George’s blog post is up and he’s big mad. Rightfully so.
This will be a yapping session from someone who started watching Game of Thrones when season 5 was airing and witnessed the fall of the series season by season. Does this make me an expert? Of course not, but I’m no summer child either. Or as I often quote to my friend who has to read through my weekly nerd rages: I think I’ve seen this film before, and I didn’t like the ending.
I believe most of us already realized the writing in this season was terrible for both teams, and some of y’all are just horny. I’m joking. Everyone has the right to enjoy bad television. Ehm, anyway.
In Game of Thrones, we had characters that were either merged into one person (the Tyrell brothers), were forgotten (Rickon Stark), or completely removed (Young Griff). Removal of Willas and Garlan Tyrell is a personal heartbreak of mine, but budget and story wise it made sense as Willas hasn’t appeared in the books yet, and Garlan, despite being nothing but awesome every time he opened his mouth, hasn’t done anything major yet — but it can still be argued that removing them paved the way for future bad writing decisions (Sack of Highgarden). And removing Young Griff potentially caused the writers to end up not knowing what to do with certain characters in the latest seasons (Varys).
Enough yapping, let’s get to the point.
All these small changes and corner cuts led us to the mess season 7 and 8 was. But this can all be excused because George didn’t finish the books in time.
However, for House of the Dragon, this is not the case. We have a complete story. We know how it started and how it ended.
This is why we can’t use the same excuse that was used for Game of Thrones (“George should’ve finished the book if he is so worried about his legacy.”)
And George has all the right to be mad (and he is. To the point he spoils Condal’s plans for seasons 3. Good for him. I hope the HBO is sweating right now).
One thing that was painfully obvious in this season was that Condal and Hess don’t respect the material they’re adapting. We all know Hess didn’t watch Game of Thrones and boasts about it (explains the terribly written and technically wrong food blockade because Game of Thrones very clearly explains where the food comes to the King’s Landing). But George’s blog reveals issues beyond just budget contraints.
At least don’t lie to the creator of the series you are getting paid to adapt?
Personally, D&D did a pretty great job in the first 4 seasons until they ran out of material. We were on season 2 of HOTD with plenty of material and a finished story. What’s the excuse here?
Ego? Probably. Disrespect? Absolutely. (I mean, the “Rhaenicent” ending is pretty self-explanatory. This is a fan fiction at this point, and I’ve read many better written ones.)
George gets into more detail about what something as simple as Maelor’s removal will lead to. If you don’t mind spoilers, I recommend you to read the blog to lose every little bit of hope you have left for the show.
All I’m going to add is that remember when people were speculating Daeron was also removed from the story (and probably was until the backlash)? I advice don’t get too excited for him. Without his nephew getting ripped into pieces by a mob and the iconic “you shall receive the same terms you gave my nephew Maelor” line, he’s probably going to be reduced to another character C&H will clown on.
But hey, maybe next season Rhaenyra and Alicent will finally kiss after Alicent opens up about the marital rape she went through (and no, I’m not homophobic. I’m attracted to women, but I personally experienced how dehumanizing it is when you’re opening up to someone about something bad you went through and they are turned on by it.)
Long story short, the show is only going to get worse, and I’ll probably only return to watch the Hour of the Wolf (if they don’t cut it like they did with Jace’s visits to the Vale and the North).
If I wanted bad queerbaiting, I would’ve followed my country’s politicians.
I hope George releases more blog posts about how they massacred his work so I can return with more vent posts.
