House of the Dragon creator’s Helaena comments baffle fans: “Did he even read the book?”

House of the Dragon fans are convinced creator Ryan Condal didn’t read the show’s source material after he made a baffling comment about Helaena Targaryen.

House of the Dragon showcases many character moments in Season 2, but Helaena Targaryen has left some viewers wanting more from her.

Although fans empathized with Helaena after the death of her and Aegon’s son and were intrigued by the idea of her being the Three-Eyed Raven, some fans believed the show may have missed the most important aspects of her personality that were shown in the book.

This theory gained more support thanks to Condol’s comment to reporters that “Helaena was always fascinating to us because she was a bit of a tabula rasa, as described in the book. We cast this fantastic actor, Phia Saban, and we just loved her performance, and we became fascinated with who this person is.”

HBO

Tabula rasa is a Latin phrase that translates as “smooth or erased tablet.” For English speakers, this would be the equivalent of calling someone a “blank slate.”

Basically, Condal and the writers seemed to view Helaena as someone on whom they could project the story’s themes and ideas instead of giving her a more individualized storyline like Alicent or Aemond received.

The problem with this thinking is that readers of Fire & Blood, the book House of the Dragon is based on, argue that this characterization of Helaena is a far cry from who she is in the source material.

In the book, Helaena is shown to be a devoted mother and dragon rider who uses her voice to sway Aegon from doing too much damage during the Dance of the Dragons.

However, the show focused on making her a weaker character after the events of Blood & Cheese, which rubbed some the wrong way.

“I mean, I get there’s not exactly much to her in the books but did he really have to ignore the one thing we very much did know about her (she loves flying),” one fan posted on the show’s subreddit.

Another commented, “How is this Halaena in the show so insanely fascinating? She has barely any development as a character of her own. She’s just there. She’s barely a character now.”

And a third viewer wrote, “Season 1 Halaena was cool. Season 2 they decided hey let’s turn her into Bran. Even though what happens in the book is way more tragic and interesting than this slop they gave us.”

House of the Dragon Season 2 is now available to stream in its entirety, but Season 3 is on the way. In the meantime, check out the 5 shows just like it to watch, and don’t miss our breakdown of the Season 2 ending explained.