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I must say that I also struggled with Fire & Blood. The book is not particularly memorable or remarkable, and is not at all on the level of ASOIAF, Dunk & Egg, Fevre Dream and A Song for Lya. George traditionally works from the perspective of the POV characters and then finds out for himself what is the most effective course to take with the character. How George works with his characters is his greatest strength as a writer. But unlike his previous books, Fire & Blood has a very different approach, which in my opinion exposes George's own flaws (even if he tries to hide it by writing it as a fake history book in which the sources used are often dubious). With Fire & Blood, it is also apparent once again that George is a much better gardener than an architect. When writing that book, George probably found that a fair number of plot points were already set in stone by what was previously described in the ASOIAF books and he had to work around that. He was clearly struggling with that, and you can tell by some of the illogical to silly things that happen in the Fire & Blood. I also think George leans a little too heavily on the “tragedy porn” with the Dance, of which one example is the death of Jaehaera. This was absolutely unnecessary, but it seems George wanted to root out the Greens.

Honestly, I see little potential for the Game of Thrones Cinematic Universe. I think HBO very much overestimates how many people are actually interested in new shows within the setting of Westeros. I feel like the vast majority of viewers are not really eager for prequels to Game of Thrones. On the Internet, I see a lot more positive coverage of the potential Jon Snow spin-off than the rest. I have often heard from non-book readers that they would have preferred a spin-off show featuring a fan-favorite GOT character (like Arya and Tyrion) to something like House of the Dragon. The people in that group who did see HOTD were constantly looking for references and similarities to GOT and weren't paying as much attention outside of that - so they barely understood anything about the show. I think many are quickly going to lose interest in a show that is not or barely related to the original Game of Thrones show. Despite that, I am curious to see how the Dunk & Egg show will be received in the end by the general public. I think it will do fairly well, considering it is a more straightforward show. Moreover, Arya's road trip story with the Hound during season 4 was very popular and in the Dunk & Egg show we can expect something similar. In addition, we will have cameos from existing GOT characters, such as Barristan and Aemon. I am far from sure that the success of the other shows outside Jon Snow and Dunk & Egg is guaranteed (although I believe "Ten Thousand Ships" and "Empire of Ash" have very high story potential). One of the problems that many potential GOT prequels are likely to have is that timeskips are unavoidable. Casual watchers reacted very negatively to this during HOTD and struggled with it. A viewing audience of only book fans, however, is not large enough to make such expensive shows feasible. An animated adaptation of George's book "The Ice Dragon" is also planned. It is not set in the setting of ASOIAF (George confirmed that), but the book was nevertheless promoted by publishers as something set in that world (to capitalize on the success of the GOT show?). I wouldn't be surprised if HBO/Warnermedia will integrate the film adaptation into the "GOT Cinematic Universe" as well.

I definitely don't think such an important character as Nettles will be cut from the show. It's also not something I see Ryan Condal doing, because he does often cast characters that are unimportant in the time period in which House of the Dragon is set, such as Ryam Redwyne, for example. I would be surprised if Nettles was not introduced in season 2. Previous rumors said the Sowing of the Dragonseeds would happen during episode 7. In spy photos, we have also seen a darker-skinned girl in proximity to the other Dragonseeds. But if that's not Nettles... Introducing her later (in the season after) would be odd, unless the events of the Sowing of the Dragonseeds are spread over several episodes and would still be going on at the beginning of season 3. However, that seems unlikely to me. That Daeron does not appear in season 2 is not really a shock to me. Based on past leaks, we can draw the conclusion that the season will be very slow-paced. It looks like the season will end with the Battle at the Red Fork. The Battle of the Honeywine and the Battle of the Gullet will most likely not take place during season 2. Daeron does not have an important role before Battle of the Honeywine. But at least he will be mentioned in season 2, that's for sure. Moving Daeron's subplot to season 3 would go without too many problems, but I can't say the same for Nettles.

Based on the leaks from season 1 and some interviews, I have the impression that a lot was changed or scrapped late in the writing process. I think that's a pity. When the script of episode 1 became publicly available to the public, some differences from the eventual episode also stood out, such as that there was less violence and bloodshed during the tournament and a melee between Criston and Daemon that was done fairly. Also, the raid at Flea Bottom also happened in a more logical manner. I hope to be able to look at the scripts of the other episodes someday so I can see the differences from the finished episodes. These can be found at the Writers Guild of America Library in Los Angeles. I live on the other side of the world, unfortunately. Maybe someone else can go?

