Say goodbye to the Targaryen locks of Westeros—Matt Smith has traded them in for a fierce and punk-inspired look, complete with a towering orange and blonde mohawk that just screams follicle rebellion. These first looks at the film, which also stars Austin Butler (so Academy voters, take note), show off this striking new style. Based on the popular novel of the same name, the Caught Stealing film is already shaping up to be one of the most anticipated upcoming page-to-screen adaptations, with this head of hair already being a big draw.

As if the hair wasn't punk enough, the Morbius star was spotted rocking a studded leather jacket paired with zippered tartan trousers, totally nailing the give-zero-fucks aesthetic. While we know he’ll be sharing the screen with Austin Butler, Zoë Kravitz, Liev Schreiber, and Regina King in this upcoming film, details about his specific role as this edgy punk character are still under wraps.

In another behind-the-scenes snap, the Crown alum is locked in what looks like it could be a fiery confrontation with Austin Butler. The actor is fresh of The Bikers, but is probably best known for winning the Golden Globe and BAFTA for his portrayal of Elvis Presley, and was spotted on set with Smith in far less extreme attire.

The two were seen intensely facing off seemingly across the roof of a car, caught up in what seemed like a seriously charged moment as cameras rolled, with Smith's character appearing to have suffered some kind of cut or scrape above the left eye.

Caught Stealing is reported to center on Austin Butler as a washed-up former baseball player who finds himself in way over his head, fighting for survival in the gritty criminal underworld of 1990s New York City. Production kicked off in September, and with a star-studded cast, it’s no surprise this movie is already making waves. Allegedly drawing inspiration from Martin Scorsese’s hidden gem After Hours, Darren Aronofsky’s next big thriller is set to hit the 2025 movie schedule, and along with Smith’s fresh cut, it's one to watch out for.

Just a month prior in September, Smith was seen sporting a more toned-down version of his mohawk on set. The dramatic size upgrade we’re seeing now might hint that the movie spans a decent chunk of time. While it doesn't give away too much, it definitely has me hyped to see what the team behind this thriller has cooked up for us, and unlike After Hours, it will likely not span merely one night, unless he's got access to some wild hair-growth tonics.

As we await the film’s release, these early set photos have certainly stoked anticipation, not just for Smith’s performance but also for his bold and eye-catching look that perfectly encapsulates the anarchic world his character inhabits. Buckle up because Caught Stealing is bringing Matt Smith as you’ve never seen him before.

For now, Smith fans can revisit his Targaryen look by revisiting the first two seasons of House of the Dragon, now streaming with a Max subscription.

The Internet can be a bit of the Wild West when it comes to comments, and actors involved in highly watched and heavily talked about programs can often get the brunt end of that. And I'm not even getting into how Tik Tok and Youtube often host videos or promotional clips showing actors reacting to the things people have googled -- which is meant to open a dialogue about their experiences. Speaking about what people have said online on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, Emilia Clarke was quoted saying people heavily scrutinized her and her body.

Clarke herself has been outwardly vocal about her experiences on and off of set. She has spoken out about some of the pressure she received when it came to the early Game of Thrones nudity scenes on the show. She has also shared details in the past about Jason Momoa coming to her aid when she didn't know what to expect about filming scenes sans clothing on a TV set. But it wasn't just stuff on set that happened that was really uncomfortable for her when she was still really young, or as she put it, basically still "a kid" filming Game of Thrones.

The success of HotD has reignited old discussions that were left over from its predecessor. This included conversations regarding the writing, pacing, violence, and as expected, the nudity and graphic nature of the show's content. While people like Clarke have found some fun and humor in filming nude scenes for the show, she also said it was necessary the show handled her character in the way it did.

During of the height of her success on GoT, Clarke felt anxious whenever she was approached for selfies with fans because of the public responses to her performance on the show. Clarke stated that looking at social media messed with her head, and she felt herself thinking negatively about her outward appearance. She stated that it kept her from entangling her self-worth with public perceptions. So, Clarke made the rule for herself to only do autographs and not google herself to minimize her anxiety.

While Emilia Clarke isn't the first actress of a major fandom to outwardly speak about the negative impacts the Internet has had on her mental health, thankfully she has found solutions that work for her so she can continue in the industry.

Women on Game of Thrones went through so much violence with moments still leaving us shocked today. Most notably was back in Season 6 when Sansa was raped on her wedding night by her new husband, Ramsay Bolton. Fans criticized that the scene focused too much on Theon Greyjoy’s heartbreaking reaction rather than Sansa’s reaction. Plus, that violent moment never happened in the books. U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill said she’d no longer watch the series after that episode and news outlet The Mary Sue said they’d no longer cover the series.

