House of the Dragon has made a number of divisive adaptive choices in bringing George R.R. Martin's Fire and Blood ot the screen, but arguably the most significant has been keeping Helaena off her dragon, Dreamfyre. And now one of the show's regular directors has weighed in on the contentious decision.
Spoilers for House of the Dragon season 3 episode 7 'The Dragon in Winter' lie ahead.
During the latest episode, dreamer Helaena Targaryen has a series of potentially prophetic visions. In one, Helaena is finally seen on the back of her dragon Dreamfyre, as hundreds of citizens storm the dragonpit in King's Landing. This is noteworthy because the show's version of Helaena, much like her grandfather, King Viserys, refuses to ride her dragon, fearing the corrupting power of controlling a living nuclear weapon.
Now, the episode's director, Nina Lopez-Corrado, has gone some way to explaining the controversial adaptive change, and what that vision could mean. “Helaena has such a strong feeling about the dragons in which she’s torn because she thinks that they do change people and that they’ve changed their whole world, essentially,” Lopez-Corrado told Entertainment Weekly. “So when she sees herself on the dragon and sees Dreamfyre basically take out all of King’s Landing, internally for her it burns deep.... I think she knows that deep down inside, because she is a Targaryen, there almost is no positive outcome to anything that’s happening in regards to this war in this family. And the dragons, as long as they exist, are going to keep this inner turmoil inside of the Targaryens.”
The changes to Helaena's story are something of a sore spot, as they are at the heart of George R.R. Martin's infamous "toxic butterflies" blog post. In the post, Martin explained that seemingly small changes to season 2's Blood and Cheese sequence would have serious repercussions down the line, with the absence of Helaena's son, Prince Maelor, from the scene a particular sticking point.
Showrunner Ryan Condal seems to be making good on his promise to Martin to "postpone" Maelor's introduction, however, as Helaena is currently pregnant with the young prince. Martin, and the fandom at large, however, have been concerned ever since about the show's home stretch in light of such potentially catastrophic deviations.
With just one episode left to go, House of the Dragon season 3 lived up to its title this week. Not only did we get our first proper glimpse of Dreamfyre, but there was also a four-way dragon battle in which Sheepstealer was almost killed. Aegon's dragon, Sunfyre, was also revealed to be alive, though, much like his rider, he's now looking a lot worse for wear after his season 2 run-in with Vhagar.
House of the Dragon season 3 is streaming now on HBO Max and NOW. Make sure you don't miss the season 3 finale with our House of the Dragon season 3 release.
