House of the Dragon premieres on HBO later tonight, and there's understandably a lot of excitement for the first Game of Thrones spinoff. George R.R. Martin is heavily involved with the development of this prequel tale, and doing the rounds to promote the show, the author has spoken candidly about its predecessor.
Having recently revealed that he was frozen out of Game of Thrones' later seasons by showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, Martin has shared more of his feelings on how the series progressed.
Despite giving high praise to many of the interactions and characters he got to see on screen, Martin also revealed that he had increasingly mixed feelings as time went on. It sounds like he became somewhat disillusioned seeing his creations change and evolve beyond his books (which still weren't finished when Game of Thrones reached its end, in fairness).
Talking on The Official Game of Thrones Podcast (via SFFGazette.com), Martin said, "I remember with Game of Thrones, when I visited, they were shooting in Belfast, Northern Ireland and I came to visit the set and they were still working on the first episode, the pilot. And David Benioff showed me a clip of the scene with Arya and her father Ned on the stairs where she was standing on one foot trying to balance. And it was great."
"I had seen rehearsals with these actors but I hadn’t seen them in character and seen them do it. It was my scene come alive. These were my characters. And nothing felt better than to see that happen."
"But of course there’s always the flip side of that, where suddenly you’re seeing a scene and saying, what the hell have they done here, that’s not how it’s supposed to go," he continued. "My character would never do that. My character would never say that. And that can be frustrating."
Until Martin's next novel is released, we don't know how much the series changed his plans for these characters. From the books we have read, we know a lot was condensed and cut, but that's the nature of the beast with any adaptation. Still, it's definitely refreshing to hear the author's candid thoughts on the show, especially in the wake of that disappointing final season.
House of the Dragon premieres on HBO this Sunday, August 21.