t see how. The butterflies would seem to prohibit it. You could perhaps make Ser Rickard’s ward be Jaehaera instead of Maelor, but Jaehaera can’t be killed, she has a huge role to play as Aegon’s next heir. Could maybe make Maelor a newborn instead of a two year old, but that would scramble up the timeline, which is a bit of a mess already. I have no idea what Ryan has planned — if indeed he has planned anything — but given Maelor’s absence from episode 2, the simplest way to proceed would be just to drop him entirely, lose the bit where Alicent tries to send the kids to safety, drop Rickard Thorne or send him with Willis Fell so Jaehaera has two guards.
From what I know, that seems to be what Ryan is doing here. It’s simplest, yes, and may make sense in terms of budgets and shooting schedules. But simpler is not better. The Bitterbridge scene has tension, suspense, action, bloodshed, a bit of heroism and a lot of tragedy. Rickard Thorne is a tertiary character at best, most viewers (as opposed to readers) will never know he is gone, since they never knew him at all… but I rather liked giving him his brief moment of heroism, a taste of the courage and loyalty of the Kingsguard, regardless of whether they are black or green.
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 matter. Losing Maelor weakened the end of the Blood and Cheese sequence, but it also cost us the Bitterbridge scene with all its horror and heroism, it undercut the motivation for Helaena’s suicide, and that in turn sent thousands into the streets and alleys, screaming for justice for their “murdered” queen. 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.
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.
What Maelor’s Absence Means For House Of The Dragon Season 3
Ryan Condal Has A Major Choice To Make
House of the Dragon season 3 is now confirmed to be the penultimate outing for the show, with a season 4 to wrap up the adaptation of Fire & Blood at some point in the future. Season 3 is expected to enter production in early 2025, though it’s unclear at the moment how many episodes it will consist of. Maelor’s absence may have negatively impacted parts of season 2, notably the Blood & Cheese scene, but, as Martin says, it’s set to have bigger consequences moving forward.
The story of House of the Dragon has been simplified to hone in on Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke). This will seemingly continue to be the case in season 3, but Maelor’s death directly affects this dynamic as it precipitates Helaena’s suicide, which itself precipitates an angry mob in King’s Landing. Condal, then, has the task of creating a new motivation for these same events to occur or excising them completely, further deviating from the source material.
Our Take On Maelor Not Featuring In House Of The Dragon
Why The Omission Could Be A Blow To The HBO Show
Any adaptation will require changes from the source material for storytelling and practical reasons, and the positive reviews for House of the Dragon thus far suggest that the show is making some strong decisions as it chooses what details to pull from Martin’s Fire & Blood. The HBO series is evidently in good hands, but Maelor not being present and not dying eliminates a degree of complexity, brutality, and heartbreak that Game of Thrones excelled at in its earlier seasons.
It’s certainly worth giving Condal the benefit of the doubt in terms of how he solves this problem, and simplicity could end up working in the show’s favor. Martin’s own concern about the Maelor butterfly effect, however, is reason enough to worry about how future seasons of House of the Dragon adapt the events of Fire & Blood.