George R.R. Martin stepped back from Game of Thrones after Season 4 to focus on completing The Winds of Winter. Initially heavily involved in the screenwriting for the show, Martin’s busy schedule meant that David Benioff and D. B. Weiss served as the main writers for Season 4. Claiming that his commitment to The Winds of Winter meant he had no time, the 75-year-old novelist ended up declining a cameo role in the series as well.
Before this, he also had a cameo scene in the initial pilot scene of the series that fans never got to see. The scene never ended up airing once Emilia Clarke replaced Tamzin Merchant for the role of Daenerys Targaryen. After R.R. Martin stepped back from the series, he claimed that some of the changes ended up shocking him.
Also read: Peter Dinklage’s Game of Thrones Salary Makes Hunger Games Paycheck Look Like Peanuts
Game of Thrones Worst Scene was Made Without George R.R. Martin’s Consultation
It’s right that George R.R. Martin was intensifying efforts to finish The Winds of Winter and has distanced himself from the TV series. The last script that the novelist wrote was for Season 4 in 2014. And since the show had significantly deviated from his original vision by then.
It was the year that featured an infamous sex scene between Jaime and Cersei Lannister in the episode Breaker of Chains. It was non-consensual on the screen. At that time, Martin said on Vanity Fair, “The whole dynamic is different in the show.”
“The setting is the same, but neither character is in the same place as in the books, which may be why Dan & David played the sept out differently. But that’s just my surmise; we never discussed this scene, to the best of my recollection.”
Martin claimed that the infamous scene was different than what it was in books. It came as a shocker to him because it was made without his discussion.
Also read: Blue Eye Samurai Did 1 Thing Right that Even Game of Thrones Failed to Achieve
George R.R. Martin Discussed Variances Between Game of Thrones TV Series and Novels
In 2015, when a sexual assault scene in Season 5 shocked fans, George R.R. Martin reiterated the show’s deviations from the novels. He took to his blog on Live Journal, “There have been differences between the novels and the television show since the first episode of season one.” The novelist continued:
“And for just as long, I have been talking about the butterfly effect. Small changes lead to larger changes lead to huge changes. David (Benioff) and Dan (Weiss) and Bryan (Cogman) and HBO are trying to make the best television series that they can. And over here I am trying to write the best novels that I can. And yes, more and more, they differ. Two roads diverging in the dark of the woods, I suppose . . . but all of us are still intending that at the end we will arrive at the same place.”
It’s obvious that there will be certain variances in the storytelling approach across different mediums. But the deviations had a night and day difference. In the TV episode, Ramsay forced a hysterical Theon Greyjoy (ex-ward of the Stark family) to watch the sexual assault against Sansa.
But in Martin’s book, Theon is asked to take part in the disturbing act. This episode was heavily criticized for its portrayal of violence against women in the past.
Also read: The Dark Origin Story of Dragons in George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones Lore
