Some recent reports suggest that author George R. R. Martin was concerned about HBO’s Game of Thrones following Season 5. This is because the story began to stray away from its source material slowly.
A Song of Ice and Fire, a well-acclaimed series of fantasy novels written by George R. R. Martin, was published in 1996. The story won higher limelight after HBO adapted it into Game of Thrones. The first season of the series aired in 2011. And now, the franchise is exploring grounds with the forthcoming HBO series House of Dragon. The show is a prequel, set in a time before its successor. It will depict the civil war among the Targaryen family.
HBO’s Game of Thrones saw a great deal of success. And it gave many of its performer’s well-deserved admiration in the industry. One of the prominent names is that of Emilia Clarke. The star has since appeared in entries in The Terminator and Star Wars franchises. It is also essential to include actors like Richard Madden and Kit Harington. The two stars recently joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe and debuted in this month’s Phase 4 entry Eternals.
Regardless of the massive stardom received by the show in its beginning runs, season 8 saw an unfortunate downfall as it concluded the series in 2019. The Game of Thrones finale led the story into debatable directions. This made the fans agitated and equally disappointed. Fans then raised their questions at the showrunners, claiming that they had left behind the show’s essence in the first place.
George R. R. Martin on Game of Thrones Season 5
Recently, Winter is Coming shared an excerpt from the upcoming book Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers. The piece featured a section on Game of Thrones. This section reveals a quote from George R. R. Martin’s representative Paul Haas. Haas expresses how the author started to “worry about the path they were [going down]” as early as season 5. He explains how the show began to go “off George’s roadmap,” and he was frustrated they weren’t “following [his] template.” Read the full quote below:
“George loves Dan and Dave, but after season 5 he did start to worry about the path they were [going down] because George knows where the story goes. He started saying, ‘You’re not following my template’. The first 5 seasons stuck to George’s roadmap. Then they went off George’s roadmap.”
Also Read: How House of The Dragon Can Avoid Wasting Its Biggest Asset
How Game of Thrones Season 5 steered the narrative
We cannot deny that Game of Thrones season 5 is precisely the moment when the show began to stray away from Martin’s original template. This particular point in time involves curtailing the arc of Emilia Clarke’s character Daenerys Targaryen. She was initially supposed to have visions while travelling across the Dothraki Sea. In addition, they also moved up Tyrion, crossing paths with Daenerys to a much earlier point in the narrative. And this move entirely went against the Dornish subplot and cut out the introduction of Aegon Targaryen.
However, to stay fair to the renowned series Game of Thrones, we cannot completely overlook that George R. R. Martin has not yet published the concluding novels of A Song of Ice and Fire. And because the showrunners were devoid of a convulsive chapter, they had to use their creativity to draw their end. And thus, steer the series in that direction.
As a downside, they failed to imagine what would reach out to the audiences the most. And yet, it justifies why they began to sketch different perspectives and create specific plot threads.