Yes, there was an outline of HOTD season 1, which I saw when someone posted it on Reddit. That one was circulating on various platforms for months before, apparently. HBO definitely wants to prevent that from happening again now. What I found most striking is that the outline was very accurate. Some sentences were taken right from the script. Even deleted scenes that we know exist were described. Still, there were some striking differences. For example, I saw no mention of Rhaenys interrupting Aegon's coronation in the Dragonpit before escaping. Perhaps the descriptions are based on an older version of the script, or the leaker withheld some things.

October 2022: https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/house-of-the-dragon-finale-explained-aemond-luke-rhaenrya-daemon-season-2-1235412136 Sorry, I disagree. On the contrary, I think quite a lot of set leaks happened for HOTD season 2. Although not all of them are posted here. Still, much remains unclear. I think a greater media attention that Game of Thrones set leaks got is mainly because the ASOIAF books were not done yet. People often used the GOT show as a basis for some predictions of what will happen in the books. That's not the case now. We know how the Dance of the Dragons ends. Moreover, I also have the impression that even among book readers, Fire & Blood is much less popular and discussed than ASOIAF itself on fan sites. Consequently, the television adaptation will also receive less attention.

Very unlikely. Daeron is already listed as Alicent's youngest son in the official family tree of the HBO show. He will not become a dragonseed. https://www.hbo.com/house-of-the-dragon/character-guide Instead, with the splitting of season 2 into two shorter seasons, it is likely that the showrunners have changed the chronology of events a bit, so Daeron will probably make his appearance later in the show (just like the assault on Harrenhal will happen only after the fight above Shipbreaker Bay in the show canon).

We thought Jack Cunningham-Nuttal was playing as Daeron, considering he follows actors Olivia, Fabien and Leo Ashton on Instagram as well as the image of a plush of Tessarion that he posted. But now there are doubts. A friend of the actor says it is not true. It is possible that Daeron will be played by another actor or will not appear until season 3. It is certain, however, that he will be mentioned in season 2: Where is Alicent’s fourth child Daeron? This is something that a lot of fans have been wondering. Why has no one even mentioned him at this point? Ryan Condal: He does exist. No worries, everybody. He’s the youngest son. He’s warded off at Oldtown to Hobert Hightower and soon to Ormond Hightower, who is Hobert’s nephew, who becomes Lord of Oldtown. Honestly, this stuff happened all the time in this world. It’s not our modern day where if you had a 6-year-old, you would FaceTime them every day and see how they’re doing and write letters. He’s there. That’s the fact. When he is relevant to be mentioned — and he will be — he will be mentioned. Perhaps Jack Cunningham-Nuttal was just trying to troll us fans, just like Lena Headey's tease of Lady Stoneheart and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau's tease of Rolly Duckfield years back. Both characters never appeared in Game of Thrones. (By the looks of it, this news was already posted, I didn't see that)

I am not sure if we will ever get any information on this from reliable sources. But I do have to say that ever since the first interviews about House of the Dragon, I have had the impression that Sapochnik has a different vision of what kind of show it should be than Ryan Condal. It would not surprise me that there have been disagreements about what course the show should take.

"According to Maester Yandel, however, the Starks were angered at being forced to surrender the territory [of the New Gift], as they believed the Night's Watch would focus their attention beyond the Wall and would neglect the New Gift. The brother of a Lord Stark sought legal guidance from the maesters of the Citadel to avoid the forced donation to no avail. This resentment toward Jaehaerys and Alysanne might have contributed to Lord Ellard Stark supporting Lord Corlys Velaryon and Rhaenys Targaryen in the Great Council of 101 AC" Perhaps Jace will be involved in this dispute in HOTD? That would be a good reason to visit the Wall.

I don't think it will take much time for George to write Fire & Blood Volume 2. Didn't Elio say that writing the Jaehaerys chapters in Volume 1 took only a month and a half? Those chapters are about 1/3 of that book. Also, I don't think George needed that much time for the past Dunk & Egg books. Honestly, I believe George mostly struggles with the ASOIAF mainline books. My impression is that he never had much trouble writing Dunk & Egg, Fire & Blood and (some parts of) World of Ice and Fire. After all, those books are on a smaller scale and more straightforward than ASOIAF and do not have many storylines intersecting with each other.

From the looks of it, non-public information seems to be making the rounds on the Internet. As someone who has followed the set leaks and the site of Redanian Intelligence, I have not yet encountered anything about "leaked casting sheets" and "script pages." This is new information to me.