George R.R. Martin, whose bestselling books inspired the Emmy Award-winning series, spoke to Time in 2017 about the criticisms regarding the violence brought onto his female characters. The famed author admitted to being surprised by the negative fan reaction to those violent scenes:

It looks like George R.R. Martin was trying to be realistic in taking inspiration from elements of war he found in history books. It’s no wonder the kingdoms in his books were against women if he turns historical moments “up to 11.” The American author argued that culture in Westeros was no more misogynist than a similar period in real-life history. It may be brutal to watch, but true war stories from history for sure weren’t short of gruesome violence to any gender.

Another controversial moment from Game of Thrones that didn’t happen in the book series was Khal Drogo sexually assaulting Daenerys on their wedding night. George R.R. Martin revealed the original wedding night scene was very different from when original Daenerys actress, Tamzin Merchant, filmed the pilot:

According to Business Insider, the first book in the A Song of Ice and Fire saga had Daenerys and Drogo's wedding night portrayed as technically consensual, but showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss felt the transition from fear to a joyful relationship would have been too quick for TV and not make sense. Even Emilia Clarke apparently had issues with the way the wedding night scene was originally written and felt it wasn’t working for her. Instead, the adaptation showrunners felt it would be best to show Daenerys’ abusive situation from the start and see how the relationship transforms.

While Game of Thrones fans may have taken issue with seeing the female characters of Westeros endure violence, these badass characters didn’t allow themselves to be victims. Even though the trauma Daenerys went through after her wedding night wasn't fully explored, the eventual Dragon Queen slowly learned to assert power over Khal Drogo which further develops their marriage. Sansa ended up being a strong force with her Game of Thrones ending being Lady Stark, Queen in the North. Seeing these strong women go through traumatizing violence may have been heartbreaking to watch, but it's a comfort knowing they eventually found the strength and courage to take power back.

You can watch all eight seasons of Game of Thrones on your Max subscription.

What Did House Of The Dragon’s Showrunner Say About The Challenges Of Adapting Fire & Blood?

By now, we all realize that it would be extremely difficult to win every viewer over when adapting the work of George R.R. Martin for a television show. Despite its enduring popularity, there’s still controversy over how things were handled on Game of Thrones, so it’s little surprise that the same has been true for House of the Dragon across its two seasons so far.

The second season wrapped on the 2024 TV schedule in early August, and Martin was originally rather dramatic when indirectly writing about his thoughts on the many changes by describing the “gloom” of having to eventually address his feelings on Season 2. Then, Martin unloaded on HOTD about the absence of Maelor, a character who becomes very important in the narrative of his book. Now, in a conversation with HBO’s official HOTD podcast, showrunner Ryan Condal has addressed the many challenges of turning such complex material into a TV show, saying:

Condal noted that he has, since the beginning, looked at Fire & Blood with as much “reverence as possible and respect,” adding “but it’s important to draw the line between reverence and worship.” As he pointed out during his interview (and something that more casual fans who haven’t read the book might not know), the tome on which this series is based isn’t told as a narrative, but as a history that’s been documented by “three unreliable narrators.” This means that there are either purposeful holes in the historical account or places where the narrators disagree on the “how and why” of what occurred.

So, along with compressing events, removing characters, etc., Condal and his team also had to choose a point of view for the story (those in the Targeryen family tree, specifically Viserys’ massive extended family) and then construct things in a way that explains the “how and why” of what happens from that POV. He added:

Basically, the writers had to choose characters to focus on and also create motivations for those characters’ actions, because those things aren’t usually spelled out in F&B. I’m sure a lot of fans are sympathetic to Martin’s position on the changes, as well as many likely feeling the same way for Condal and his team. It will be a while before we see how those differences impact Seasons 3 and 4, but we can all hope that the story continues to be engrossing even if it does veer greatly from what was previously written.

George R.R. Martin Weighs In On Season 2

Spoilers ahead for the Blood and Cheese section of Fire & Blood. Fans knew that some blunt words were probably coming after Martin's dramatic post about House of the Dragon just last week, and Season 2 delivered enough changes from the book to speculate about what got to the author. In a post that has since been deleted from his Not A Blog website, Martin went into detail about the changes to the characters involved in Blood and Cheese (up to and including Cheese not having a dog).

