Despite serving as a consultant to House of the Dragon, the Game of Thrones creator disagrees with the adaptation of one of his novels, even going so far as to call Max’s flagship series “toxic.”
At the end of August, George RR Martin, author of the novels “A Song of Ice and Fire” and “Fire and Blood”, which were adapted for the big screen by HBO under the names “Game of Thrones” and “House of the Dragon”, promised to reveal everything that he thought was not fitting for Max’s latest flagship series. And the man kept his promise on September 4th with a very long article on his personal blog (now deleted). Be careful, SPOILER As for season 2, you will find out in the following paragraphs. Please consult it at your own risk if you have not seen it yet.
Game of Thrones author sharply criticizes House of the Dragon
With adaptations mainly of books to series/films, decisions have to be made for budgetary reasons or to make everything digestible in a cinema or television format. Unfortunately, we saw what happened with the final season of Game of Thrones. With House of the Dragon, HBO and its showrunner Ryan Condal also had to make some sacrifices to adapt the original novel by George RR Martin.
One of these decisions was clearly not at all to the taste of the author of “Fire & Blood,” despite being a co-creator and executive producer of the series. In a long blog post, now deleted from the archives, he focuses on the events of the first episode of the second season of House of the Dragon, titled “Blood and Cheese.” As a reminder, it ends with the murder of one of the children of Helaena Targaryen and King Aegon at the request of Daemon on behalf of Rhaenyra. In the book, however, the green royal couple had three children, including Prince Maelor, who does not appear in the series.
A “butterfly effect” with “toxic effects”
According to the author of the original novel, such an absence could cause a “butterfly effect” and drastically change the course of the story in House of the Dragon compared to Fire & Blood. Many scenes related to Maelor, in his opinion, may never have a place in the series, which he condemns. He even goes so far as to say that such decisions on the part of HBO ” other toxic effects » in the upcoming seasons 3 and 4.
However, the author has since removed the blog post in question. This may be due to a heated controversy against him or a discussion with the showrunners of House of the Dragon. Either way, time will tell if the influential author was right. In the meantime, some fans are regretting that George RR Martin is taking so much time to give his thoughts on HBO’s latest flagship series instead of finishing the final two volumes of A Song of Ice and Fire, which have been visibly in hibernation for over a decade.
Source: George RR Martin’s Blog
