Fantasy author, beard owner, and sailing hat enthusiast George R.R. Martin doesn’t seem to be able to finish writing the penultimate A Song of Ice and Fire novel, The Winds of Winter, but he seems to have plenty of time to talk about other things related to Westeros, including the second season of House of the Dragon.
The Game of Thrones author is listed as co-creator and executive producer of House of the Dragon. Even then, he took to his Not a Blog last Friday to tease what readers thought were grievances with the second season of the HBO prequel series.
House Of The Dragon finds the Targaryen dynasty at the absolute apex of its power, with more than 15 dragons under their yoke. Most empires – real and imagined – crumble from such heights. In the case of the Targaryens, their slow fall begins almost 193 years before the events of Game of Thrones, when King Viserys Targaryen breaks with a century of tradition by naming his daughter Rhaenyra heir to the Iron Throne.
But when Viserys later fathers a son, the court is shocked when Rhaenyra retains her status as his heir, and seeds of division sow friction across the realm.
Season 2 picked up with the Kingdom being split apart as the great houses take sides between the two who claim the throne, machinations begin, and all manner of forces across the realm jostle for power.
The two early seasons feature the board being set and the pieces being moved into place, therefore leaving some viewers disappointed as they anticipated huge battle sequences. There have been skirmishes, but all-out war is yet to happen.
Whereas the original Game Of Thrones was also something of a political thriller, House Of The Dragon is so far more of a Shakespearian tragedy.
Martin had previously had some issues with how the “Blood and Cheese” scenes were handled in the premiere – A Son for a Son.
In his blog, he simply teased:
“I do not look forward to other posts I need to write, about everything that’s gone wrong with HOUSE OF THE DRAGON… but I need to do that too, and I will.”
All is clearly not well in Martin’s head with regard to Westeros on TV.