George R.R Martin’s complaints about the television adaptation of House of the Dragon caught the attention of HBO execs. While his grievances have not been addressed directly, Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content, recently touched on the topic.
Martin’s comments came up when Deadline asked Bloys to share his thoughts about House of the Dragon’s Emmy Award chances since Season 2 divided some fans. “Well, I’m not sure that the fans were divided over Season 2,” the HBO exec said before the publication mentioned the acclaimed author by name. “Yes, maybe one fan was. But no, the show did really, really well. I expect that will be in competition,” he added.
Martin recently took issue with the on-screen portrayal of Blood and Cheese and the handling of Prince Jaehaerys’ death. “I still believe the scene in the book is stronger,” Martin wrote on his website. “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 & Blood. In the show, Blood is a gold cloak. In the book, he is a former gold cloak, stripped of his office for beating a woman to death.”
Martin Believes The Characters Were Watered Down
“Book Blood is the sort of man who might think making a woman choose which of her sons should die is amusing, especially when they double down on the wanton cruelty by murdering the boy she tries to save,” Martin continued. “Book Cheese is worse too. He does not kick a dog, true, but he does not have a dog, and he’s the one who tells Maelor that his mom wants him dead. I would also suggest that Helaena shows more courage, more strength in the book, by offering her own life to save her son. Offering a piece of jewelry is just not the same.”
Martin, who often shares his views about screen adaptations of his work, often gets carried away with the information he shares. This was evidenced when the author accidentally revealed that a key character from his novel will never be introduced in the series. In a now-deleted blog post, Martin said that Maelor Targaryen will be written off of House of the Dragon. He also talked about how the character’s arc was supposed to be depicted in the show.
“If you have never read Fire & Blood, maybe it does not matter, because all I am going to ‘spoil’ here are things that happen in the book that may never happen in the series,” Martin wrote. “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.”