George RR Martin Has No Comment on Last Night’s Episode

There are no spoilers here in this post, so don’t worry. What exactly happened on Game of Thrones last night is for another post. But what it’s not for is George RR Martin’s comments section.

This happens on a semi-regular basis, but with the growing divergence between the books and the TV show coming to something of a head last night, it’s not all that surprising that fans are flocking to NotABlog to either complain or demand Martin comment on the changes.

And to his credit, once again, Martin refuses. The last time this happened (last season, when fans got up in arms about that scene between Cersei and Jaime in the crypt) I was struck by how, even though the show had clearly miscommunicated its intentions, Martin would not speak ill of Benioff, Weiss, or anyone involved with the production. The show is the show, the books are the books. He will not judge the changes, because they’re making the best show they can. That’s the exact same stance he’s taken with this week’s developments.

How many children did Scarlett O’Hara have? Three, in the novel. One, in the movie. None, in real life: she was a fictional character, she never existed. The show is the show, the books are the books; two different tellings of the same story.

There have been differences between the novels and the television show since the first episode of season one. And for just as long, I have been talking about the butterfly effect. Small changes lead to larger changes lead to huge changes. HBO is more than forty hours into the impossible and demanding task of adapting my lengthy (extremely) and complex (exceedingly) novels, with their layers of plots and subplots, their twists and contradictions and unreliable narrators, viewpoint shifts and ambiguities, and a cast of characters in the hundreds.

There has seldom been any TV series as faithful to its source material, by and large (if you doubt that, talk to the Harry Dresden fans, or readers of the Sookie Stackhouse novels, or the fans of the original WALKING DEAD comic books)… but the longer the show goes on, the bigger the butterflies become. And now we have reached the point where the beat of butterfly wings is stirring up storms, like the one presently engulfing my email.

And a reminder:

I have been saying since season one that this is not the place to debate or discuss the TV series. Please respect that.

It doesn’t get more polite than that.

• Published on 05/18/2015 at 8:00 AM CDT
• Last updated on 10/21/2016 at 1:04 PM CDT