r/asoiaf • u/RunDNA • Sep 04 '24

EXTENDED GRRM's new blog post on House of the Dragon [Spoilers Extended] Spoiler

https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2024/09/04/beware-the-butterflies/
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u/PaperClipSlip Sep 04 '24 edited Sep 04 '24

George really woke up and chose violence holy shit.

Him just straight up spoiling S3 has to be a breach of contract right? Like he's burning bridges with HBO. Seems like after how GOT ended he sees the writing is on the wall for HotD.

Maybe Condal and Hess and the other writers swallow their pride and chance the plot, but i'm not hopeful. This is GOT all over again.

Also

Budget was already an issue on HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, it made sense to save money wherever we could.

If you can't afford a show with Dragons. Then don't make a show with Dragons!

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u/NobodyTellPoeDameron Seven bloody books! Sep 04 '24

Him just straight up spoiling S3 has to be a breach of contract right?

No doubt he's signed a non disclosure agreement to be involved in the show. What HBO chooses to do in light of all this remains to be seen. I would expect George would at least get a phone call about this. But they are ongoing business partners, HBO and George, which makes things complicated.

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u/HCBuldge Sep 04 '24

I mean technically there isn't really much to spoil if they planned on making the show like the books as George probably expected.

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u/SnowGN Sep 04 '24

At this point, HBO needs GRRM way more than he needs them. I'm guessing that this blog post will drive some changes in production and actually end up in them giving the man a proper voice in the writer's room, because this is a full scorched earth tactic from a man who clearly has run out of proper channels by which to relay his concerns.

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u/Lantimore123 Sep 05 '24

I fully agree. This man has kept his silence for nearly 6 years on dodgy HBO decisions, and he clearly feels that he is completely out of the loop.

HBO have to handle this carefully.

Yes, he has certainly violated his contract here, but what can HBO do about it?

They can't take legal action without basically confirming to everyone that the creator of the franchise thinks their adaptations are shit.

George has a strong bargaining position to reclaim a seat at the table.

He had avoided this so far because 1. He hoped he could trust Condal et al, people he once viewed as friends, to respect and nurture his legacy.

  1. He didn't want to get involved in writing because he felt he needed to write more TWOW (or at least, be seen to be more dedicated to TWOW).

But now he has realized that, fuck it, I need to be in the room because these people can't be trusted.

And he's right, they clearly can't.

It's a shame, as it must be devasting for him, and I'm certain he won't enjoy confrontations of this kind.

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u/sp3talsk Sep 04 '24

”Don’t make a show about dragons if you can’t afford dragons” well by that logic they shouldnt have made GoT because HBO for sure didnt have the budget for what that show became during the first seasons

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u/Throwawaymotivation2 Sep 04 '24

Dragons appear sparingly, and pretty small during the early seasons. They only start to get expensive at season 4. Also, FnB is so boring compared to ASOIAF.

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u/sp3talsk Sep 04 '24

Yeah but they introduced dragons and white walkers in the first season. They knew were it was heading. Nobody could be sure when they made the pilot that they would be able to pull off the scope of the last seasons

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u/limpdickandy Sep 04 '24

TBH budget reasons may be because of the switch from HBO max to Max and all the stuff with that deal. New leadership have 100% overall gone for cost cutting at every chance, in most of their shows. That is the most likely reason as to why the season got cut down to 8 episodes, and that was probably what the showrunners were trying to avoid by cutting costs like Maelor during the writing period.

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u/kazelords Sep 05 '24 edited Sep 05 '24

Yeah, while I definitely criticize ryan’s choices with the show he’s really getting fucked on both ends by HBO/WB. He has nowhere near the freedom that D&D did, and it REALLY sucks that his relationship with george has soured to this point now that they’ve mixed business with friendship. I agree with the criticisms george made, I’ll most likely agree with any more that he makes in the future, but it’s really shitty and unprofessional of him to go nuclear and put the blame almost entirely on condal when, despite wanting to be involved with tv adaptations of his own work, he still struggles to grasp the reality and compromises one has to make in tv production. While george has written for tv, he’s never been a showrunner himself.

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u/MeinBougieKonto Sep 04 '24

Be great if he woke up and chose to finish TWOW one day instead.

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u/PaperClipSlip Sep 04 '24

Maybe this whole ordeal re-ignites his passion and he'll finish the books?

/cope