George R.R. Martin, How Are You?

So, here we are, once again dissecting the messy world of Game of Thrones and its spin-off House of the Dragon. But amid all the chaos, there’s one guy we’re not talking about nearly enough—George R.R. Martin. You know, the guy who actually wrote the books. How’s he doing? How’s he holding up while his brainchildren run wild on screen?

I recently stumbled upon a post from Martin on his blog (aptly named “Not a Blog”), and let me tell you, it had me in stitches. In it, he took a subtle—but not so subtle—swipe at House of the Dragon, and you can almost feel his frustration through the screen. The title? Burn Him! Burn Him! Now, whether that was directed at himself, the showrunners, or maybe even us fans for still being obsessed, it’s hard to say. But it’s clear he’s got some feelings about the whole situation.

Which got me thinking: how does an author feel when the thing they poured their heart and soul into gets, well, let’s just say “adapted” into something they might not fully recognize? Imagine watching your story become one of the biggest cultural phenomena, only to then witness its slow descent into chaos ( final season of Game of Thrones). And then, to make things even more complicated, a spin-off comes along, riding the coattails of that success but taking some creative liberties, to put it nicely. What goes through your head when your creation is out there making tons of money, but maybe not in the way you envisioned?

For Martin, it must be like raising a rebellious teenager. You love them, you want the best for them, but then they go and make questionable life choices. And what can you do? Sure, you can give advice, maybe even yell a bit from the sidelines, but at the end of the day, they’re out there living their life. House of the Dragon is that rebellious teenager. It's doing its own thing, making its own rules, and maybe Martin's sitting there with his head in his hands, wondering where it all went wrong.

And that’s the real question, isn’t it? Where did it all go wrong? House of the Dragon wasn’t a total disaster, but it definitely had moments where you could feel the Game of Thrones curse creeping in. Whether it’s the pacing issues, the questionable character decisions, or the glaring deviations from the source material, something about it just feels... off. And as much as we can blame the showrunners or the network for chasing those sweet ratings, we can’t ignore the fact that Martin himself is still a part of this. He’s still consulting, still writing, still involved.

Which leads me to wonder: is he okay with all this? Like, is this what he wanted for his universe, or is he just rolling with the punches? Maybe there’s a part of him that’s proud to see his work live on, even if it’s not quite what he imagined. Or maybe, just maybe, he’s screaming into the void like the rest of us when we watched Daenerys torch King’s Landing.

There’s a fine line between adaptation and deviation, and *House of the Dragon* loves to blur it. Sometimes it sticks close to Martin’s vision, but other times it feels like it’s off doing its own thing entirely. And if that frustrates us as viewers, imagine how it must feel for the guy who actually wrote the story.

But here’s the thing: despite the ups and downs, Martin keeps showing up. He keeps writing. He keeps creating. And maybe that’s because, at the end of the day, he knows that his world—his real world, the one in his books—is still out there, waiting to be finished. Maybe he’s not as bothered by the TV show detours because he’s got his eye on the endgame: finishing A Song of Ice and Fire. Or maybe, he’s having a good laugh watching us all lose our minds over things that, to him, are just part of the process.

So George, if you’re out there reading this (and let's be real, you probably aren’t), we just want to know—are you good? Because from where we’re standing, it looks like you’ve been through the wringer with your creations. But hey, at least you’re still standing, and that’s more than we can say for most of the characters in your books.