I have gathered the scores that each GOT/HOTD episode received on various sites. This way one can see how well each episode was received by those who watched it. I have the data from Westeros.org,Tower of the Hand (both ASOIAF fansites) and IMDB. If there are any other sites to add, please let me know. You can sort the data from high to low or vice versa if you like. I made this about seven months ago: HERE Some of my findings: - I am surprised that GOT season 7 received higher scores overall than GOT season 6. - On all three sites, there are only two HOTD episodes in the top 20 best-scoring episodes (S1E8 The Lord of the Tides and S1E10 The Black Queen). - The least liked HOTD episode on Westeros.org is S1E9 The Green Council. On the other two sites, it is S1E6 The Princess and the Queen. On IMDB, that one is among the top 10 lowest rated episodes. That episode scores lower there than the GOT episode S6E8 No One (in which Arya is attacked by The Waif and with the parkour in Braavos) - The HOTD episode S1E9 The Green Council has a higher score on IMDB and The Tower of the Hand than half of the episodes from House of the Dragon. This episode is very popular with certain audiences. - On IMDB, only three HOTD episodes have a higher score than the GOT episode S7E6 Beyond the Wall (with the wight hunt).

I do still see the possibility that in season 2 we will see a scene with Helaena giving birth to Maelor, given that the latter character has not yet been introduced in the show.

I completely agree with you. You share pretty much the same opinions I had at the time (among others about Daemon's rampage and the tournament) A few scenes were originally written that showed how Rhaenyra reacted to the death of her mother and Baelon. However, these were cut (possibly due to time constraints). Below are these scenes: - "Back to the tourney we see Corbray, Tully, Tarly and Darklyn knights fight - Darklyn has his head caved in and the Tully is in agony with broken bones. As this happens, Rhaenyra and Alicent turn away from the horror and see a fuss in the royal box. Rhaenyra realizes her mother has died in childbirth. We cut to Viserys on Aemma’s now empty birth bed, and the maester informs him Baelon has died also. Rhaenyra sees and runs away" - "Back in the Red Keep, Rhaenyra breaks down in Alicent’s arms" Throughout the first season, many scenes were filmed but cut. Even without all those scenes, the average episode of House of the Dragon is already longer than any GOT episode from the first six seasons. In the first episode, another scene with a private conversation between Viserys I and Daemon was also cut, as well as the scene with the "heir for a day speech" (I don't really think the removal of the latter scene is a problem, as it ensures that the situation remains ambiguous) I agree that the showrunners are cramming too much material into the episode. But that is the case for the entire season. Especially with the second half of the season, I feel that way. The show in general has serious problems with pacing (I experienced the same thing with the The Last of Us show). Thanks for your posts and I look forward to reading your comments on the next episodes.

While I am generally pleased with how the female characters in HOTD are written (except Mysaria), I also understand the criticism. It is clear that in the show both Rhaenyra and Alicent are whitewashed and portrayed as more reasonable than their book counterparts. They are pretty much considered the moral heart of the show. Both have a very pacifist approach, compared to most of the male characters who are more willing to use violence. Some probably see in this the "Closer to Earth trope" and thus a form of positive discrimination for the female characters. I must say that how Rheanyra and Alicent are written in HOTD is similar to what happened to Cersei in the GOT show. Show-Cersei is much also much more rational, reasonable and sympathetic than the book version. Almost all the bad deeds that book-Cersei did are done in the GOT show by other characters (such as Joffrey and Margaery), or were presented in such a way that they were justified and done for sympathetic reasons (for example, protecting her children). I don't recall show-Cersei doing anything immoral and unjust between the period after Robert's death (late season 1) and the use of wildfire to kill her enemies (late season 6). D&D's version of Cersei was very well received by many. There are also many book readers who prefer the show's version of Cersei to the original of the books. This survey shows that. I think it is possible that the showrunners and writers of HOTD were somewhat influenced by show-Cersei when writing Rhaenyra and Alicent.