His biggest issue? How Season 2 cut out Maelor, the third and youngest child of Aegon and Helaena in the book, whose existence was not only part of why the whole sequence was so much more heinous on the page, but continues to affect the story beyond Blood and Cheese. Martin wrote of his conversation with showrunner Ryan Condal:

Martin went on to note that "Sometime between the initial decision to remove Maelor, a big change was made," and Helaena and Aegon's youngest child will never be born. While I won't get into spoilers here about how the absence of Maelor affects one character's game-changing decision, Martin certainly did by saying that it will happen for "no particular reason" in Season 3.

All in all, I'm not shocked that George R.R. Martin decided to delete his lengthy post about his problems with Blood and Cheese's omission of Maelor, since he was a lot blunter than I would have predicted. Still, what seemed like a minor change for practical reasons to start Season 2 will force massive changes for story reasons down the line, and reading the author's take on Maelor left me surprised that he didn't express similar sentiments about another omission this season.

First, though, HBO has a response to Martin's comments.

How HBO Responded To George R.R. Martin's Take

Martin had already deleted his post from his website by the time an HBO spokesperson responded (via Variety), but his comments were already circulating on the web. In a far more diplomatic statement than what the author expressed, the spokesperson said:

Some changes from book to screen are always necessary, and Martin had seen plenty of them happen over the years of Game of Thrones, particularly the later seasons after the show overtook the available source material. Still, as somebody who has been bothered by Daemon clobbering his first wife with a rock ever since that particular episode of Season 1, I'm certainly not one to judge about disliking seemingly minor changes.

Of course, adapting Fire & Blood is different from A Song of Ice and Fire, and not just because this particular chapter of Targaryen history has already been written in full by Martin as opposed to the unfinished ASOIAF. Fire & Blood is an in-universe history book penned by maesters in Westeros, so it's full of unreliable narrators and conflicting events.

That said, there are certain situations like the existence of Maelor – and yes, Daemon killing Rhea Royce – that aren't disputed by any of the sources in Fire & Blood, which leads to the change that I'm surprised George R.R. Martin didn't bring up in his post based on his logic about Blood and Cheese.

Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD for Fire & Blood. If you don't want to know what happens next, check out now and/or revisit the first two seasons of House of the Dragon streaming with a Max subscription.

What About Nettles?

The Red Sowing of Fire & Blood and House of the Dragon was used to find smallfolk with enough Targaryen blood to claim a dragon, with the same episode that dropped some info on George R.R. Martin's lost Targaryen featuring Hugh claiming Vermithor and Ulf claiming Silverwing. Readers know that perhaps the most important dragonseed of Fire & Blood is actually Nettles, who may or may not have Targaryen blood but tamed the dragon Sheepstealer by feeding him sheep.

And readers also know that Nettles and her ambiguous relationship with Daemon will push Rhaenyra to a breaking point (with no small amount of prodding from Mysaria) and eventually lead to Daemon's epic suicide mission to kill Aemond... that is, that's what readers would likely expect if the show had introduced Nettles. Instead, House of the Dragon seems to be merging Rhaena and Nettles. By George R.R. Martin's logic of how omitting Maelor will have a butterfly effect on later parts of the story, it would track if he feels similarly about cutting Nettles.

Rhaenyra snapping and ordering the death of a commoner who she thinks has seduced her husband makes sense for the Black Queen at that point in her storyline; Rhaenyra ordering the death of her niece/stepdaughter/cousin really doesn't. After all, parent/child incest is taboo even in the Targaryen family, which was a carryover from Fire & Blood to House of the Dragon if Daemon's reaction to dreaming about his mother is any indication. Surely she wouldn't believe anything unseemly between Daemon and Rhaena, right?

And as much as Maelor's absence from the show undercuts any motivation Helaena would have for leaping to her death from the guilt and madness of it all, I think a lot of readers are going to be upset if substituting Rhaena for Nettles undercuts Daemon's last stand above the Gods Eye lake.

Having read all of A Song of Ice and Fire as well as Fire & Blood, I'm confident in saying Daemon vs. Aemond is one of the most epic sequences that George R.R. Martin has ever written and would make for some spectacular television if it's adapted as closely as possible.

Only time will tell, however, and it's possible that Martin doesn't see the omission of Nettles the same way that he does Maelor. At the very least, it'll likely be some time before we find out what House of the Dragon Season 3 has in store. Variety has already confirmed that production won't start until early 2025, which likely means the next new episode won't air on HBO until 2026.

