George R.R. Martin Calls Out ‘House of the Dragon’ Changes

[queenursula]

George R.R. Martin Calls Out 'House of the Dragon' Changes and Warns: 'There Are More Toxic' Tweaks to Come Based on What's 'Being Contemplated for Seasons 3 and 4' https://t.co/cdicbmVVEC
- Variety (@Variety) September 4, 2024
George R.R. Martin wrote a (since-deleted) blog post about the changes in the second season of 'House of the Dragon'. Much

Comments

[automaticpeople]

Where was this for GOT???

[buries]

Out of everything… why is he so upset about Fire and Blood when Game of Thrones butchered so much?

House of the Dragon is fine. (I agree with his comment re: Maelor, but, dude, take the L and go in hard on Game of Thrones instead!)

[queenursula]

What I’ve heard was GRRM initially viewed this as a chance to “get it right” where GoT failed so that’s why he’s so salty.

[helyanwe89]

I think a lot of the mess of GoT's ending rests with GRRM. I do not believe he gave them an outline from how to get from Point A where the character was in AFFC/ADWD when we last saw them to Point B of where they're supposed to be at the end of TWOW.

People can complain about how Lady Stonehart or Young Griff were cut from the story, and maybe they would have had some important plotline but since the book series is unfinished we'll never know what was or how it intersects with other characters.

With HotD though we had completed source material so it's clear for the most part what happened (some stuff is up for question like who burned Harranhal - was it Daemon or someone else, was Jaehaera murdered, etc...), it just had to be adapted to the screen but for some reason they decided to go the direction of making it center around a relationship between Alicent & Rhaenyra that didn't exist and have made a lot of very bizarre changes.

[automaticpeople]

I thought he did give them an outline?

[helyanwe89]

I don't think so, just told them Bran would be King but didn't explain how that would happen etc

[booksforlunch]

GRRM describes himself as a "gardener" (as opposed to an "architect"). So he's not starting with an outline. He's got ideas for storybeats, characters, settings but not really a fixed plan how to get there. He "let's the story grow" as it wants into the direction he wants it to end up at. And it's been widely speculated that's the underlying reason for the long delay in publication. He likely "gardened" himself into some corners and has trouble getting to his desired endpoint from them.

So what he gave the GOT showrunners was notes on where he wants the story to end up (King Bran, Daenarys the Crazy) but not really a road map on how to get there.