George R.R. Martin's Candid Opinion on House of the Dragon Will Trigger Avid Book Fans
Believe it or not, GRRM himself has a completely different opinion about House of the Dragon’s small-screen adaptation, and he has quite a few words to say about it.
George Martin ’s books became immensely popular after HBO bought the rights for adaptation of his The Song of Ice and Fire and created Game of Thrones — the biggest and most popular show in the world at the time it was aired.
GoT revealed its original author’s genius to millions of fans all around the globe, and he rose to fame.
Immediately, the audience split into two parts, as it typically happens: some people were more than happy with just watching the show, and others decided to read the original books — and couldn’t take GoT’s changes and simplifications ever since. Like in other franchises, the book fans were never happy with the live-action version.
Fast-forward a few years, and now, history repeats itself with the second adaptation of George Martin’s work: House of the Dragon, a new series based on Fire & Blood.
The majority of book fans can’t stand the small-screen version and claim that it’s as unfaithful to the source material as it gets — insulting, even, to GRRM’s genius.
Well, the iconic author himself doesn’t think so. In fact, he’s more than happy with the script and the way House of the Dragon turned out in general!
“I thought it was a very strong draft to begin with. I was very heartened. It was recognizably my story. When you’re looking at an adaptation of your own work, there’s always a little trepidation. <...> Ryan [Condal, the showrunner] made all the right choices,” Martin explained in Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon: Inside the Creation of a Targaryen Dynasty.
The showrunner himself was quite thankful for George Martin’s insights and help during the initial stages of creating the show and beyond them, too.
“George was heavily involved at the very beginning of our pilot process, and then, once he felt like he knew the story we were telling, he could see where it was going, he really stepped back — but he would check in at key points,” Condal explained.
So believe it or not, even avid Fire & Blood fans have to come to terms with reality now: House of the Dragon was 100% approved by George Martin. Considering how GRRM himself used to be a show writer back in the day, he knows how to adapt books — and if the man says that HotD nailed it perfectly, then that’s how it is.