"Can't disagree with him"— Fans react to George R.R. Martin's deleted blog post criticizing House of the Dragon showrunners

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George R.R. Martin criticizes House of the Dragon changes (Image via Paras Griffin/Getty Images)

George R.R. Martin went into detail about all the things he thought were wrong in the second season of HBO's House of the Dragon. He also warned fans that "more toxic" changes are coming in the next seasons.

In his since-deleted September 4, Wednesday, blog post, the Game of Thrones author called out specific tweaks from his Fire & Blood book. He also detailed the changes made by showrunner Ryan Condal for the screen adaptation that he isn't a fan of. His biggest critique was that the show eliminated a key character, Prince Maelor, who is the youngest son of Aegon and Helaena Targaryen.

While the famed author has since deleted his post, copies of it circulated online, and fans commented on their opinions. Many of them agree with the author's take.

"I can't disagree with him, season 2 of HotD was not good imo. Literally nothing happened except B&C and even that was handled terribly. Don't even get me started on Daemon or the Alicent and Rhaenyra stuff," a Reddit user commented.
a fan reaction to George R.R. Martin's post (Image via @oldtherebefore/Reddit)
a fan reaction to George R.R. Martin's post (Image via @oldtherebefore/Reddit)

Many other netizens agreed with the iconic George R.R. Martin, with some not holding back in sharing what they didn't like about the TV show.

"He criticized everything that I hated about this season. George RR Martin, my King," an X user commented.
"He's correct and he should be able to say it," a Reddit user agreed.
"I agree with him. I don't like House of the Dragon and I'm so done with the franchise's unnecessary se*ual violence and poor treatment of women. They had so many options for great spin-offs and could do so much better," another Reddit user wrote.

Meanwhile, other George R.R. Martin fanatics came to the author's defense against those who criticize him for speaking up about the series adaptation of his book.

"The audacity to attack George RR Martin for giving his opinion/critiques on HIS work and content being altered is beyond me," an X user wrote.
"George RR Martin doesn't owe any of you sons of b**ches anything. If all you want is an end to the story, write your own f**king fanfiction. Shut the f**k up and leave the man alone," another X user said.

George R.R. Martin said that deleting Maelor affects House of the Dragon's last two seasons

In House of the Dragon's version of the story, Aegon and Halaena only have two sons, the twins Jaehaerys and Jaehaera. Their youngest son, Maelor, who was in the book, is missing in the show's storyline. And George R.R. Martin says that erasing the character from the show has dire consequences. He wrote in the blog:

"Losing Maelor tweaked the end of the Blood and Cheese sequence, but it also cost us the Bitterbriuge scene with all its horror and heroism, it undercut the motivation for Helaena's s**cide, and that in turn sent thousands into the streets and alleys, screens for juice for the 'murdered' queen."

While George R.R. Martin admitted that "none of that is essential," he explained that those scenes serve a purpose. They all "help tie the storylines together," so without them, the plots would most likely become illogical and not convincing to the viewers.

Martin ended the blog post with a promise of "more toxic butterflies to come" if the HBO show goes ahead with the changes they are thinking for seasons 3 and 4.


George R.R. Martin first teased that he would write about "everything that's gone wrong" in House of the Dragon in his August 30 blog post. It comes after his largely positive response after seeing the first two episodes of the Season 2 Game of Thrones prequel show. He called the first two episodes "great," but backtracked after he pointed out that the show used the incorrect four-legged dragon sigil.

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Edited by Bharath S
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