George R.R. Martin, the creator of the novels and the spin-off on which the HBO series relies, had quite a bit to say about the major change made to the series. On September 4, Martin he published a post on his blog titled “Beware the Butterflies,” which details his concerns about a selected scene from Season 2. However, shortly after the post was posted, Martin deleted it entirely.

Based on the post, which in the archived version could be read hereMartin seriously questioned the way the show’s creators modified the moment known to fans as “Blood and Cheese.” In the programQueen Helaena is accosted in her castle by two intruders who demand that she discover which of her two young children is a boy, ostensibly so that they can assassinate the heir to the Iron Throne. She hesitantly offers them her necklace, but after they insist, she points to Jaehaerys, her son, whom the intruder quickly kills.

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In the novel, Helaena has three children: Jaehaerys, Jaehaera, and Maelor (Maelor doesn’t appear in the series, although Martin claims in a now-deleted blog post that he was told he would seem in season three). When Blood and Cheese (as they’re known in the novel) break in, Helaena first gives up her life, then reluctantly points Maelor out to the killers, who’s the youngest. However, the intruders realize that she is avoiding declaring Jaehaerys, the next in line for the throne, and kill him anyway, with Cheese whispering to Maelor that his mother has chosen him to die before he leaves the castle.

Martin claims he argued with showrunner Ryan Condal about the change, however it didn’t last long “or get too heated,” saying Condal assured him enough that he could accept the change. “(He) had what seemed practical in mind; they didn’t want to deal with casting another child, especially a two-year-old toddler,” Martin wrote. “Children that young would inevitably slow down production and have budgetary implications. Budget was already an issue in , it made sense to save money wherever we could. Plus, Ryan assured me that we weren’t losing Prince Maelor, we were just postponing him. Queen Helaena could still give birth to him in Season 3, likely after she gets pregnant at the end of Season 2. That made sense to me, so I withdrew my objections and agreed to the change.”

While Martin ultimately “still (loved)” the episode despite the changes, he takes a much greater issue with the supposed complete removal of Maelor, writing, “Sometime between the original decision to remove Maelor, a big change was made. The prince’s birth was no longer simply going to be pushed back to Season 3. He was never going to be born at all. Aegon and Helaena’s younger son will never appear.”

He then refers to the “Butterfly Effect,” the philosophical concept that a really small thing, as small as the flutter of a butterfly’s wings, can over time have large implications for seemingly unrelated things. Martin then warns readers about spoilers, writing that “if you’ve never read it, this may not matter, because all I’m going to “spoiler” here are things that happen in the book that may NEVER happen on the show.” I’m warning you about spoilers, because now the most important themes of the novel appear.

In , Helaena commits suicide shortly after Prince Maelor’s death. Because she is beloved by the smallfolk, when rumors spread that Queen Rhaenyra had killed her (since Rhaenyra had taken over King’s Landing by this point), as a substitute of Helaena jumping out of a window in the Red Keep, the residents of King’s Landing flood the streets, demanding justice for his or her beloved ruler. “This is the beginning of the end of Rhaenyra’s rule over the city, ultimately leading to the storming of Dragonpit and the uprising of the Shepherd mob that forces Rhaenyra to flee the city and return to Dragonstone… and her death,” Martin writes.

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He continues: “Maelor doesn’t mean much on his own. He’s a little kid, has no lines of dialogue, doesn’t do anything important except die… but where, when, and how, that matters. Losing Maelor weakened the ending of the Blood and Cheese sequence… undermined the motivation for Helaena’s suicide, which in turn sent thousands of people into the streets and alleys screaming for justice for their “murdered” queen. None of this is necessary, I suppose… but it all serves a purpose, all helps tie the plot threads together, so one thing follows another in a logical and compelling way.”

Martin ends his post with an ominous warning that “if we make some of the changes planned for Seasons 3 and 4, bigger and more toxic butterflies will emerge…”

I find it funny that Martin has never been so publicly spiteful about the ending, which not only deviated from its source material but in addition created entirely latest plots since he hadn’t finished the most important novels yet. And I find it even funnier that he posted such a devastating critique a series that I feel is an adaptation in an appropriate way. But perhaps Martin did what many of us who’re in terminal online mode do, and tweeted and deleted after he enlightened himself a bit. We’ll see.

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