I read Fire Cannot Kill A Dragon a few months after it was released. Around that time it was discussed extensively here on Westeros.org in one of the Rant & Rave threads. Outside of this site, the book received little attention, I was under the impression. As for the book ... I felt that much of the content consisted of snippets of old interviews that I had read years earlier somewhere on the Internet. I do think the title of "Fire Cannot Kill A Dragon" fits the book. Game of Thrones was a very impactful and successful show that is still very popular. It was truly a behemoth at the time. Book readers and diehard show fans were very unhappy with what happened during season 8. However, they are only a very loud minority and they cannot change the reputation of the show among most people. Casual fans have no problem with the last season and even enjoyed it. Season 8 did well at the Emmys and other awards shows. Well-known review sites such as Vulture and The Slant are also very positive and "The Bells" is considered by them to be the best episode of the Game of Thrones show. The fire of angry fans is not able to slay the dragon that was the GOT show. This is new information. Thanks for posting this. Despite the many criticisms Emilia Clarke received for her acting performances, I don't think she was a bad choice for book-Daenerys. But: "So they started writing for us, and I think they knew that whatever kind of stoic, cold sensibilities they might be writing down, I was going to try to bring a bit more warmth and humanity to [Daenerys] where I possibly could. That was always a conversation we were having. And every season I'd do something else on hiatus, and I'd come back and be like, "What's up, yeah, she's going to sit like this" (slouches down in chair). And every time, they're like, "That's really cute, but sit up straight and don't smile, you're not funny." We know Emilia Clarke has read the ASOIAF books, and she was right when she suggested Daenerys would not sit up straight (in the books Daenerys sits crosslegged numerous times and the one time she got "tired of being regal" and sat "with one foot tucked beneath her and the other swinging back and forth.") Unfortunately, D&D had a very different vision of how Daenerys should be portrayed in the show. Emilia is also charming and playful: she would do very well if she had the chance to play as the book version of Daenerys.

I am going to express what will probably become a very unpopular opinion here. I know there is great disdain here for A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons. Apparently people consider anything that doesn't push the plot forward as "filler." Those books are certainly not without flaws, but I have a hard time taking seriously the people who argue that entire chapters should be cut. Those chapters are in service of character development and atmosphere and are certainly not useless I'm going to make no secret of it: I love FeastDance. George was always interested in exploring the human condition in ASOIAF, and that aspect became increasingly prominent. With FeastDance, George decided to emphasize the human aspect rather than plot. Personally, I think that's the right decision, because characters are pretty much what George is best at. But I am aware that people generally have different expectations than me for books within the fantasy genre. I remember back in 2015, many book fans thought the decision not to accurately adapt FeastDance would save the show from demise. Although book readers were generally dissatisfied with some decisions such as the deaths of Stannis and Barristan (which happened in very illogical circumstances) - it seemed that the vast majority of book readers nevertheless overwhelmingly defended David and Dan's decision to "adapt" those two books in just ten episodes. I know it's not realistic that everything from FeastDance would be adapted into the show. Anyway, subplots were going to be lost, characters scrapped or combined and so on. But D&D didn't even try. The essence of these books was completely lost and character arcs for the characters became practically non-existent. The storylines no longer made sense because logic was thrown overboard. D&D was no longer trying to be consistent and coherent. Season 5 and season 6 still have a few moments in common with the books and here and there is still a lost line of dialogue from the books, but the original context is completely lost. D&D totally failed to consider the impact and consequences of their adaptional decisions. They had no idea what to do with the characters after they decided to eliminate their storylines from the books. Despite their attempts to streamline FeastDance, this did not result in better pacing than these books. In fact, D&D tend to add extra padding to most storylines (in an attempt to stretch them for 10 episodes and save the cliffhangers for the last episode). Result is a slower pacing for the show, but unlike FeastDance, that is not used for character development and other important things. That of the large amount of padding is most noticeable in season 6, in which very little happens before the last two episodes. Examples: Arya's storyline for the season has three episodes in which she is beaten with a stick as a blind person and later, for a few episodes, she is mostly a passive spectator for a play. Tyrion spends the first half of the season making jokes more than governing Meereen. Characters are unchanging and extremely passive, the situations from the books became far too oversimplified so there was no longer any depth. Despite all that time for those various storylines, the writers/showrunners didn't do anything useful with them. I consider the praise fans gave D&D for "trimming the fat off FeastDance" to be completely undeserved. After all, what they did was remove all the depth from FeastDance and replace it with empty air.

