Warning: Spoilers for 'House of the Dragon' season 2.
Author George R.R. Martin, who wrote Game of Thrones and its prequel House of the Dragon which respectively inspired the HBO TV series of the same name, slammed the "toxic" tweaks made in the latter's TV adaptation in a blistering social media blog post.
The fiery post has since been taken down but not before a screenshot was taken and shared by Culture Crave on X (formerly Twitter).
House of the Dragon is a spin-off series based on parts of Martin's 2018 book Fire & Blood. Martin co-created the series with showrunner Ryan Condal.
The Game of Thrones prequel takes place about 100 years after the Seven Kingdoms are united by the Targaryen conquest, about 200 years before the events depicted in Game of Thrones, and 172 years before the birth of Daenerys Targaryen.
The 75-year-old author is not happy about the changes made to the show and the direction it was heading as a result, and he expressed deep concern about how it might affect future plotlines in seasons 3 and 4.
In the deleted post, Martin wrote in part:
"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 three. He was never going to be born at all. The younger son of Aegon and Helaena would never appear."
"Most of you know about the Butterfly Effect, I assume...The lesson being that change begets change, and even small and seemingly insignificant alterations to a timeline - or a story - can have a profound effect on all that follows."
"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."
"Will any of that appear on the show? Maybe... But I don't see how. The butterflies would seem to prohibit it."
"I have no idea what Ryan has planned - if indeed he has planned anything," he said of his co-creator, adding, "but given Maelor's absence from episode two...The simplest way to proceed would be just to drop him entirely."
"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."
Martin then went on to explain how Maelor's absence could adversely affect future events in
House of the Dragon that would not make sense in Fire & Blood.
"What will we offer the fans instead, once we've killed these butterflies? I have no idea," he said.
Martin concluded the lengthy message with:
"I do not recall that Ryan and I ever discussed this. And 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 three and four."
Here is the screenshot of the post in full.
Fans weighed in with their varied stances on his epic rant.
Whether or not the original creator's authentic vision for the story is being compromised is up for viewers who are still being entertained by the production quality to decide.
All episodes of
House of the Dragon season 2 are available for streaming MAX.
