House of the Dragon's Season 3 Episode 4 twist may rectify one of the series' early adaptation changes that garnered author George R.R. Martin's ire. The HBO Max series is an adaptation of the Targaryen civil war depicted in Martin's Westeros history book, Fire & Blood. While staying close to the source material in many areas, House of the Dragon has sometimes taken liberties with the story and characters of Fire & Blood, much to Martin's disapproval.
One such change was the removal of Maelor Targaryen, the third child of Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) and Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban). In the book, Helaena and Aegon have three offspring: Jahaera and Jahaerys, twins, and Maelor, a boy born four years later. However, in the show, Helaena has only the twins, not a third child.
It seems that might be about to change following a twist reveal in Episode 4 of Season 3, which saw Alicent (Olivia Cooke) discover that her daughter, Helaena, is pregnant once again. The major difference here is that Helaena's pregnancy comes after Rhaenyra has taken King's Landing and after the controversial Blood and Cheese event that resulted in Jaehaerys' death.
Around the time of the Season 2 premiere, which featured the Blood and Choose storyline, George R.R. Martin took to his personal blog to reprimand the changes the House of the Dragon had made from his novel, particularly the removal of Maelor Targaryen. Martin said in the post (which has since been taken down) that Maelor's presence in the scene, in which Helaena is forced to choose which of her sons will be killed, was "the strongest part of the sequence," and that he "hated to lose that."
"As I saw it, the 'Sophie’s Choice' aspect was the strongest part of the sequence, the darkest, the most visceral. I hated to lose that. And judging from the comments online, most of the fans seemed to agree."
At the time, Martin said that House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal told him Maelor would still be in the series and that Helaena would have him in Season 3. Although Martin added that later, Condal decided to "remove Maelor" entirely:
"Sometime between the initial decision to remove Maelor, 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 Helaena would never appear."
It seems that Condal has gone back to the original plan for House of the Dragon, as Helaena now appears to be pregnant, and her offspring, when born, will more than likely be Maelor Targaryen. However, the new timeline placement of this event could still cause problems for House of the Dragon.
House of the Dragon Finally Sets Up Tragic Maelor Targaryen Storyline
Warning - The rest of this article contains spoilers for George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood.
With Helaena now seemingly pregnant in House of the Dragon, the series will need to skip ahead in time for Maelor Targaryen to be born and thus set the stage for one of the most tragic events in Fire & Blood.
In the novel, after Rhaenyra takes King's Landing, Alicent and Helaena are taken captive. The major difference is that by this point in the book, Maelor is a toddler and was present during the Blood and Cheese event, in which Helaena chose him for sacrifice, seeking the most merciful choice and selecting him because he was the youngest and wouldn't understand what was happening. This event caused a rift between mother and son, as Helaena couldn't bear to be near Maelor due to the guilt she felt. Therefore, Alicent raised him in her stead.
Another difference comes when Lord Larys Strong sneaks Aegon II out of the castle before Rhaenyra's attack, and takes Maelor with them. He is then given to the Kingsguard knight Ser Rickard Thorne to be taken to Old Town. Later in the war, however, Thorne and Maelor are killed by a mob at Bitterbridge, and Maelor's head is sent to King's Landing. The death of Maelor is another thing that adds to Princess Helaena's depression, which tragically leads to her taking her own life.
The problem that House of the Dragon now has is that Maelor has not yet been born, and unless the series does a fairly significant time jump, it will need to find another way to recreate the emotional impact of Maelor's death at Bitterbridge.
Martin warned of the problems removing Maelor would bring in his blog post, sharing that Condal's outline for Season 3 still includes Helaena's suicide, but that it happens for "no particular reason" in the show. "There is no fresh horror, no triggering event to overwhelm the fragile young queen," Martin wrote.
Condal clearly seems to have changed some elements of his outline since Martin wrote about it, seeing as Helaena is now pregnant again, likely with Maelor. But whether the show can find a way to include Maelor as a significant character in the time constraints given, or is bold enough to perform another time jump, will determine whether one of Fire & Blood's most tragic storylines can be pulled off on-screen.
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