I rewatched House of the Dragon not too long ago with several causal watchers who have never read the books and thus have some insight into their opinions. I posted this here because you guys might be interested in that. They don't understand why HBO chose to do a show without familiar characters from GOT. They would have preferred a direct prequel or sequel. I expect the Jon Snow show and quite possibly the Dunk & Egg show (if they still remember who characters like Maester Aemon and Barristan are, which I doubt) will be more to their liking. Both shows will have recognizable characters from GOT. Casual watchers have not been able to remember any of the characters' names from HOTD. The relationships between characters is also very difficult for them to understand. For example, I still had to explain in episode 7 that Daemon is the brother of Viserys I, something that is made explicitly clear several times in the first episode. It was also not clear to them for a long time that Alicent was Otto's daughter. The casual watchers overlooked a lot. Among other things, they did not see that Aemma's son Baelon was dead in the first episode and thought he and Aegon II were the same person. They also had no idea what the significance of the green dress was (its exposition was not exactly subtle, but it was still not clear to them). They were also constantly looking for references to GOT. Perhaps it was not a bad idea of the showrunners to use the catspaw dagger in HOTD with the Long Night prophecy as a recognition point for casual GOT fans, in an attempt to get their attention and interest. They were also pleased to hear the word "Dracarys." In the book canon, the word was not used by past dragon riders because the word was invented by Daenerys herself. The casual watchers were having a lot of trouble with the timeskip in episode 6. Nothing was clear to them anymore and they couldn't follow it, especially with characters like Harwin and Laena who suddenly turned out to be revelant after previously being unimportant. One person I watched with thought Harwin and Criston Cole were the same person. Don't ask me how. Those people were fans of episode 9, and they especially loved the twist with Rhaenys in the Dragonpit.

Yes, that audience of casual show-only watchers was obviously the most disappointed with HOTD, but I can't say that these were the ones most looking forward to the show. A large part of the group is obviously not active in the online fandom through subreddits and such, but they are, for example, on Facebook and on online newspaper sites with the ability to post comments. I notice much more hype there for the Jon Snow sequel show than there ever was for House of the Dragon. The people who were most looking forward were those who were confident in House of the Dragon because the Dance of the Dragons book material is complete and has an ending, unlike ASOIAF. These kinds of people think that the fact George didn't finish the books all was the main reason why season 8 failed. I disagree with that. It was far from the only reason. Those people also didn't realize that Fire & Blood is pretty much a vague outline where a lot of holes need to be filled in: Ryan Condal had to come up with almost all the dialogue and many characters from pretty much from scratch. The book has a completely different form than ASOIAF. For House of the Dragon, it is made clear that they condemn this kind of behavior.... That's a big difference from Game of Thrones, which has a very bad track record with depiction and endorsement. That bad track record is not only with sex, but also with violence, slavery, etc. Anyway, that's maybe for another time. In the case of marital rape, we have two comparable situations in Game of Thrones season 5. - We have the rape of Sansa by Ramsay, which was previously condemned by the showrunners, but later in season 8 Sansa makes the comment that she is grateful that she was raped because otherwise she was always going to be a "little bird".... I could see the latter as an endorsement, especially if you also look at how D&D writes female characters. - We have a underage Tommen being raped by an adult Margaery. This scene was portrayed as funny and innocent, but we know that Margaery has a history of manipulating through sex in the show. The next scene, Margaery begins to joke and brag about how good young Tommen is at having sex, even to the face of Cersei herself. But neither the show nor the showrunners condemn this or Margaery as a person. There is no doubt that Ryan Condal and the rest of the writers are paying attention to how such sensitive issues are portrayed. D&D did not take this into account; on the contrary, controversy was sometimes used as a selling point for the show.

The numbers you give me only include the viewers who watch the episodes using linear/cable television. That is only a small fraction of the total number of viewers these days, so it is not entirely representative in times of streaming

Do you mean for House of the Dragon or the Last of Us? HOTD Episode 4 had 9.66 million viewers on the day of its premiere in the US, episode 5 had 9.95 million viewers on the first day. For episode 5 of The Last of Us, we don't have viewership numbers (yet?).

In terms of viewership, House of the Dragon did better than The Last of Us in the US, but that could change quickly. With each episode of The Last of Us, the number of viewers increases, while it was not the case with House of the Dragon - where the number kept hovering around 9-10 million US viewers on the first day of each new episode. The Last of Us has extraordinarily long legs. However, we have no concrete figures of how The Last of Us is doing outside the US. House of the Dragon outperformed Game of Thrones season 8 overseas in terms of viewership numbers and is now the most popular HBO show in foreign regions. Game of Thrones was extraordinarily popular outside the US back then, and it was probably the first HBO show to fully break through in Europe (because the show was less American-centric than many other HBO shows). I'm not sure The Last of Us will reach similar numbers in these regions as GOT and HOTD did.

