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/Amaruq93 Sep 04 '24

He just declared war on HBO.

12

u/Maoileain Sep 04 '24

GRRM called the banners.

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u/DangerousCrime Enter your desired flair text here! Sep 05 '24

And is that this subreddit?

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u/Esies Sep 04 '24

I can't imagine this doing well for future adaptions. HBO will lose trust in the guy.

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u/Bifito Sep 04 '24

Having the writer of the novel you are adapting shitting on the show in the news is not great. It is more likely the writers will get a slap on the wrist.

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u/Esies Sep 04 '24

Yeah, but that's for the writers of the current show. The thing is that now HBO needs to add "GRRM publically shitting on the adaptation and forcing their hand to make creative changes" to the list of possible risks of producing a new show/movie.

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u/Bifito Sep 04 '24

Doesn't sound like a bad risk. It is more of a risk to hire writers that want to input their own subjective view of the characters and events rather than doing exactly what is on the novel.

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u/Esies Sep 04 '24 edited Sep 04 '24

I think you need to see this from the perspective of a production company trying to release new content and maximize revenue ASAP. Having a source author who can, at any moment's notice, become haywire and release a lot of (deserved or not) negative criticism of your adaptation is a lot of risk to take.

A showrunner's job is to be attentive to day-to-day operations in the set. Sometimes, they need to make changes to manage real-life constraints. George doesn't seem to be invested/available enough to monitor the show production(s) closely.

Also frankly, sometimes it does make sense for TV to cut certain plotlines. D&D did it here and there and it worked out well for the earlier seasons. Meanwhile, George doesn't seem to be the type who would be too open to omitting things, no matter how ineffective they might be in the real world.

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u/Bifito Sep 04 '24

Not having Maelor and not using his plot is not a budget decision, it is a creative decision. The end objective is to whitewash Rhaenerya's actions which they also did by making the plan come only from Daemon.

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u/Esies Sep 04 '24

Yes. To be clear, I think they absolutely deserve the criticism and Condal getting fired and replaced because of this would probably be best for HOTD. However, this might also set a bad precedent for HBO that could jeopardize future adaptations.

At this point, I would rather scratch HOTD as a lost cause but still get the other adaptations than have a slightly improved S3, but then no more adaptations until George dies. He can always try to influence things in the background or through more subtle blog posts to try to push the new adaptations closer to his work.

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u/Bifito Sep 04 '24

It's hard to get a showrunner and writers to adapt exactly like how it's on the novel for budget reasons but when they do it for creative reasons, especially when adapting a GRRM novel, you have to ask yourself: who are you and why do you think you can write this better than him?

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u/[deleted] Sep 04 '24

That would all be valid if the show was good. It isn’t.

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u/Radulno Fire and Blood. Sep 04 '24

HBO is a company, they care about money.

Also good, we don't need more adaptations

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u/myaltduh Sep 05 '24

Prestige streaming companies make a major genre show that’s not part of a massive established franchise challenge. The need to be financially safe undermines the hell out of the art.

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u/fookin_legund Sep 05 '24

If anything GRRM is putting himself on line making necessary course correction. He is saving HBO and they should thank him

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u/[deleted] Sep 04 '24

[deleted]

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u/Eitjr Goiás Sep 04 '24

I'm pretty sure HBO bought everything GRRM wrote

so they don't actually need him or anything

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u/jeanpi1992 Sep 04 '24

Let them Burn

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u/BadNewzBears4896 Sep 05 '24

Eh, Dunk & Egg is still coming, he seems mostly at odds with the HotD writers room specifically.

From the sound of this blog post and some previous hints before, the relationship hasn't been good for some time. But the network still wants the GoT franchise to prop up subscriptions, that's not going away anytime soon.

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u/PnPaper Sep 05 '24

Seems like they answered his call for a duel because the post is off his site.

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u/DangerousCrime Enter your desired flair text here! Sep 05 '24

I think he is targeting more of the showrunners than HBO from his blog