Ryan Condal slams George RR Martin’s claims that showrunner ‘weakened’ House of the Dragon

In a now deleted blog post that was posted last week, George RR Martin heavily criticised the showrunner of House of the Dragon, Ryan Condal. In the blog post, George RR Martin criticised the House of the Dragon showrunner, Ryan Condal, saying the two got into arguments over storyline aspects in Blood and Cheese.

At one point George discussed the cut character of Maelor, Halaena’s younger son and said he doesn’t think Ryan has “anything planned” for his introduction and thinks Ryan is just trying to be “simple” which is “not always better.”

Via HBO

However now, Ryan Condal has defended his choices surrounding the show and has well and truly clapped back. First off he addressed the changes from the book to the series adaptation of Blood and Cheese. George wrote in his blog, that he initially “argued against” the changes with Ryan back in 2022 as he felt the change “weakened” the sequence. One of the reasons Ryan gave him for wanting to make the change is that he didn’t want to deal with “casting another child.”

Via HBO

George explained that he initially “argued against” the changes with Ryan back in 2022 as he felt the change “weakened” the sequence. One of the reasons Ryan gave him for wanting to make the change is that he didn’t want to deal with “casting another child.”

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Ryan Condal explained that he “stands behind the adaptation” and there’s a lot you don’t see behind the scenes. He said: “I stand behind the adaptation of how the plot unfolded. I have talked about this quite a bit, but I will just say it in plain text: the children that we had in the story were simply too young to be able to construct that narrative exactly as laid out in the book. Period.

“I have lots of experience working with very young performers. To ask two four-year-olds to play through that level of drama; it’s just not a realistic expectation.

“There’s also a practical element around the things that you can expose young children to on a film set. Yes, you can do clever cutaways, and dummies, and all those things. We wanted this to be a very visceral, subjective experience, not something that was very ‘cut-y’ and with closeups.

“And when you start actually breaking apart what happens in that room, and the things that are said, and the things that are done, it became such a challenge to think about and mount that we started looking for—what are the base elements of this story, that Daemon and Rhaenyra send assassins into the Red Keep, and as a result the king’s child and heir [is] murdered—and how do we dramatize that in a way that’s exciting, and visceral, and horrifying, and do it in the best way possible?”

Via HBO

Ryan Condal also addressed the backlash he faced from George RR Martin surrounding cutting Maelor from House of the Dragon, who is the younger son of Aegon and Halaena. Whilst George speculated about how the show could introduce the character he doesn’t think Ryan has “anything planned” for his introduction and thinks Ryan is just trying to be “simple” which is “not always better.”

Ryan responded: “And Maelor, if he were born yet in this version of the the television timeline, would have been an infant because of the age of Jaehaerys and Jaehaera. Frankly, this goes back to our first season and trying to adapt a story that takes place over 20 years of history instead of a story that takes place over 30 years of history.

“We had to make some compromises in rendering that story so that we didn’t have to recast the whole cast multiple times and really lose people. It was a choice made. It did have a ripple effect, and we decided that we were going to lean into it and try to make it a strength instead of playing it as a weakness.”

For all the latest news and drama and drops, quizzes and memes about George RR Martin, Ryan Condal and House of the Dragon, like The Tab on Facebook. 

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• George RR Martin slams House of the Dragon as ‘underwhelming’ and ‘simple’ in scathing blog post

• Brutal Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon digs prove George Martin hates both shows

• HBO issues statement as George RR Martin mysteriously deletes House of the Dragon blog post

Featured images via HBO and YouTube.