HBO has a George RR Martin problem. Actually they've made millions adapting his work. So, I guess I've got an HBO problem. No matter how poorly they adapt those perfect, precious books I love, I can't help myself coming back for more dog water. The original, unaired Game of Thrones pilot was so terrible that hardly anyone's actually seen it, although they eventually made a pretty great TV series (despite it being an overall awful adaptation of ASOIAF). In 2018, HBO wanted to suckle every last drop of cash they could from A Song of Ice and Fire, so they made another pilot: Bloodmoon. This one was so offensively horrid that the entire series was axed and GRRM hasn't even been allowed to watch it. Despite the downward spiral of GOT and the absolute fumble of season 8, and despite the head-scratching waste of time that was Bloodmoon, GRRM told HBO to produce House of the Dragon (and he got several more millions of dollars from it, sheesh). While I contend that HOTD season one is one of the best of either Thrones series, season two was an utter unraveling of draconic proportions. It no longer resembles the story from Fire & Blood, and its so-called Rhaenyra and so-called Alicent are similar in name only to their book counterparts. What went wrong in House of the Dragon season two? What lessons from Game of Thrones and Bloodmoon did Ryan Condal not learn from? Why does everything good turn sour in the end? Will there ever be a faithful ASOIAF adaptation from start to finish? Can the Dunk & Egg series save me from the cliffside I'm now teetering off the edge of? How will HBO fail to depict Aegon the Conqueror and the origins of House Targaryen in the pre-production Aegon's Conquest series?

Music by Quest Master https://questmaster.bandcamp.com/
Map of Known World by Klaradox https://klaradox.de/maps/
Art credits https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/...

Twitter: https://x.com/CrusaderChris89
Contact: [email protected]

GOT pilot script https://www.tv-calling.com/scripts/TV...

Sources & further reading:
Bloodmoon leaks https://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php...
Bloodmoon leaks https://thewertzone.blogspot.com/2020...
Bloodmoon casting leaks https://redanianintelligence.com/2020...
David J Peterson Game of Owns interview    • #439 David J. Peterson - Game of Owns  
Dan Weiss on magic in Game of Thrones https://watchersonthewall.com/benioff...
GRRM on Bloodmoon pilot https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2...
GRRM on Stark kids being wargs https://www.westeros.org/Citadel/SSM/...
GRRM on the Long Night & Bloodmoon https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2...
GRRM on D&D original GOT script https://grrm.livejournal.com/58155.html
GRRM on unfaithful adaptions https://georgerrmartin.com/notablog/2...
GRRM on his Bloodmoon involvement https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/30/ar...
GRRM Beware the Butterflies archive post https://web.archive.org/web/202409041...
HOTD/Bloodmoon article via THR https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/...
Morven Casterly description via Variety https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/game...
Skroth sound https://www.huffpost.com/entry/game-o...

Timestamps:
0:00 What's in a Bad Adaptation?
1:55 Game of Thrones Disaster Pilot
6:01 Bloodmoon
16:55 HOTD & Butterfly Effects

#asoiaf #houseofthedragon #gameofthrones