HBO's House of the Dragon

[HeartBlade]

Telling people, "hey I've been doing more work on Winds of Winter. I just finished a Tyrion chapter." doesn't communicate his intentions?

I think the bigger issue is that GRRM doesnt follow through with his words and his commitment to Winds seems to be waning.

The last book was released in 2011. Winds of Winter was originally going to be the final book until Martin announced that he would need one more book to finish the story (Dream of Spring).

The initial estimate was 3 years to finish WoW in 2011 so 2014. In 2013, GRRM said he had 25% of the book. Then hoped to have the book finished before the 6th season of GoT in 2016 (which the writers probably wanted as well and possibly delayed writing so they could cover the books). As a result, Benioff stated that the show would have to diverge from the book in many respects and Martin claimed he dropped all editing projects and not write anything before finishing Winds of Winter.

This is probably where fans got upset because Martin did start and finished writing other stuff. Martin published Fire & Blood, announced as an executive producer for House of the Dragon, working on a tv adaptation for another author's sci-fi fantasy novel, and even worked on the video game Elden Ring when he previously lambasted video games.

Progress of Winds also seems to be slowing. Although Martin stated that he was working on Winter every day in 2020 and it had been the most productive year, he stated he still had hundreds of pages to write. In 2022, Martin stated he made less progress in 2021 than in 2020.

Combine this slower pace for winter as well as the fact that there is another book that needs to be written to conclude the story (unless Martin changes his mind again), I can see why fans are fed up of waiting and are basically predicting they will never get an ending to the story. Combine that with the fact that Martin is getting involved with other projects instead of finishing the story when he could and should be focusing on the story, it also makes sense why fans are upset.

 

[Nth]

I watched the first episode and actually thought it was pretty good. Better than I was expecting. I guess it helps that G.R.R.M. handpicked the showrunner this time and will take an active approach in preventing the series becoming fanfiction.

Oh and Blackfyre was stunning. Before the first episode was over I was already searching for replicas.

Blackfyre

jalicblades.com

First episode down and I'm into it, so fingers crossed things will hold up.

 

[Tommy]

I watched the first episode and actually thought it was pretty good. Better than I was expecting.

Agreed; so far as I can judge from a single episode, it seemed decent to me. Only criticism that came to mind while watching is the music's a bit distractingly on-the-nose at times trying to be reminiscent of the GOT theme, but that's still a relatively minor complaint.

 

[Psab keel]

I'll see myself out.

 

[pengbuzz]

They would have to do a blaze-ton of work (rewrites, filming, etc) to undo/ rework S8.; not to mention that they would have to pull so much from out of their backsides, that by the time they got it all fixed, they'd be holding their own taste buds!

 

[AJK001]

They would have to do a blaze-ton of work (rewrites, filming, etc) to undo/ rework S8.; not to mention that they would have to pull so much from out of their backsides, that by the time they got it all fixed, they'd be holding their own taste buds!

I doubt they would ever do that, even if Martin finally finished the series and it completely contradicts what they did in season 8. Besides, they still made a crap-load of money off of it and people are still watching it.

 

[pengbuzz]

I doubt they would ever do that, even if Martin finally finished the series and it completely contradicts what they did in season 8. Besides, they still made a crap-load of money off of it and people are still watching it.

Exactly; they aren't about to do any of that. They got their money, GRRM got his and is doing other stuff, and one important note: all the actors have pretty much moved on already. I know Kit Harrington said that playing in GoT wrecked him emotionally (saw an article while researching for a project); I can only imagine what it did to other folks as well.

 

[Bigdaddy]

Exactly; they aren't about to do any of that. They got their money, GRRM got his and is doing other stuff, and one important note: all the actors have pretty much moved on already. I know Kit Harrington said that playing in GoT wrecked him emotionally (saw an article while researching for a project); I can only imagine what it did to other folks as well.

Well Kit did get a wife from his work on the series so didn't wreck him too badly!

 

[AJK001]

I recently watched a documentary of the making of season 8 and it seemed like some of the actors and crew were really getting burned out and couldn't wait for it to finally be over.

 

[Axlotl]

I recently watched a documentary of the making of season 8 and it seemed like some of the actors and crew were really getting burned out and couldn't wait for it to finally be over.

Or were they disgusted by the script?

 

[Lost in Trek]

Well I guess someone cared. So many people tried to watch it broke HBOmax.

 

[AJK001]

I didn't think I would be watching this and after reading about some of the things they did in the first episode I can say for sure I'm going to be giving this a miss. Doing things for the shock & awe value is not my idea of entertainment.

 

[Tommy]

I didn't think I would be watching this and after reading about some of the things they did in the first episode I can say for sure I'm going to be giving this a miss. Doing things for the shock & awe value is not my idea of entertainment.

I'm curious - doing what things for the shock & awe value? I watched it, and didn't find anything to be gratuitous. The birth scene is intense if that's what you're referring to, but you don't actually see much. Same with the tournament violence - it never lingers on gore. Not trying to argue; I'm just surprised by the comment since I thought it was pretty tastefully executed. Could be worth taking the description you read with a grain of salt.

[Edit: it appears maybe you read a Digital Spy article? If so, that author is FAR overselling the scene's gruesomeness. Is it pleasant to watch? No (show me a dramatic birth scene that IS). But calling it "more shocking than the Red Wedding" strikes me as a disingenuous ploy to get clicks.]

 

[Analyzer]

Well, going by it's acronym

GOT HOT D

 

[jkno]

Watched HOTD. Not convinced yet, but will keep watching.

 

[Lord Boron]

I liked it quite a bit. I had some small, niggling complaints, but nothing that got in the way of my looking forward to the rest Of the series. Not completely sold on Matt Smith, but he’s growing on me. Though Viserys practically turning to camera and saying “song of fire and ice” was a little cringe. Not sure where anyone is getting “shock and awe” from. I’ve seen worse on Dr Pol.

 

[tcsmit29]

Well Kit did get a wife from his work on the series so didn't wreck him too badly!

I've had two wives and the first one definitely wrecked me big time! Time will tell with how things work with Kit.

 

[NeoRutty]

I enjoyed the crap out of it... and the main reason is I was always engaged, trying to guess ahead where things could go wrong!

I like that the main targaerian (sp?) - blonde guy king, was not a complete A-hole, to start...

But the whole male heir setup was great...

- Ohhh he's gonna have a daughter, and then his wife will feel at blame!
- Ohhh no he's gonna have a son, and that will start the war....
- Ohhhh no he's gonna lose the son!
- Ohhhh snap the brother is gonna become successor, then he's gonna knock up his daughters friend with a son and that will cause drama...
- Ohhhh no he lost everything! But hows anyone gonna buy he let his daughter succeed?
- Ohhh his brother said WHAT of his dead son?!?!?!?

I wasn't quite this invested in any other show of late... keep me guessing and I'll ride with them a while. And that was aside from all the other little story threads starting...

Also, great casting, I buy that blonde is Danearys ancestor.

(No I don't know any names right now... they're all weird and it's GOT... need time)

 

[kalkamel]

Isn't the showrunner a long time member here on the RPF?

 

[Lost in Trek]

Isn't the showrunner a long time member here on the RPF?

Yes, and cohost of a fantastic podcast on props, The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of.