Martin closed his since-deleted Not A Blog post by warning of "larger and more toxic" twists to come if the show does go ahead "with some of the changes being contemplated for seasons 3 and 4," but nothing is seemingly certain at this point. For now, we can wait and see if Martin has more to say about House of the Dragon as the wait continues for his next chapter of A Song of Ice and Fire with the long-delayed Winds of Winter.

A few months back, Yarros was asked if there is a plan to “avoid an A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones situation.” By this, they mean the fact that HBO’s drama got to a point in the TV series in which there were no books left to work off of, and showrunners Benioff and Weiss were forced to make creative choices with only some input from George R.R. Martin. (The latter seasons on Thrones, in particular the final season, were less critically acclaimed.)

At the time, Rebeccas Yarros confirmed there is a full publication schedule for the Empyrean Series, and also noted there will be five books in total. A release date for the third book, Onyx Storm, is already out and is set to hit shelves on January 21, 2025. To be sure, I am extremely pumped about this, but I have another concern that ties in with Game of Thrones.

The Fourth Wing Question I Have That Also Ties Into Game Of Thrones: Will It Be Expensive Enough?

HBO’s most famous fantasy drama cost an absolute fortune to make. Some estimates have GOT spending $10- $15 million per episode, and if true, at 73 episodes in total, the Warner Bros.-owned company would have been all-in at hundreds of millions of dollars, perhaps even bordering on a billion. That’s a lot of money spent.

We've heard some of the more expensive episodes like The Iron Throne cost $15 million to make, per budget reports at the time. Obviously, the cast grew more expensive over time, but Game of Thrones was constantly pricy from a fantasy standpoint, too, and that’s where my concern over Fourth Wing lies: Basically, is it going to be expensive enough to not look terrible?

Fourth Wing is a show about dragons . There are myriad battle sequences with dragons. There are other supernatural creatures and magics channeled through dragons. Dragons are also expensive to create via CGI in projects, which is a little worrisome, as we're talking way, way more dragons in scenes with Yarros' series than in GOT or its more dragon-heavy spinoff House of the Dragon. In short, there are a lot of fantasy elements that need to be achieved at scale. Some of Game of Thrones’ special effects were (often) amazing, but only because the show had the budget, and (usually) the correct scale.

Even then, there were problems and it wasn't always enough. People complain to this day about The Long Night being too dark, and that episode allegedly had a significant budget. People complain about the later seasons feeling too rushed -- they had more budget per episode later on, but fewer episodes overall. And I'm not even getting started on the GOT ending; suffice to say, there are problems.

I don't really want any of that to happen to Fourth Wing. Rebecca Yarros’ novels definitely have the built-in fanbase – in fact, they might be the most exciting book series that’s come out for me personally since maybe The Hunger Games (sorry ACOTAR, whose own project may be DOA) and they deserve a big budget retelling, which means money will need to be invested into the project. And while we don't know how they end yet -- again, the third book, Onyx Storm, is due out in January 2025 -- there is an outline for where the show is going and I'm already invested enough in the characters (OK Xaden) I want to see it done well and not just, well, done.

The show is being set up at Amazon, which is a good sign, as that streamer didn't shy away from overspending when it came to Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The first season of that series allegedly cost around $450 million U.S. to bring to the small screen, which would make it the most expensive series of all time. I'm not saying Fourth Wing will need quite that much budget, but I'd like to see it look better than lower budget fare like The Magicians or Legacies (though those shows are delightful in their own ways).

In order to do The Empyrean series justice, the streamer really needs to put a little money behind the Michael B. Jordan-produced fantasy drama, but I will say there's no project I'm more excited for coming up. Hopefully it will all be worth it.

Of course changes are required in any adaptation from book to screen, and we were never likely to get every Targaryen riding their dragon and every battle shown in minute detail. But since it seems like a very safe bet that George R.R. Martin’s issues are with how the show adapted his source material, let’s look back at what I see as the five biggest story changes from Fire & Blood.

And let’s start with the biggest, which also happens to be the one that I can’t really defend even as a fan of Season 2.

Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS ARE AHEAD for House of the Dragon Season 2 and George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood.

Blood And Cheese

If there was one thing that Fire & Blood readers could be fairly confident of after Season 1 ended with the death of Lucerys, it was that Blood and Cheese was going to happen early in Season 2. As a supporter of Team Black, I wondered if the tragedy about to befall the Greens would be enough for viewers to switch loyalties from one side to the other. After all, Blood and Cheese is really, really, really bad in the book.

While the murder of a young boy in his bed was still really, really bad in the show, I never imagined how much House of the Dragon would soften the incident. Not only was it presented as the assassins deciding to kill Prince Jaehaerys on their own rather than Daemon ordering it, but the actual scenario was less nightmarish.

