George R.R. Martin promises to write about House Of The Dragon's issues, some other day

Poor George R.R. Martin has suffered from a “pretty wretched year” that he says has been “full of stress, anger, conflict, and defeat.” It’s been a stressful year for many people, as Martin acknowledges in a new blog post, but he’s personally been going through it, and some of the stress is because of his hit television show. “I do not look forward to other posts I need to write, about everything that’s gone wrong with HOUSE OF THE DRAGON… but I need to do that too, and I will,” the author writes on his blog. “Not today, though.” Well okay!

It’s unclear what went so awry with HOTD that Martin would threaten to write a tell-all about it. Earlier this month, the series concluded a critically acclaimed second season that garnered strong ratings. As an executive producer, it certainly behooves Martin to present the show in a good light, and for the most part, he has: on his blog, he praised “The Red Dragon And The Gold” as containing the best dragon battle ever depicted on screen (though he did bemoan inaccurate heraldry). One might reasonably expect the author of the source material to have issues with adaptation, but Martin has been generous about changes the show has made, giving particular kudos to characters like King Viserys and Helaena. 

He even had positive things to say about the controversial Blood and Cheese episode, though he acknowledged book fans who took issue with the alterations to this storyline. In a previous blog, he wrote that “there’s a lot [to be] said about that, but this is not the place for me to say it. The issues are too complicated. Somewhere down the line, I will do a separate post about all the issues raised by Blood and Cheese… and Maelor the Missing. There’s a lot to say.” This could definitely be what Martin was referencing about “everything that’s gone wrong,” but even with the changes to Blood and Cheese, Martin still said he “really really liked” the episode.

Perhaps “everything that’s gone wrong” has more to do with the network than it does with the show’s creative team. Warner Bros. Discovery is just… kind of a mess right now, and has been waffling a lot on its streaming strategy. Martin once went on record saying the show would need four seasons with ten episodes each to tell the complete story of the Dance of the Dragons, but the second season only got eight episodes, and showrunner Ryan Condal couldn’t comment on the episode order for the final two seasons. Shorter seasons affect everything from the top down, including the ability to properly adapt the source material—so perhaps that’s the issue Martin would like to expose. 

We won’t know until Martin finally writes up those posts and, ummm, he doesn’t have the best track record for writing something in a timely fashion. But you can drop your guesses in the comments!