To sayGame of ThronesprequelHouse of the Dragonhas had an interesting last couple of week would be an understatement . For starters , creatorGeorge R.R. Martinteased and then posted a rundown ofeverything he deemed go awry with the show ’s second time of year , wedge full of spoilery details on its third and fourth season with a teaser of more “ toxic ” changes to come in . Then Martinswiftly edit said web log post , follow by HBO releasing a statementdefending showrunner Ryan Condal — whom Martin name - pretermit — and praising him for his work on the serial . Now , Condal is speaking out about his creative change onHouse of the Dragon‘s official podcast , From Book to Screen .

Yesterday , Game of Thrones ‘ prescribed YouTube line dropped a novel podcast installment ; it feature Condal discussing the “ unique challenge of adapting the beloved George R.R. Martin book . ” Throughout the episode , Condal characterized adaptingFire & BloodintoHouse of the Dragonas “ colorize inside the lines ” of the in - universe historiographer ’s relation of Targaryen traditional knowledge . Naturally , the podcast episode discussedHouse of the Dragon‘s alteration ofBlood & Cheese — an incident where King Aegon II ’s untried heir Jaeherys adjoin his grisly oddment . Although Martin claim umbrage with how the showchanged the details of the infanticide , Condal said he stands by his decisiveness to alter its events .

“ I place upright behind the adaptation of how the plot unfolded , ” Condal said . “ I have talked about this quite a fleck , but I will just say it in plain schoolbook : the children that we had in the story were simply too young to be able to construct that narrative precisely as laid out in the book . Period . I have lots of experience working with very young performers . To require two four - yr olds to bring through that level of drama , it ’s just not a realistic expectation . ”

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© HBO

He continued : “ There ’s also a practical element around the things that you could uncover untested children to on a film set . Yes , you’re able to do clever cutaways , and dummy , and all those things . We wanted this to be a very visceral , immanent experience , not something that was very veer - yttrium , and with closeup . And when you protrude in reality 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 retrieve about and climb that we started looking for — what are the base elements of this story , that Daemon and Rhaenyra send bravo into the Red Keep , and as a answer the king ’s tike and inheritor [ is ] murdered — and how do we adopt that in a means that ’s exciting , and splanchnic , and ugly , and do it in the best way potential ? ”

After talk over how difficult it would be to at once stage the gruesome murder in Martin ’s Holy Writ from both a technological standpoint and from the perspective of unnecessarily traumatizing tyke actors , Condal also addressed Martin ’s gripe with the show ’s postponing of Maelor , the third child of Aegon II .   The heart of Condal ’s argument for why the show put off Maelor ’s arrival — as Martin put it — was to forbid a trouble the showrunners feed into in season one with the recasting of its youthful stars .

“ And Maelor , if he were expect yet in this edition of the the TV timeline , would have been an infant because of the age of Jaehaerys and Jaehaera . honestly , this goes back to our first season and trying to adapt a account that contain position over 20 years of history alternatively of a chronicle that takes place over 30 years of story . We had to make some via media in rendering that story so that we did n’t have to remold the whole cast multiple times , and really lose people , ” Condal say . “ It was a choice made . It did have a ripple essence , and we decided that we were going to lean into it and endeavor to make it a strength instead of act it as a weakness . ”

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As one might await , the scuttlebutt section for the podcast episode is a mix of buff pointing out how commodious its release was , with a majority of commenters trounce Condal as a proclaim fanfic writer complaining about doing his business . One top remark from user _ .raudes._4401 , took the middle route by writing merely , “ This is my Drake vs Kendrick . ” If their scuttlebutt is any indication that there ’s more stool pigeon disses in stock from either cantonment , be indisputable to post a kiss to the sky to your favorite swot journos task with resume Martin and Condal ’s beef about blonde - haired fantasy characters with Habsburg jaws and dragon .

desire more io9 news program ? Check out when to expect the latestMarvel , Star Wars , andStar Trekreleases , what ’s next for theDC Universe on film and video , and everything you want to roll in the hay about the future ofDoctor Who .

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