George R.R. Martin SLAMS House of The Dragon for ‘Toxic’ Changes in Deleted Blog Post

woo this blog post child George was feeling some feelings do you hear what I'm saying I think he is already very traumatized by what happened with Game of Thrones season 8 so after what they did with season two of House of the dragon and the fact that he has seen uh that other bad changes are coming to the show in the future I'm sure he's just like well I got to say something I got to say something [Music] thank you to those of you who have been signing up to my patreon we are having a lot of fun over there exclusive videos that you only get over there so check it out again many thanks to those who have already done so now spoilers are going to be ahead for season 3 and season 4 of House of the Dragon toward the middle of this video and onward but I will give a warning when we get there of course now I'm sure there are some people watching this or seeing the news with George and saying dang George just needs to go ahead uh and be quiet and finish the books like I've seen some people say that and I get also that he is the one who signed over his stuff and his work to HBO or whatever but at the same time I understand his frustration right especially if the book is right in front of people or right in front of these showrunners and all they have to do is open it up or call him you know but and and and on top of that he George has expressed that he understands that things have to be changed for TV like it just is what it is budget constraints or whatever but um and in one of the previous videos I did he did speak about like what he considers legitimate changes and um what he does like changes that he doesn't consider to be legitimate so there's already that understanding but I like at the same time I just understand his frustration of like this is my work y'all and I got to sit here and smile while y'all are butchering it while HBO or whoever the show Runners are butchering it he really had no problem calling uh Ryan Condell out like multiple times during this whole blog post I was like oh my gosh like let's get into what he said I'm going skip around a little bit um you can go ahead and read the full post if you want to link of course will be in my description but I'm I'm going to skip around just a little bit even though I'm going to read most of it because I feel like we need the context for this conversation so he said back in July I promised you some further thoughts about blood and cheese and melor the missing after my commentary on the first two episodes of House of the Dragon season 2 a sun for a son and REO the cruel so after he praised uh those episodes a bit he then said there was only one aspect of the episodes that Drew significant criticism the handling of blood and cheese and the death of Prince J Harris from the commentary I saw online opinion was split there the readers of Fire and Blood found the sequence underwhelming a disappointment watered down from what they were expecting viewers who had not read the book had no such problems most of them found the sequence a real gut Punch Tragic horrifying nightmares Etc some reported being reduced to tears I found myself agreeing with both sides in my book aegon and Helena have three children not two the twins Jaris and Jara are 6 years old they have a younger brother malor who is two when blood and cheese break in on Helena and the kids they tell her they are debt collectors come to exact revenge for the death of Prince lueras a son for a son as Helena has two Sons however they demand that she choose which one should die she resists and offers her own life instead but the killers insist it has to be a son if she does not name one they will kill all three of the children to save the life of the twins Helena names malor but blood kills the older boy J Harris instead while cheese tells the little malor that his mother wanted him dead whether the boy is old enough to understand that is not at all all certain that's not how it happens on the show there is no malor in House of the Dragon only the twins both of whom look younger than six but I am no sure judge of children's ages so I can't be sure how old they're supposed to be blood can't seem to tell the twins apart so Helena is asked to reveal which one is the boy and um George brought up that well y'all could have just looked and checked which I thought which I thought when I was watching this scene I was like why would y'all if y'all really were this pressed to get the sun why would y'all check for y' yourself and then kill the sun you know but asking this mother you know expecting her to tell you the truth it's just it was a lot um instead of offering her own life to save the kids Helena offers them a necklace blood and cheese are not tempted blood saws Prince J Harris's head off we are spare the side of that a sound effect suffices in the book he lops the head off with a sword it is a bloody brutal scene no doubt how not an innocent child is being butchered in front of his mother I still believe the scene in the book is stronger and I'm going to pause here real quick because I feel like this issue this kind of problem has been uh has been present uh with the showrunners since season six or seven of Game of Thrones is because to me it's just like okay just because the scene is brutal and blood budy and there's a child being butchered in front of his mom and the scene is graphic and shocking doesn't mean that it's automatically a strong scene it reminds me of when Dy and dizzy you know what I'm talking about D and D Dy and dizzy uh it reminds me of when they said that they wanted to subvert Expectations by having Arya kill the night King like yeah you definitely subverted my expectations all right but was it any good so I think the shock Factor shock value of