In the book, Helaena was the mother to three children: Jaehaerys, Jaehaera, and Maelor. Assassins broke into Alicent’s rooms and killed all the servants so as to take the young queen by surprise when she brought the children in. Blood and Cheese promised to only hurt one but only if Helaena chose which of her children would be killed, with the threat that Jaehaera would be raped if she took too long to choose.

Sobbing, Helaena chose young Maelor to die, prompting Cheese to whisper to the youngest prince that his mother wanted him to die before Blood beheaded Jaehaerys in front of Helaena, Alicent, and both of his siblings. It was a truly despicable act, and being forced to choose slowly but surely drove Helaena mad over the rest of her short life.

In the show, Helaena didn’t have to make a choice, and really seemed to recover from her son being murdered quite quickly. The choice to give Helaena visions of the future has been mostly interesting in House of the Dragon, but her resignation to Jaehaerys' death rather than how the character responded in the book really lessened the impact.

It didn’t help that Alicent was absent from the scene in the show and in the middle of a tryst with Ser Criston Cole instead, which brings us to…

Alicent's Affair With Criston Cole

House of the Dragon wasted no time in Season 2 in establishing that Criston Cole and Alicent started sleeping together. Neither really felt great about it, with the affair weighing on the dowager queen’s conscience and Cole was past the point of bothering with moral quandaries. As far as I recall, the only rumored partner that Alicent ever had other than Viserys in Fire & Blood was King Jaehaerys before him, and that rumor only came from Mushroom.

There’s nothing in the book to suggest that anything was actually happening between Alicent and Cole beyond his role working alongside Aegon and later Aemond. There’s certainly some hypocrisy from both of them in the act, but the question that has been bugging me ever since Alicent required some moon tea is of how much time actually passed from Season 1 to that point in Season 2.

While moon tea has been used in the show as a contraceptive, A Song of Ice and Fire proved with Lysa Arryn that it can also be used as an abortifacient to terminate an unwanted pregnancy. All of Alicent’s actions in that particular episode struck me as her attempting to force a miscarriage, not preventing pregnancy in the first place. Since Viserys didn’t die all that long ago and wasn’t really in any condition to be making babies toward the end of his life, the implication is that Alicent was pregnant via Criston Cole.

And if she was far enough along to know that she was pregnant, the timeline suggests that she was sleeping with Cole before Viserys died unless Season 2 snuck in a bigger time jump than was necessary. Is it possible that I’ve put way more thought than intended into the timeline leading to Alicent drinking moon tea? Sure, but I see it as another sign that the affair with Cole really hasn’t added anything good to the series.

Daemon's Loyalties In Question (And Visions At Harrenhal)

Daemon may not be the most morally upstanding character of Fire & Blood, but his political loyalty to Rhaenyra was never in question, and he certainly didn’t spend his time in Harrenhal considering whether or not he should try to usurp his niece/wife/queen.

Even when Rhaenyra was past the point of reason and ordered that Nettles be executed, the closest Daemon came to betraying her was helping Nettles escape alive and then going after Aemond instead of rejoining his wife. Plus, HOTD Daemon knowing courtesy of Alys Rivers where he’s supposed to die might lessen the impact of his decision to face Aemond later on, although that’s presumably at least one season away from being adapted on the show.

Admittedly, I’ve never been a huge fan of House of the Dragon stretching to tie everything to Game of Thrones and Daenerys, so I’m a bit biased, but Daemon only declaring his loyalty to Rhaenyra after getting a vision of Dany didn’t do The Rogue Prince any favors.

The show playing up the love story of Daemon and Rhaenyra’s marriage has been fine, in my eyes, but toying with Daemon betraying her to make a claim of his own goes against Fire & Blood in a way that bugged me for a lot of Season 2, even though the entire Harrenhal setting was quite impressive and I’m officially one of many fans for whom Ser Simon Strong was the MVP of the storyline. Daemon’s loyalty to Rhaenyra in Fire & Blood was one of his defining qualities, and it was lacking in Season 2.

Omitting Nettles

Technically it’s possible that House of the Dragon intends to bring in the character of Nettles but just hasn’t yet, like the delay in introducing Daeron Targaryen until his cameo with his blue dragon in the Season 2 finale. But unless Rhaena is burned to a crisp in the Vale, it certainly seems that instead of incorporating Nettles, House of the Dragon is giving a modified version of the Sheepstealer storyline to Daemon’s daughter.

