Fans mostly support George R.R. Martin as he criticizes book changes to House of the Dragon

Drama rocked the Seven Kingdoms the other day as Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin wrote and then quickly deleted a blog post detailing his problems with HBO's Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon, which is based on his book Fire & Blood. He focused on how cutting the characters of Maelor Targaryen from the season 2 premiere could have pernicious butterfly effects on the story down the line, but he made it clear that he had bigger problems beyond this, teasing "more toxic butterflies to come, if HOUSE OF THE DRAGON goes ahead with some of the changes being contemplated for seasons 3 and 4."

Martin has been in the public eye for years, but he's never stirred the pot quite like this. HBO released a statement defending House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal as well as a podcast interview with Condal where he defends his adaptation decisions. And although we can't know why Martin took the blog post down, it's very possible the network asked. Hopefully all the parties settle things peacefully, but right now, Westeros is a messy place.

Martin's colleagues have weighed in on why they think he shared his opinions like this. In this post, I want to focus on the fans. How is the online Song of Ice and Fire fandom reacting?

Well, to start, there are plenty of people just amused by all the drama, dusting off memes new and old for the occasion:

A bunch of these posts have fun with the idea that Martin is miffed with the House of the Dragon writers, and while he does shade Ryan Condal a few times, he also says that he enjoyed the episode that he's criticizing. He's clearly not at peace with how the show has changed his books, but the posts isn't as vitriolic as these tweets make it look.

Over on that damage control podcast, @maksimnikiforovski2034 left a YouTube comment that tries to turn down the temperature in the room. "A reminder to everyone: GRRM praised Haelena's magical abilities, he praised the portrayal of Viserys, and a lot of other things. He did though say that the exclusion of Maelor is something that is bugging him. He is not being rigid, but just honest," they wrote. "Back in GOT when he was still writing an episode per season, he was very open to collaboration, and he was always happy with the product, complaining only slightly about budget restraints. What happened in season 2, was just... weird... There was no need for Alicent and Rhaeneyra to meet the way they did, and it made no sense to change Maelor and stuff."

Most of the comments on the podcast, which has far more downvotes than upvotes, are harsher. "Alicent agreeing to publicly execute her crippled son because she was friends with Rhaenyra 20 years ago literally killed the show for me. So so bad," wrote a commenter about probably the biggest change made from the book in season 2. "For the love of the seven, if you want this show to succeed, stick to the book in season 3," wrote another. "This is my Drake vs Kendrick," wrote a third, bringing it back to fun drama-gazing.

On Game of Thrones-adjacent subreddits like r/freefolk and r/houseofthedragon, the mood is very supportive of Martin. "Shout out to George R.R Martin who was absolutely brilliant on his blog tonight," reads one post on the latter subreddit to over eight thousand upvotes. Back on Twitter, there are also lots of fans lauding Martin's post and hoping the show will stick closer to the source text going forward:

As we've learned through many blowups in the past, just because a lot of people are yelling about something online doesn't make it true, although speaking as someone who likes Fire & Blood and Game of Thrones a lot, I would love to see a version of House of the Dragon that's more faithful to the source material. And I don't say that as someone who expects slavishness to the source material as a rule, but as someone who doesn't think a lot of the big changes the House of the Dragon team has made to the show have worked very well. I think this conversation would be very different if viewers hadn't found Daemon's adventures in Harrenhal boring and Rhaenyra and Alicent's alliance baffling. Meanwhile, the most successful scene of the season was the Battle of Rook's Rest, which stuck closer to the book than almost anything else in season 2. I think that tells you something.

At the same time, I respect that Ryan Condal and his team are artists who have their own interests, and I don't really expect any of this blowback to affect the future course of the series. But hey, if Condal and company look at some of the critiques (and can filter out the blatant insults), maybe they'll rethink things a little. Is trying to stay true to the text of a great book that a lot of people love really such a bad thing?

We'll know more once we watch House of the Dragon season 3, which is due out on HBO and Max in 2026.

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