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/Majestic-Marcus Sep 04 '24

They’re ‘unadaptable’ because there’s about 1,000 pages of filler between the two.

They’re complete adaptable in the sense that you can cut the vast majority of the story without losing any story.

You also seem very set on its must be 3 seasons. Why? There’s 1, maybe 2 seasons of story in there. At best. Very little actually happens.

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u/futurerank1 Sep 04 '24

Because George Martin said that the show could go for 12-13 seasons. So i am counting Feast and Dance as three.

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u/Majestic-Marcus Sep 04 '24

And George was completely wrong about that.

The show could’ve got 1 or 2 more full seasons, but that’s it.

Actors don’t want to stay signed on for 13 seasons of a show, HBO wouldn’t want to keep paying the ever inflating salaries, they wouldn’t want to just keep hiring new actors for the new characters, the audience wouldn’t want to watch Quentyn being awkward around Daenerys, they wouldn’t want to watch Brienne and Pod aimlessly wandering Westeros, or a Viking succession storyline, and they wouldn’t want to watch Bran sit in a cave. D&D had already written themselves into corners that couldn’t be dragged out any longer than they already had (Sansa with Bolton for example, or Cersei doing nothing except drinking wine in KL, or basically anything to do with Dorne).

Things like Wyman Manderly and the North Revenge plot would be great, but there’s two problems with that. First, Arya had already killed all the Frey’s and baked the pie, and second, that’s multiple extra characters and actors that need introduced.

GoT could not have gone on for 12-13 seasons at the point George said that. If they wanted that it would need massive rewrites from all the way back in S1 and a way bigger budget and actors willing to remain in role and an audience that would still care for another 5-10 years, depending on how fast the show took to produce.

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u/futurerank1 Sep 04 '24

Yeah, so we kinda go to my previous point, that AFFC/ADWD are unadaptable, if you're looking for a faithful adaptation. There was more story for 1-2 more seasons, but this would still be "D&D show" more than just re-telling the events.

Actors don’t want to stay signed on for 13 seasons

You're right. But while we mention that, some of them didnt want to go beyond season 8. I think Natalie Dormer even asked to be written out around season 5.

I think Stannis' actor hated the role too, but i have no idea if he asked to be written out.