And while some characters in a book as packed as Fire & Blood are inevitably going to be left out of a TV adaptation, no way would I ever have predicted that Nettles would be cut. Not only is she an example of possibly how a non-Targaryen could tame a dragon, but her ambiguous relationship with Daemon is a major plot point toward the end of the Dance of the Dragons.

Deeply paranoid after being betrayed by several of the other dragonseeds by this point, Rhaenyra came to believe that Nettles and Daemon were having an affair and demanded Nettles’ death. Not only did this set off the chain of events that ended with Daemon’s death, but Rhaenyra demanding that Lord Manfryd Mooten violate guest right to kill Nettles prompted him to flip to support the Greens.

It’s hard to imagine what Rhaenyra could be convinced of about Rhaena that she would order her death. Even the Targaryen family tree doesn’t partake in parent/child incest, which is why Daemon’s dream of his mother was a step too far even for him. I don’t have any idea what the show intends to do by merging Rhaena and Nettles (or why nobody noticed Rhaena was missing long enough for her to trek through the Vale), but I’m guessing that George R.R. Martin has thoughts.

Rhaenyra And Alicent's Bond

Rhaenyra and Alicent’s friendship was one of the earliest major changes from the book to the show, as House of the Dragon aged up Rhaenyra and aged down Alicent to make them peers and pals. It tracks that the history between them would continue to affect them as war ramps up between their two branches of the warring Targaryen family, but Rhaenyra sneaking into King’s Landing dressed as a septa was a stretch.

In hindsight, though, Rhaenyra sneaking into King’s Landing is downright normal compared to Alicent sneaking herself to Dragonstone to reveal Aemond’s plans and tell the Black Queen when she should move against King’s Landing. Alicent basically gave up Aemond and Aegon for dead so that she could escape with Helaena, which… is one way to go with her character, but my biggest bummer is that it takes away some of the triumph of how Rhaenyra and Daemon took King’s Landing in Fire & Blood. That was a major win for the Blacks, not the result of Alicent spelling out how they could enter the capital.

All of this may sound like I hated House of the Dragon Season 2, but I did enjoy it for the most part. Having read Fire & Blood, though, I can definitely see changes from the book that diverge pretty wildly from what George R.R. Martin wrote and might not sit well with him. For now, we can only wait and see what he plans to say about it, and/or rewatch House of the Dragon streaming with a Max subscription.

When Season 2 of House of the Dragon came to a close on the 2024 TV schedule, it’s safe to say that many were left with a sour taste in their mouths. While HOTD’s ending included a strong Game of Thrones connection and some epic moments, overall, it was a divisive finale. It turns out, the man behind the books all of this is based on, George R.R. Martin, is also not thrilled with the GOT prequel at the moment. However, after he dropped a dramatic post about it, fans popped off at him over The Winds of Winter.

George R.R. Martin Posted A Dramatic Statement About House Of The Dragon

As we know, George R. R. Martin is very active on his site, Not A Blog, and most recently he wrote about the Burning of Zozobra. For the most part, the post is about the history of the Santa Fe-based event, however, he also wrote about how it’s been “a pretty wretched year.” He then opened up about his travels and what he’ll write about more later.

However, notably, he also called out the fact that he’s not looking forward to writing about House of the Dragon, explaining:

He really just kind of threw that in at the end of his post with basically no elaboration. However, while the author did like the addition of the dog and praised Tom Glynn-Carney’s performance as Aegon this season, he also has specific complaints about HOTD. So, this statement isn't exactly a surprise.

Plus, considering fans disliked Daemon’s Harrenhal plot and some had complaints about the Season 2 finale being anticlimactic, I can see why Martin is not thrilled at the moment.

However, fans are not here for Mr. Martin’s dramatics either, because while he’s not happy about House of the Dragon, they’re not thrilled that Winds of Winter still isn’t finished.

Fans Are Popping Off About It And The Fact That Winds Of Winter Still Isn’t Finished 

Now, George is clearly upset about House of the Dragon, however, he didn’t elaborate on why in that post. So, naturally, in true Game of Thrones fandom fashion, many called out the fact that his book Winds of Winter still isn’t finished, and they’re still waiting for it.

For example, @shwinnypooh wondered why he was blogging instead of working on the book, explaining:

On the same wave-length, @mattglesias retweeted an X post about Martin’s HOTD take and wrote:

Meanwhile, @mbapadre is also upset that this blog post went up and we still don't have the long-awaited book:

Keeping the trend of aggressive posts alive, @Bern2688 commented about their frustrations regarding Winds of Winter and Martin’s latest blog, writing:

Again, frustration is the overall name of the game here. While Martin is clearly flustered about House of the Dragon, his fans are still angry about the fact that they can’t read Winds of Winter.