I'm concerned about that, too. The complaints about the lack of humor come mostly from casual fans who are used to the tone and general approach of Game of Thrones. Based on what I have read, that audience has trouble appreciating House of the Dragon because it is quite different from its predecessor in terms of how the story is told. HOTD also requires more effort to keep up with the story than was the case with GOT, in which there was frequent hand-holding. I find that many casual watchers struggle with following the HOTD show due to the timeskips, similar names of the characters and the more complex topics covered, among other things. There are also many within that audience who find the pacing too slow and want more action and shocking moments. The show is simply less accessible than its predecessor for the mass audience. This explains why the most negative reviews for House of the Dragon often come from non-book readers who in the past have praised the later seasons of Game of Thrones to the heavens (e.g., the one reviewer at The Slant who considers episode S8E5 The Bells a masterpiece, but is absolutely not a fan of the first six episodes of HOTD that he has seen). Showrunner Ryan Condal has apparently read the reviews and it looks like for future seasons he will take into account the criticisms reviewers gave. The problem is that casual fans of the Game of Thrones show have very different expectations and desires for House of The Dragon than ASOIAF book readers. It is very difficult to balance the interests of both audiences (which are often opposite of each other). I hope Ryan Condal will not overly aim for casual fans in the future. I don't want HOTD to move in the same direction as GOT. I agree that extra episodes in the first season would have really helped. I understand why Ryan Condal wanted to end with The Dance over Shipbreaker Bay as a cliffhanger, but I've found that most of the problems I have with House of the Dragon have to do with the time constraints imposed by the showrunners anyway. A lot of events in the show could use more time. Also, the secondary and tertiary characters would benefit from more screen time. Many filmed scenes were cut because of the runtime limitations per episode. All very unfortunate. A lot of potential was missed as a result.

I have the book of "Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon: Inside the Creation of a Targaryen Dynasty." I will post some of George's comments, for those who are interested: After nearly a year of work on the Targaryen series by Game of Thrones writer-producer Bryan Cogman, among others, Martin reached out to screenwriter and producer Ryan J. Condal in September 2018 to pitch him on stepping in to take the reins of the drama. Martin was unhappy with the overall direction of the Dance of the Dragons successor series, and he felt Condal would be an ideal collaborator on the project. “Ryan is a really good writer, and he knows fantasy, and he knows my world, Westeros, not only from watching Game of Thrones but also from reading my books,” Martin says. “He was a strong showrunner, all of which made him a good candidate to take a run at the Dance of the Dragons.” Having fleshed out the initial story beats with Martin, Condal wrote a formal outline for the pilot before moving on to script stage. Sitting down to write, he felt a tremendous weight of obligation, given his affinity for Martin’s work. “It would be like, if you loved baseball, having Derek Jeter teach you how to hit fastballs,” Condal says. “It was nerve-racking—like, OK, now I’m responsible for this thing, and I really have to deliver. That kept me up a little bit.” But Condal learned to embrace his nerves and take his cues from the easygoing Martin when it came to translating the epic tale. “It was probably the most confident I had been to date as a writer,” Condal says. “I trusted myself and trusted him and listened to him. He said this really interesting thing that stuck with me: ‘The author will always forgive the adapter for the big changes that he makes or she makes, but not necessarily the small.’ I took that to mean, ‘Make the big changes that you need to make it work on the screen, but don’t change a bunch of little things because you think you know better.’ ” By early 2019, Condal had finished the script and submitted it to HBO for approval. It had taken him only a matter of months, a relatively quick turnaround by Hollywood standards. “I wanted to strategically come in and announce myself as a showrunner who delivers things on time,” Condal says. “Game of Thrones is a very difficult tone and world to hit, and I knew I could do that, even if there was going to be a ton of development on the script, which there was. Still, I wanted to announce, ‘Hey, I’m here, I’m serious. I can write for this world.’ ” “I thought it was a very strong draft to begin with,” Martin says. “I was very heartened. It was recognizably my story. When you’re looking at an adaptation of your own work, there’s always a little trepidation. You’re going to go through and see, has anything been changed? Did they eliminate anything that should be left in? Have they put in other things that were maybe not meant to be in there? Ryan made all the right choices.” Explains Condal, “George was heavily involved at the very beginning of our pilot process, and then, once he felt like he knew the story we were telling, he could see where it was going, he really stepped back—but he would check in at key points.”