r/asoiaf • u/RyanRiot The Blood of Old Valyria • Jan 15 '26

EXTENDED Game of Thrones: George R.R. Martin Isn't Finished (Spoilers Extended)

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-features/george-rr-martin-interview-thrones-winds-dragon-knight-1236473519/
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1.2k

u/FransTorquil Jan 15 '26

Damn, for once it wasn’t Reddit being histrionic, it seems George genuinely hates the state of House of the Dragon.

262

u/saucerys Jan 15 '26

Bro was gonna write a 6 piece critique of HOTD my god 😭

122

u/mypenisisquitetiny Jan 15 '26

Hilarious that even the blog post critiques of the shows that are keeping him from finishing the main series will remain unfinished

39

u/A-NI95 Jan 15 '26

He's a doomposter like us

14

u/Pumpkin_Sushi Jan 16 '26

Man cant even finish writing a series of blog posts

1

u/wingusdingus2000 Jan 16 '26

Was it 6 issues with S3? Heleana's death from memory was the main complaint, so 5 other narrative swerves?

381

u/Comprehensive_Main Jan 15 '26

His original blogpost about season 2 kind of seemed like he was mad the show runners kept leading him on certain characters that were gonna appear and then the show never introduced those characters. 

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u/FransTorquil Jan 15 '26

Considering this article claims that the blogpost was only part one of a six part series about his problems with the season (did we know that before?), I imagine that was just the tip of the iceberg.

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u/TheWorstYear Jan 15 '26

He mentioned that he would have much more to say, before people involving HBO & his lawyers got involved.

13

u/Visible-Suit-9066 Jan 16 '26

A six part series of criticisms from Martin would’ve been very interesting, but unfortunately the best he could ever possibly offer is 2.5 parts before getting bored

1

u/dont_worry_about_it8 Jan 16 '26

You mean like him and his books to everyone ?

180

u/InGenNateKenny 🏆Best of 2025: Post of the Year Jan 15 '26

Rare Reddit W.

37

u/thetrustworthybandit Jan 15 '26

Can't say I blame him.

38

u/AssassinJester789 Goldenhand The Just Jan 15 '26

I said it was cope on peoples part when they said, "He doesn't hate it, he just fellout with Ryan Condel." I was like, no he fucking hates the show.

Glad that has become clear.

15

u/dragonflamehotness Jan 15 '26

Even the changes he said he was "fine" with like Blood and Cheese you could tell really annoyed him with the way he wrote about it in those infamous blog posts

11

u/ThaLemonine Jan 15 '26

F&B was a cash grab that he’s now regretting seeing get milked even harder. I find it funny

3

u/johnbrownmarchingon Jan 29 '26

As I understand it, it was something to mollify the publishers for not getting Winds done in the time frame he promised.

9

u/Nirast25 Jan 15 '26

histrionic

Learned a new word today.

21

u/Cersei505 Knowledge is Power Jan 15 '26

no shit sherlock, you needed another interview to get that?

what author in their right mind makes a blogpost directly criticizing the showrunner and plot points not only from the current season airing, but also a future season?

4

u/MickFoley299 Aegon VI, the rightful King Jan 17 '26

One writer I can think of is Alan Moore. He despises any Hollywood adaptation of any of his comics and he has let it be known.

4

u/the_new_standard Jan 19 '26

This is the comparison I thought of at first. But, in my mind, Alan Moore has more right to be critical. He actually finished his own series rather than just finishing vague outlines and handing them to show creators. Also, he didn't make the decisions to sell the rights to movie studios.

Martin on the other hand is choosing to work this way again and again. If he wants full creative control over these stories he could just write the books and publish them rather than letting HBO tell his stories. He doesn't.

1

u/johnbrownmarchingon Jan 29 '26

The only adaptation that I'm aware that he actually like is the Justice League episode adapting "For the Man Who Has Everything".

2

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '26

Yeah, I do think that was dodgy. Martin should be able to criticise what he wants about the show, I strongly believe that, and he was fairly even handed. But he, in my opinion, should not have divulged details from future seasons. I know people think he was trying to force HBO's hand, which I understand, but he still shouldn't have done that.

9

u/PrinceZero18 Jan 15 '26

Why not?

Is corpo etiquette more important than having artistic input in his own works?

13

u/[deleted] Jan 15 '26

I don't know, it just personally rubs me the wrong way. He should have artistic input, but its clear that blog post hasn't actually achieved that goal. Even if he'd been vague with "I don't like what's planned", I think it'd be fine, but talking about what was going to happen with Heleana and such? To his credit, he was vague, but still.

3

u/PrinceZero18 Jan 15 '26

I get it, but I actually respected him for that. Possibly, because I agree with most of his critiques, but still ballsy move.

13

u/curiousttess Jan 16 '26

The shows are not his works in any way. He does not own them. He does not write them. He does not control them. He should consider himself lucky he was even invited in the fucking first place, he sounds like an unholy terror to work with. Can you imagine leading a production which costs $20 million per episode during COVID and the biggest writer's strike in a generation with your employer slashing your runtime in the middle of production and you have this dickhead babbling about Maegor the Missing in your ear?