@Alia_MovieGirl posted a funny picture of Tom Glynn-Carney on his phone behind the scenes of HOTD (which you can see in the final slide of the actor’s original IG post embedded below) and wrote:

Overall, there’s just a lot of annoyance and bitterness going around the Game of Thrones fandom at the moment.

Hopefully, in the near future, we’ll learn more about why George R.R. Martin is mad about House of the Dragon. Then, maybe someday he’ll finally appease fans and publish The Winds of Winter.

In the meantime, I’ll provide you with something you can do right now, in preparation for HOTD Season 3, you can stream both the first two seasons as well as Game of Thrones with a Max subscription. And as we learn more about all the drama we talked about above, we’ll be sure to keep you posted.

House of the Dragon’s Season 3 renewal means fans can breathe a sigh of relief about upcoming episodes, particularly given the Game of Thrones spinoff ended on quite a few cliffhangers. While fans might be bullish about the renewal news, I think we can all agree the fantasy drama is not exactly a “fun” watch a huge percentage of the time. Filming, on the other hand, is a bit different as Olivia Cooke opened up about bringing levity to a scene about a dead kid whose head had to be fetched and sewn.

I know it feels like a lifetime ago in the House of the Dragon family tree timeline that Blood and Cheese came and assassinated young Jaehaerys in front of his mother. The death episode was harrowing earlier in Season 2, and it was even harder to watch when the next episode hit the 2024 TV schedule. That’s because the next episode featured a funeral in the streets, crowded with people, while Jaeherys was paraded around with his head sewn back on.

Series lead Olivia Cooke was a key actor in the funeral scene, sitting in the back of a horse-drawn vehicle with Phia Saban. The carriage they sat in was open air, which meant they had a direct view of the prosthetic that was built. It sounds gruesome, but per Cooke, after a time on House of the Dragon you kind of get used to the spectacle of blood and gore surrounding you at all times.

Yes, Phia and Olivia confirmed to Variety they had a sing-a-long going on in between takes of the funeral scene. I can just imagine them busting out some Taylor Swift (or whomever, she didn't clarify) and then going straight into their super-serious funeral faces every single time the cameras started rolling again. It's a weird business, TV.

Meanwhile, Phia Saban also reacted to being shown the dummy of the real-life actor and recalled how incredibly realistic it honestly looked.

Did you know that was a fake dummy person and not just makeup on the young actor? I'm not really sure I thought about it much while watching, but it really does go to show how much attention goes into the details of making sure the fantasy series looks as good as possible.

It's not a huge surprise to hear the actors look for a little levity while filming for long hours on the show. There's video of Game of Thrones actors looking silly while riding dragons, and I'm sure there are plenty of goofy moments we don't know about that took place while shooting the worst scenes in the show's history. You can't just be sad for months on end, and at the end of the day, it's just a job with coworkers like any other.

Obviously, a lot has come to pass on the series since Jaeherys was murdered, and there’s only more death and destruction to come. House of the Dragon won't be back this year, but expect tons of new updates as new episodes start coming together.

Ah, Game of Thrones. A chapter of my life that I have long since revisited several times – but you want to know what has changed? My perception of Sansa Stark. 

Let me preface this by saying that the world of A Song of Ice and Fire has plenty of characters that you either grow to hate or grow to love. Sansa was undoubtedly one of those for me. Ever since I began watching the show back in 2016, and watched it through the end, I never had the fondest thoughts about good old Lady Stark. 

But, I recently rewatched Game of Thrones for fun, and as I did, I slowly began to realize that how I viewed Sansa, as an annoying little girl at first, had changed completely. 

Maybe it was because my frontal lobe was fully developed at the time, and I finally had the sense to think about what the character had gone through. Even so, here I was…coming to a shocking realization that Sansa really…isn’t that bad. Like at all. And people need to stop hating her. 

Before We Dig Into The Character – Sophie Turner Was Fantastic As Sansa Throughout The Show

So, let’s start off by saying that I love Sophie Turner with all my heart. I have so much respect for anyone in the Game of Thrones cast, but I have even more major respect for the young men and women who began this show as children and turned into formidable actors by the end of it, yet still delivered a performance in their younger years that is nearly impossible to beat. 

