George R.R. Martin's Problems With House Of The Dragon Are Worse Than You Thought

Remember back in 2024 when George R. R. Martin decided to reveal he wasn't happy with "House of the Dragon," the adaptation of his book "Fire & Blood?" Well, things are worse than we thought.

In case you need a refresher, Martin released a blog post stating he had several bones to pick with how showrunner Ryan Condal was handling the show. Not only that, but Martin specifically made it a point to show that a major change from the books in "House of the Dragon" season 2 would essentially cause a butterfly effect with massive repercussions for the rest of the series. He even spoiled what Condal has planned for the third season of the show and the changes he's making to the story.

Last year, "House of the Dragon" showrunner Ryan Condal (whom Martin personally vouched for and brought on board the project, mind you) broke silence and responded to Martin's declaration of war. Condal expressed his disappointment, and claimed that Martin was "unwilling to acknowledge the practical issues" of making an adaptation. This is a fair enough point, especially when you consider the shorter season means less time to adapt book events.

That was the end of it, as far as we knew. Martin had issues with the show, but he would nevertheless keep working with Condal, right? Well, not so far. The author recently told The Hollywood Reporter that not only is the feud ongoing, he considers his relationship with Condal "abysmal." 

According to Martin, he and Condal were partners throughout the first season, with the author even supporting Condal over original co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik, which led to him quitting. Then everything changed in season "House of the Dragon" season 2.

According to Martin, Condal "basically stopped listening to me" by season 2. His notes would go without a response — in contrast to Martin's input in "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms," where he approved every change to the source material. Reportedly, it got so bad that HBO outright told Martin to stop giving notes to Condal and to just work through the network.

Then, after Martin's blog post, things got worse and worse. The report details a Zoom call between Martin, the show's producers and some HBO executives where Martin detailed his many objections with Condal's plans for season 3 and declared, "This is not my story any longer." This led to HBO asking Martin to step back from "House of the Dragon" altogether — though he was apparently brought back a few months later.

Now, this is awful news, and makes watching the show a rather sour experience. The Hollywood Reporter article states that Martin's biggest priority when it comes to book adaptations is faithfulness — not just to his books, but in general. Because Martin doesn't have children, he has said he considers his characters to be his children, so any attempt at changing them or removing them needs a damn good reason. This is to say, Martin does have legitimate reasons to be angry at the way "House of the Dragon" is changing not only the story, but the characters themselves.

Of course, book adaptations don't have to be faithful to their source material. Perhaps this will turn out like "The Shining" — loved by audiences, hated by the author. Still, knowing how much Martin is against the show's direction does put a sour note on the whole project.