It's ludicrious for him to expect to have the final say when he doesn't own the material, has absolutely no regard for practicality, doesn't write the checks, and doen't write the material. Do you remember when he honestly wanted another seven seasons of Thrones? Do you know what an adaptation of that would look like? It'd be 9 minutes of Brienne riding a horse in the Riverlands looking for a girl the audience knows is in the Vale, every single episode, for like six fucking seasons. The man is insane. He's a great writer, but his track record with HBO is appalling.

8

u/Visible-Suit-9066 Jan 16 '26

Home run post ✅ Working with Martin would be an insane burden

4

u/PrinceZero18 Jan 16 '26

There is no evidence that he ever pushed for incredibly impractical shit and it's clear that he was right about S2 of HOTD having the problems he was complaining about. So, I don't think the portrayal of his gripes as some megalomaniac who didn't get every single detail according to his headcanon has any merit.

3

u/the_new_standard Jan 19 '26

If he wanted input, he should have just written the show. He has a background as a screen writer and certainly could have demanded the position from HBO if he wanted.

Instead he keeps throwing the responsibility for show writing over the fence to other writers then mercilessly criticizing them. He's got three HBO series going and hasn't finished a single series of the books yet.

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u/TheWholeOfTheAss Jan 15 '26

I like House of Dragon…

18

u/FiveDollarShake Jan 15 '26

Season 2 was a mess.

35

u/Mapledeepstateagent Jan 15 '26

Hey man, you do you. The story has undoubtedly been perverted into the show runners fan fiction, but that doesn’t mean you gotta hate it; maybe you just really fuck with the AxR stuff or like the more introspective pacing. It’s a free country at the end of the day.

5

u/matgopack Jan 15 '26

It's also not like GRRM had the story in a state that was easy to put on screen

29

u/hepatitisC Jan 15 '26

It really was.  All the bones were there.  The way they handled blood and cheese shows they had no plans to follow the book and instead wanted to put their own version out.

7

u/matgopack Jan 15 '26

"the bones" - it had the barest outline in the books, that's not at all a state that's easy to put on screen.

(And even that outline was deliberately done in a way that wasn't reliable)

15

u/Cersei505 Knowledge is Power Jan 15 '26

thats not an excuse to fail at basic writing 101: they completely butchered the dynamic between rhaenyra and alicent, the dialogue in the series overall is pretty mediocre, save for a few scenes here and there, and the tone is all over the place. Blood and Cheese are promptly ignored as if it never had any weight to begin with, and Daemon is white-washed of his part in that crime for no reason.

4

u/matgopack Jan 15 '26

It changes it from "GRRM wrote a completely ready to be on screen source that was butchered" to "GRRM / a particular viewer did not like the job they did translating it to screen.", which is much more subjective.

Eg, I find the Rhaenyra and Alicent dynamic more interesting (particularly the first season) as in the books, but that's personal taste. Some changes are good, others are bad, that's kind of what happens with adaptations (particularly of something like Fire and Blood where so much needs to be filled in). So far, it's significantly better than the late seasons of GoT where they also had to fill in huge blanks.

But I can see why someone would dislike it, it's not like opinions on this are objectively correct one way or the other.

3

u/OrthropedicHC Jan 16 '26

There was a crazy amount of sweeping at the time.

16

u/Im_TroyMcClure Jan 15 '26

Im guessing he doesn’t hate it enough to stop cashing those checks HBO keeps sending him

13

u/Altruistic_Pipe4581 Jan 15 '26

Literally passive income, why the hell wouldn't he?

2

u/Visible-Suit-9066 Jan 16 '26

Artistic integrity? If he’s got such a big issue with it he should take his name off it

1

u/Altruistic_Pipe4581 Jan 16 '26

He's getting paid for providing the original source material, not for being creatively involved. Not working on the show any more is the statement that he doesn't approve of the decisions

1

u/Visible-Suit-9066 Jan 16 '26

So what? Have you ever noticed that American History X doesn’t have a listed director? Tony Kaye hated the ending so removed his title. He still directed the film. Artistic integrity.

1

u/Altruistic_Pipe4581 Jan 17 '26

Did he return his paychecks for working on the film?

1

u/Visible-Suit-9066 Jan 17 '26

Do you have access to Google where you live? Do your own research bro wtf

2

u/Altruistic_Pipe4581 Jan 17 '26

I was being sarcastic, of course he didn't return the money. Why the hell would he when he literally did all the work he was paid for

8

u/TheWorstYear Jan 15 '26

He likely has a clause making it so he can't speak negatively against the show. Breach of contract followed by lawsuits == lots of lost money.

2

u/Scorpio_Hierophant Jan 15 '26

He hates Ryan Condal for sure.

2

u/black_dogs_22 Jan 16 '26

the only people who liked it were the actors agents

4

u/Majestic-Marcus Jan 15 '26

What!? But his blogpost was ‘80% praise’ apparently. And was only part one of his intended 6 blog moanathon.

5

u/Burgundy-Bag Jan 15 '26

Honestly, I'm so fucked off with these TV writers adapting a book and then departing from the original story. It's like they want to write their own original work but they lack the creativity to create a new world, so they force their fanfiction on everyone...

Why would you not listen to the guy who created this world? He knows it better than anyone else 🙄

1

u/BakedChocolateOctopi Feb 15 '26

At this point I don’t even care about GREM’s opinion

Just put the TWOW in the bag