certain things um or certain plot points are glorified more than what the scene was actually supposed to do you know what I mean like I don't know if that hopefully that makes sense either way he goes on the readers have the right of that the two killers are cruler in the book I thought the actors who play the killers in the show were excellent but the characters are cruler harder and more frightening in Fire and Blood in the show blood is a gold cloak in the book He's a former gold cloak stripped of his office for beating a woman to death book BL 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 want in cruelty by murdering the boy she tries to save 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 mord that his mom wants him dead um I would also suggest that Helena 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 as I saw it the Sophie's Choice aspect was the strongest part of the sequence the darkest and most visceral I hated to lose that and judging from the comments online most of the fans seemed to agree okay so he covered that then this is where the Ryan condle lashings start like this is when the lashings start so he said when Ryan Condell first told me what he meant to do ages ago back in 2022 might be I argued against it for all these reasons I 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 2-year-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 malor simply postponing him Queen Helena could still give birth to him in season 3 presumably after getting with child late in season 2 that made sense to me so I withdrew my objections and acquest to the change I still love the episode and the blood and cheese sequence overall losing the helenus choice beat did weaken the scene but not to any great degree only the book readers would even notice its absence viewers who had never read Fire and Blood would still find the scenes heartrending mayor did not actually do anything in the scene after all how could he he was only two years old there is another aspect of the removal of the young princeling however that I mean he's going to go ahead and talk about but um before that here George gives a spoiler warning um and this is my spoiler warning too because Beyond this this point in the video in the AR in um the blog we're going to be massively spoiling season 3 and season 4 um events like big events so just be aware of that all right so here George says sometime between the initial decision to remove mayor 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 Helena would never appear most of you know about the butterfly effect I assume and I'm going to skip around here because he kind of explains it but he says that the bottom here the lesson is that uh 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 so he gives this really like indepth explanation of how taking malor away even though he was was just 2 years old a toddler barely did anything like taking mayor away had a lot of implication a lot of effects on the story he said the readers among you may recall that when it appears that rira and her blacks are about to capture King's Landing Queen Alison becomes concerned for the safety of Helena's remaining children and takes steps to save them by smuggling them out of the city the task is given uh to two knights of the King's Guard sir Willis Fel is commanded to deliver princess Jara to the baratheons at Storm's end while mord is given over to Sir Rickard Thorne to be escorted across the Mander to the protection of the high tower Army on its way to King's Landing Willis Fel delivers Jara safely to the barathan at storms in but sir rard fares less well he and malor get as far as bitter bridge where he is revealed as a King's Guard in a Tavern called hogs head once discovered sir 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 malor is torn from his arms and then sadly ripped to pieces by the mob fighting over the boy and the huge reward that rira has offered for his capture and return turn will any of that appear in the show maybe but I don't see how the butterflies would seem to prohibit it you could perhaps make sir ricard's Ward be Jara instead of melor but Jara can't be killed she has a huge role to play as aon's next Air you could maybe make meor a newborn instead of a 2-year-old but that would scramble of the timeline which is a bit of a mess already I have no idea what Ryan has planned if indeed he has planned in anything but given mayor's absence from episode 2 the simplest way to proceed would be just to drop him entirely lose the bit where Allison tries to send the kids to safety drop Rickard Thorne or send him with Willis so that J Harris has two guards and that sounds like exactly what they about to do that's that's exactly what they're about to do from what I know that seems to be what Ryan is doing is doing here it's simplest yes and may make sense in terms of budgets and shooting schedules but simpler is not better the bitter Bridge scene has tension suspense action Bloodshed a bit of heroism and a lot of tragedy Ricket Thorn is a tertiary character at best most viewers as opposed to readers will never know he's gone since they will never or since they never knew him at all but I rather like giving him his brief moment of heroism a taste of the courage and loyalty of the King's Guard regardless of whether they are black or green the butterflies are not done with us yet however in the book when word of Prince mayor's death and the grizzly manner of its passing reaches the red keep that proves to be the thing that drives Helena to Suicide she could barely stand to look at meor knowing that she chose him to die in the Sophie's Choice scene and now he's dead in truth her words having come true the grief and guilt are too much for her to bear in Ryan's outline for season 3 Helena still kills herself for no