Turner is one of those actors. While I do have a particular love for her, considering she’s rooted for Penn State, my alma mater, in the past, we’re talking solely about her acting skills here, and she knocked it out of the park from day one. Watching her when she was a teenager, playing a younger Sansa with that quiver and shake in her voice – it’s hard to portray that kind of emotion at such a young age. 

You can’t help but respect her. Honestly, I’ll support anything she does in the future with that amount of acting skill. 

Let’s Begin By Saying I Used To Hate Sansa

Alright, now that I’ve finished praising Turner, let’s dig into Sansa. 

I absolutely hated her when I was younger. And I think I know why. When I first watched this show, only six seasons were available, and while Sansa had gone through a lot in those six seasons, it wasn’t really until later seasons that we started to see that shift with her from a highborn lady to a natural leader. 

Then I had to wait years for the next two seasons, and I think, like D&D, that I just forgot everything she had gone through. Watching this series consistently without breaks in content allowed me to fully digest her insane character arc and how much she had survived. 

But before I had that, I couldn’t stand her. I thought she was just a privileged little lady who had everything in life and just wanted more and more. Personally, Season 1 Sansa is still that way, even on a rewatch, but boy…now, as an adult, everything changes in Season 2. 

Season 2 Is Where Things Began To Change 

Season 2 is where we really start to see Sansa fighting for her life. Her father has been killed in one of the most shocking Game of Thrones moments ever, and her brother is now warring with the Lannisters. This is the moment we see her forced to grow up. 

It takes time. A lot of time. But she’s forced to play the Game of Thrones in a way that we haven’t really seen – from the inside out, trying to look as potentially loyal as possible while attaining allies who could maybe help her escape, such as Margaery, but that doesn’t come until Season 3. We see her genuinely starting to realize the situation she has gotten herself into. 

Her privileged attitude really begins to go right out the window. Seasons 3 and 4 put this mentality to the test, where she does exactly as she’s told to do to survive, but in Season 5…it all changes again. 

Season 5 As An Adult Made Me Want To Save Her Myself And Give Her A Home

I don’t want to spend that much time on Sansa’s story in Season 5. It’s disgusting and heartbreaking, and it makes adult-me want to sob every time I watch it. When I was younger, watching this was saddening but not nearly as enraging it was now, realizing just how much this young woman had dealt with. 

Then, Ramsay had to come along and ruin everything. I’ve seen some horrible things said about this scene online, and all I want to say is that no matter what Sansa has said or done in the past, she never deserved what happened to her. I was forever grateful when Theon was able to get her out of the castle. Truthfully, now, it made me want to give her a home, too. No one should ever have to go through that. 

I Never Realized Just How Badass She Was Until Season 6

Season 6 is probably one of my favorite seasons of Game of Thrones for various reasons, but now, rewatching it, I realize it’s the moment Sansa really started to become a leader. While she doesn’t know anything about battle strategy, she has the mind of the nobles that she was forced to reside with for years on end on her side. 

She uses that to her advantage, and helps Jon Snow gain allies in order to fight Ramsey. Not only that, but she pulls a fast one and gets the army of the Vale to end the Battle of the Bastards real quick. Do you know how badass she looks as she stands there, watching as Ramsey and his men are taken down? Ugh, utter revenge; sweet revenge. 

Honestly, She Deserves The Ending She Got After Everything She Went Through And How She's Grown

I still don’t necessarily agree with how we ended some stories for Season 8 and the overall Game of Thrones ending. There are some things I still don’t agree with to this day, and even rewatching it reminds me of how much I don’t agree with them. 

However, I’ve grown to realize that Sansa deserves the title of Queen in the North. She really did everything that she could do to get her home back and show that the Starks deserve to stay in the North, showing a complete turnaround from what she was as a child – a needy lady who wanted to go south to King’s Landing. 

Sure, she can’t fight. She’s not a warrior. She doesn’t have dragons, or direwolves anymore to use as weapons. But she has her mind. She’s a capable young woman who grew up in probably some of the most traumatizing ways a girl can imagine…and for that, she earns my utmost respect, and I would support her in a heartbeat. 

I still think Daenerys should have become queen, that she and Sansa could have worked something out that didn't seem so quickly done like with Bran because, of course, it was. Still, even so, I’m glad that at least one of the mighty women that I adored throughout this series got the ending they deserved. 

While Game of Thrones is long over, House of the Dragon Season 3 is coming in a few years, and who knows? I might end up liking a character there just as much as I like Sansa now. But, perhaps another Game of Thrones rewatch is needed before we decide on that. Regardless, she’ll always be my Queen in the North.