After George R.R. Martin's House of the Dragon blog, HBO responds to criticisms by backing its showrunner's "extraordinary job"

Rhaenyra in House of the Dragon season 2
(Image credit: HBO)

HBO has responded after 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:George R.R. Martin's (now-♑deleꦦted) blog post, which aired frustrations at how 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:House of the Dragon season 2 handled both its 'Blood and🍌 Cheese' scene and the removal of Helaena's son.

"There are few 🌟greater fans of George R.R. Martin and his book Fi👍re & Blood than the creative team on House of the Dragon, both in production and at HBO," HBO's statement began.

"Common൲ly, when adapting a book for the screen, with its own format and limitations, the showrunner ultimately is required to make difficult choices about the characters and stories the audience will follow. We believe that Ryan Condal and his team have done an extraordinary job and the millions of fans the series has amassed over the first two seasons will contౠinue to enjoy it."

In his blog Martin said that, though the opening two episodes of the newဣ season were "well written, well directed, [and] powerfully acted", he took umbrage with the second episode's ending. 

In it, the Blood and Cheese assassins – with the brief of a 'son for a son' – killed one of Helaena's twins. In the books, the addition of a third child (the youngest boy Maelor) complicates matters and sees Helaena offer her own life in place of her 𝄹childrens' lives.

"As I saw it, the Sophie’s Choi🐈ce aspect was the strongest part of the sequence, the darkest, the most visceral. I hated to lose that," Martin wrote, adding that he "arguౠed against it" in a conversation with showrunner Ryan Condal.

Without Maelor in the HBO series, Martin believes a "butterfly effect" wil൩l affect the adapta𝓡tion of his source material and its desired impact – including multiple major events and one character death in season 3.

"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 3 and 4," Martin ⛎cryptically teased at the end of his post. The ful♓l text is available on .

澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:House of the Dragon season 3 has been greenlit by HBO. On the rhythm and shape of the upcoming season, Condal teased to 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:GamesRadar+, "So, hopefully you start with a bang, and then you build to another bang through the series, but you're really trying to arc out the characters, so that each season is a different experience for a🔥ll of them."

Condal continued, "And then🐟 you leave them off all in a place where you can pick up with them next year, and then take them in a new direction, because you don't want to end up in that place where you're doing the same thing again and again."

For more, check out the 澳洲幸运5开奖号码历史查询:new TV shows coming your way very soon.

I'm the Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, focusing on news, features, and interviews with some of the biggest names in fi🧸lm and TV. On-site, you'll find me marveling at Marvel and providing analysis and room temperature takes on the newest films, Star Wars and, of course, anime. Outside of GR, I love getting lost in a good 100-hour JRPG༒, Warzone, and kicking back on the (virtual) field with Football Manager. My work has also been featured in OPM, FourFourTwo, and Game Revolution.