no particular reason there is no fresh horror no triggering event to overwhelm The Fragile young Queen in the next paragraph he talks about how Helena was loved by the small folk but Raina was not so when rumors began to arise that Helena did not kill herself but was rather murdered at rira's command the commoners quickly believed them right so then that results in the in the bloody Riot it's the beginning of the end for rainer's rule over the City the storming of the Dragon pit all of that it just culminates into the like rera leaving and fleeing the city so George says malor 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 malor weakened the end of the blood and cheese sequence but it also cost us the bitter Bridge scene with all its horror horor and heroism it undercut the motivation for Helena suicide and that in turn sent thousands into the streets and Alys 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 at 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 aon's Second Son meor himself is not essential but if losing him means we also lose bitter Bridge Helena suicide and the riots well that's a considerable loss and there are larger more toxic butterflies to come if House of the Dragon goes ahead with some of the changes being contemplated for season 3 and four so yeah I mean George is I think right now George is probably just fighting a losing battle with HB I just think they're trying to pump as much I think they're trying to pump as much Game of Thrones content out and get as much coin in and it don't matter if we move around plot lines and it looks sloppy and whatever we know people going to click we know people gonna watch um the budget is already fake tight even I'm like constraints on the budget if y'all don't pour if y'all don't give anyway like it's HBO like y'all going to spend the money y'all want whatever y'all want to spend on but whatever ever um so I think they're just like look it's a money it's a money grab like we these story these story lines don't really have to make as much sense we just hit the main points that you hit in your books girl it doesn't matter how we get there George and we're gonna get there and move on and so I think right now George is swinging and fighting but it's it's probably not going to mean nothing as long as the money is flowing into the executives at the top as long as they're making money I don't think they going to change anything but it's just so sad to see that I mean he he he wrote out this Long blog post of just one change to show y' to show these showrunners to show everybody like how just one small like mord not being there how just one small thing can affect the whole plot and how it tie this the way that it ties together how well it ties together you know and it's like you going to do all this explaining and these guys sitting at the steering wheel of this show they are not going to care Sarah has going to be sitting there looking I mean Sarah has gonna continue to make us mad Ryan Conor gonna K I mean I just don't think they gonna change anything and honestly to me what George is explaining in this blog is a very basic tenant of Storytelling like the one of the most basic you see what I'm saying the most basic foundations of Storytelling and if your showrunners don't understand that girl you writing all this stuff down won't make a difference cuz that that's the type of stuff they should have understood before they even start before they even apply to get this kind of job like this like before they even started fully writing for real like that's that's one of the things I'm not talking about writing the script for the show I'm talking about writing in general what George is explaining is one of the basic things that you learn when you before you start writing as you are are beginning your journey with writing it's not something that needs to be explained to you when you're this big big showrunner or should should have to be explained to you when you're this big big showrunner on HBO I don't understand it I don't understand it so yeah I'm sure I'm sure because I've seen so many comments about like oh my goodness George is over here talking when he should be writing like I'm sure there's some people who are going to be a little annoyed about what George is doing and how he's been fighting but I'm just like I just whatever like we could say whatever but like I cannot imagine creating something and watching it be just you know like it's one thing to watch watch your work be adapted for TV is another thing to watch them strip everything out of it that or things out of it that you feel are pillars pillars of the entirety of the story in general so let me know what y'all think about this it was scathing He Came Out Swinging love y'all so much make sure you check out my patreon at patreon.com aatar Adrien and I'll check y'all later peace make sure that you're going to www. ziacom when you join the wait list there on the site you will be the first to be notified when I drop my sequel also you'll immediately get chapter one of my upcoming sequel of the upcoming book uh sent to your email as a PDF so check that out also this is a different excerpt uh from my upcoming book so you definitely want to pause to read if you're trying to get your life uh keep in mind that this upcoming book the sequel is following up the first book that is already released called zeria Wrath of the god king um I released it a couple years ago a few years ago it was my really it was my introduction to writing uh fantasy and stuff so just go easy on me but either way as you can see here it's given 4.9 Stars it's given 4.9 Stars so yeah check out zoria Wrath of the god king while you wait for zoria the Vengeance of cold wind right and go to ziacom sign up join the weit list get your free chapter thank you so much