George R. R. Martin’s Sharpest Digs at Game of Thrones, Ranked

George R. R. Martin has never been shy about telling you exactly how he feels about Game of Thrones. Not in a shouty, dunk-on-HBO way, but in that calm, razor-edged way where one sentence lands like a sword. He respects what the show pulled off, but he also watched his world zig where his books zag. And over the years, he has dropped some very pointed notes about what he thinks the series got wrong, softened, or just plain misunderstood. Consider this a tour of those moments—equal parts inside baseball and 'how did that make it to air?'

The pressure points, in one place

1. Lady Stoneheart was cut, and Martin hated that call

   Book readers waited years for the show to bring back Catelyn Stark as her vengeful, stitched-up alter ego. It never happened. Martin told Time he argued against axing Lady Stoneheart and saw the move as the first major breakaway from his story. The showrunners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, defended the omission because they wanted death to matter—especially with Jon Snow destined for a resurrection later. Martin believed Lady Stoneheart was more than a twist; she was a thematic gut punch about how revenge warps even the best of us. Without her, a big piece of the series emotional symmetry went missing.

   'I argued against that... That was probably the first major diversion of the show from the books.'

2. Jaime and Cersei: a scene that broke his vision of the characters

   Remember the scene by Joffrey's body? In the show, Jaime forces himself on Cersei. In the books, the dynamic—and Jaime's internal conflict—plays very differently. On his blog, Martin pointed out that TV cannot put you inside Jaime's head the way the novels do, and that earlier changes to the timeline and character beats created a butterfly effect. Translation: it did not read as he intended. On the page, the moment was meant to be unsettling in a specific, character-driven way. On TV, it came off as bluntly cruel and out of step with the arc he wrote.

3. Littlefinger would never hand Sansa to Ramsay. Period.

   In Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon, Martin was crystal clear: his Littlefinger would not have traded Sansa to a known sadist. The show's explanation that Petyr Baelish somehow did not know Ramsay Bolton's reputation? Martin did not buy it. In the books, Littlefinger is a control freak with a 12-step plan for everything and an obsession with Sansa that is half Catelyn echo and half possession fantasy. Giving her to Ramsay breaks the character he wrote.

   'My Littlefinger would have never turned Sansa over to Ramsay. Never... He is not going to give her to somebody who would do bad things to her.'

4. The Targaryen sigil gaffe that set off the heraldry nerd alarm

   This is pure inside baseball and very on-brand for Martin: he called out the show for swapping the Targaryen three-headed, two-legged dragon for a four-legged version on Daenerys fleet sails late in the run. Early seasons had it right; then the sails rolled in with the wrong creature. To most people, that is a shrug. To the guy who built the lore, it is identity-level detail.

   'Someone got sloppy... A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.'

5. The end of the show felt like a weird sort of freedom

   Martin told The Guardian that the series success did not speed him up; it slowed him down. Every writing day became a guilt trip instead of fuel. He described the show's conclusion as a pressure release, the moment he could stop carrying the phenomenon on his back and just write again.

   'I do not think the TV series was very good for me... The very thing that should have speeded me up actually slowed me down.'

   He also said he is not chasing anyone's approval but his own now. It is the only sane way to finish something this sprawling.

6. Winds of Winter is hard because it is basically a dozen novels at once

   Also via The Guardian, Martin explained why this book has been a grind: it is not one story, it is many—each with its own cast, politics, and geography, all ticking forward at different speeds. He said Fire and Blood, while still a multi-year lift, was 'easier' by comparison. Winds is next, he confirmed, and after that he will decide whether to sail straight into A Dream of Spring or take a Dunk and Egg detour.

7. His blog post on the finale: different mediums, different scope

   When the final season aired, Martin took the measured route on his Not A Blog. The show had around six hours to land the plane. He expects the last two books to run about 3,000 manuscript pages—and if he needs more space, he will take it. He also reminded everyone that the book-verse includes players and threads the show never touched and vice versa: Lady Stoneheart, Aegon VI, Jeyne Poole, Victarion Greyjoy, and yes, unicorns... of a sort.

   'Book or show, which will be the real ending? It is a silly question... I will write it. You read it. Then everyone can make up their own mind, and argue about it on the internet.'

8. Dany and Drogo's wedding night: the change he could not defend

   In the book, Daenerys and Drogo's wedding night is a tender, consensual turning point. The show reframed it as a violent assault. In Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon, Martin said there was no conversation with the showrunners about making that change, and his verdict was blunt.

   'It made it worse, not better.'

   That one pivot reframed how viewers met Daenerys and how her early arc read emotionally. Martin sounded less angry than genuinely heartsick about it.

9. He did not know how the show would end once it passed the books

   Back in 2017, Martin told Time that once the series leapt ahead of the novels, it became its own organism. He stayed involved, but he was not tailoring his ending to match the show or soothe the internet. The books were set in his head long before HBO ever rolled a camera.

   His stance in short: the show is the show, the books are the books, and he is finishing the story he started in the early 90s.

So where does that leave Westeros?

Martin clearly respects the scale of what HBO pulled off. He also has receipts for the moments that, in his view, sanded down character logic, skipped essential themes, or tripped over the lore. The man built this place; of course it stung to watch it veer. But he has also said the end of the TV ride let him breathe and focus. Winds of Winter is still coming when it is ready—no faster, no slower—and it will be his version, unrushed and unapologetic.

For the basics: Game of Thrones ran on HBO from 2011 to 2019, with 8 seasons and 73 episodes, shepherded by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss and adapted from A Song of Ice and Fire. It sits at 9.2/10 on IMDb and 89% on Rotten Tomatoes. It is currently streaming on HBO Max.

Was Martin right to push back, or do you think the series earned its changes? Sound off—just keep it less Red Wedding, more Small Council.