A brief guide to the missing ‘House of the Dragon’ character GRRM ranted about in his blog

The second season of House of the Dragon left a significant section of the fans dissatisfied with its storylines and how some of the characters were handled, with the source material writer George R.R. Martin being the most vocal of its critics.

In a since-deleted blog post, Martin went on a lengthy rant about how shoddily he thought the “Blood & Cheese” episode was played out, as the showrunners took creative liberty while adapting from Fire & Blood. His other major gripe was the exclusion of Maelor Targaryen, who Martin believes would have had a massive role to play in the events of seasons 3 and 4.

Spoilers to Fire & Blood follow!

According to the literature, Maelor Targaryen is the second son and third child of Aegon II Targaryen and his sister Helaena Targaryen. In the show, he was omitted, with the creators opting to show only his older twin siblings, Jaehaerys and Jaehaera.

Second in line to the throne following the crowning of Aegon II, Maelor was actually the son an agonized Helaena had chosen to be the sacrifice once the two “debt collectors” put her on the spot—in the book, but not in the show. However, Blood ended up going for Jaehaerys’ head instead, exiting the scene with the heir’s head in his hand.

Following the unruly events, Helaena is unable to live with the guilt of naming Maelor as the sacrificial lamb and starts avoiding being around him. As a result, Aegon hands over the responsibility of raising Maelor to his mother Alicent, while grief completely takes over his wife. Maelor becomes the heir to the throne after his brother’s death, as the Targaryen civil war intensifies while he’s growing up.

Maelor, unfortunately, meets his end during the events of the Fall of King’s Landing, despite the best efforts of Ser Rickard Thorne to get him unscathed to Oldtown. The details of his death in the literature are quite murky, with several accounts claiming different versions of his demise. Martin warned against the removal of the character weakening plot points yet to come, which may seem like a small thing, but his main concern was minor changes like this compounding over time.