“A butterfly flaps its wings in Amazon and it rains in Shanghai”. With this heavy metaphor, George R.R. Martin posted perhaps one of the most brutal takedowns of the second season of the show House Of The Dragon. As it happens, his criticism matters the most because, after all, the show is based on his book.
While the latest season of the hugely appreciated show failed to impress many ‘book purists', casual viewers liked it all the same. In a comprehensive, detailed, and, quite frankly, the most vulnerable piece Martin has ever written, the celebrated fantasy author complemented the writers and actors for their ‘magnificent' work and focused all of his ire and wrath on showrunner and friend — though a former friend now, probably — Ryan Condal. Unsurprisingly though, he deleted the post within minutes as memes sprung up soon after showing HBO, the house which platforms Martin's adaptations, locking Martin in a cell.
The internet seems divided: viewers are calling Martin unprofessional, even uncouth, for airing his dirty laundry and insulting Condal. But more serious book readers stress that he is just owning up to his disappointment and speaking up.
'Beware The Butterflies'
The format Martin chose to air his disappointment in also speaks volumes: his lovely website called ‘Not A Blog'. While Martin is not exactly media unfriendly - he does appear in interviews and panels and conventions - he is not an X-savvy influencer the modern world is so used to. He still uses a typewriter and Word Star processors. His ‘Not A Blog' is, in a way, the only channel for directly communicating with his audience.
In the blog in question, titled Beware The Butterflies, Martin started softly. He highlighted how a very minor change to his story, which he has spent 20 years or more crafting, will have ripple effects. The small absence of a royal prince Maelor — fans have dubbed it ‘Maelor the missing' — or the changes Condal made to the infamous ‘Blood and Cheese' incident where assassins kill the royal successors, will eventually “ruin” the future storyline, Martin said. He has directly accused the showrunner of taking the emotional weight out of these storylines. And honestly, I can't disagree.
Adapting to television from text is a difficult undertaking already. When you add in dragons, magic, prophecies and a century-old history, the challenges are even more daunting — not to mention hordes of zealous book fans ready to fight like riders going into Rohan (from one of the finer book-to-screen adaptations, Lord Of The Rings). So, is it not wise to keep the history of the source intact? The best of adaptations have largely stayed loyal to their source material. And why shouldn't they? Writing books takes years, sometimes even decades. Each word is a droplet that collectively makes the ocean of the story. In the case of fantasy, there is a bevy of historical texts that a writer refers to. Everything is interlinked. Every scene spills into the next to create a continuous timeline.
'Grandpa Yelling At Cloud'
On a separate note, many fans have complained that Martin's takedown is a bit misdirected. “How dare he point out these little flaws and not comment on massive plotline changes?”, they are wondering on social media. I have a theory about that. Martin, possibly, had planned to publish a series of blogs about all the changes and alleged flaws in the show. After all, he had promised blogs about things he disliked back in July.
Some fans are calling him a ‘grandpa yelling at cloud' (the popular The Simpsons meme), arguing that he is entirely wrong to judge when he is yet to deliver the sixth instalment of A Song Of Ice And Fire, titled Winds Of Winter. I, too, am weary of the wait as a fan. However, the yearning for one book can't be used to justify butchering his work in another series.
The GoT Adaptation
There's another section of fans turned critics, who are furious that Game Of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, popularly known as Dan and Dave or D&D, were not publicly humiliated by Martin.
The Game Of Thrones TV adaptation has possibly the most hated season finale in the history of television, arguably more than Lost. However, no matter how much D&D messed up, they had one very valid excuse: the show had surpassed the books. As mentioned before, the ASOIAF series, on which the GoT show was based, had five books out at the time the first season of the show came out. By season four, the show had caught up with book five. On the other hand, HoTD is based on Fire and Blood Part 1, and in parts, The World Of Ice And Fire. Both books are complete and published.
While Martin worked as a producer on the show, many fans don't realise that the writer has little control over the decisions of big studios and production houses. In his own blog, Martin somewhat made it clear that he tried to fight the changes, but not ‘hard enough'.
Writers' Right
Lastly, those calling Martin unprofessional for criticising the HoTD adaptation may do well to remember that authors disliking their screen adaptations is nothing new. Way back in the early ages of colour cinema, P.J. Travers disliked his adaptation so much that he believed Disney ruined the Mary Poppins movie. He allegedly even cried at the movie premier in 1964.
Another revered fantasy author, Brandon Sanderson, hated so many things about his Wheel Of Time TV adaptation and had so many comments about everything wrong with it that it would require a whole separate article.
Percy Jackson series author Rick Riordian didn't leave any opportunity to shame filmmakers for ‘ruining' his stories. He, too, wrote blogs about being ignored and pleading with the filmmakers not to change his characters so drastically. Stephen King has almost always hated his adaptations. All such writers have a right to speak out if they think their story is being twisted into something it is not.
In the show's defence, creating a series of this scale is not easy, especially given how the huge writers' strike interrupted the creative journey of the show. There are also allegations that HBO decided, at the eleventh hour, to cut the show from a 10-episode season to an eight-episode one, sending writers into a tizzy as they scrambled to refashion the eighth season into a finale. Even so, all this still doesn't justify the problems Martin pointed out.
(Anwiti Singh is Assistant Producer, NDTV)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author