HBO boss downplays George R.R. Martin's criticisms of House of the Dragon season 2

The other week, Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin went public with his criticisms of the second season of prequel series House of the Dragon, which is based on his book Fire & Blood. Writing on his blog, Martin took issue with the way the show is cutting important characters from the source material in ways that could negatively affect the story going forward, and hinted at much bigger complaints down the line.

Martin deleted the blog post soon after, so we may never know what those claims were. Still, he made waves; HBO tried to do some damage control, and now we fans just have to sit with the knowledge that the man who wrote the book on which House of the Dragon is based has huge problems with the show. It's awkward.

HBO CEO Casey Bloys downplayed the impact of Martin's comments when talking to Deadline about HBO's Emmy haul this past weekend. The second season of House of the Dragon wasn't in contention for this year's Emmy ceremony, but it will be next year, and Deadline asked about the show's chances now that the fanbase is "divided" over season 2.

"Well, I’m not sure that the fans were divided over Season 2," Bloys replied, whereupon Deadline brought up George R.R. Martin's comments. "Yes, maybe one fan was," Bloys continued. "But no, the show did really, really well. I expect that will be in competition."

Is the House of the Dragon fanbase "divided"?

It's true that ratings for the second season of House of the Dragon, while not as strong as ratings for season 1, were very solid. But I think Bloys is fooling himself if he doesn't see potential trouble on the horizon. For instance, tens of thousands of fans rate episodes of House of the Dragon on IMDb. In the first season, the lowest-rated episode received a rating of 8.0/10, a B-. In season 2, four episodes came in under that, with the season 2 finale getting a grade of 6.4/10, a D. And that's with 41,000 fans weighing in.

We here at WinterIsComing.net enjoyed the second season, but we definitely had more problems than we did in the first. And George R.R. Martin isn't just a "fan." He's the creator of this world and one of the most recognizable authors alive. He never complained so stridently about Game of Thrones (which is based off his A Song of Ice and Fire book series) when it was on, and yet took aim at House of the Dragon two seasons in. I think calling the fanbase "divided" is fair.

Of course, Bloys was just giving answers off the cuff, so I don't think we need to read too deeply into it. Generally, it sounds like he's still standing behind the creative team on House of the Dragon, which is par for the course for HBO; they let their creatives do what they want without much interference. Generally speaking that's a great thing; it's what's allowed so many HBO shows to push boundaries other networks are afraid to cross. But in this case, I do wish that HBO and the House of the Dragon would listen to George R.R. Martin, who knows this world inside and out. I also didn't like a lot of the changes they made from the book for season 2 and think the show would improve if they stuck closer to the vision laid out in Fire & Blood.

We won't find out for awhile; expect House of the Dragon season 3 to premiere on HBO and Max sometime in 2026. In the meantime, a new Game of Thrones prequel series called A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is premiering next year. Martin is much happier with that one:

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