Fans of “House Of The Dragon” are annoyed with the frequent “time jumps” (two in 8 episodes, yes!) in the series. However, George RR Martin defended screenwriter Ryan J Condal and says that both time leaps have been “handled very well.”
On his blog, Martin wrote, “…I think Ryan has handled the “jumps” very well, and I love love love both the younger Alicent (played by Emily Carey) and Rhaenyra (played by Milly Alcock) and the adult versions, and the actresses who play them. (Truth be told, we have an incredible cast, and I love all of them).” The elder Alicent Hightower is played by Olivia Cooke, while Rhaenyra’s elder version is portrayed by Emma D’Arcy.
READ MORE: ‘House Of The Dragon’ Stars Break Down Rhaenyra And Alicent’s Ongoing Feud After Massive Time Jump
Fans have expressed their displeasure over the time jumps of social media.
The time jumps in House of the Dragon are an absolute disaster for the storytelling.
— Steven Hamilton (@SHamiltonian) October 10, 2022
The time jumps in House of The Dragon are annoying. Ser Criston now looks younger than most of the characters.
— Chibuzor Iwobi (@JeSuisChiby) October 10, 2022
Martin stated that he wished there was more time to explore the relationship graphs of some characters, including Rhaenyra and Ser Harwin and Daemon and Laena.
“But there are only so many minutes in an episode (more on HBO than on the network shows I once wrote for), and only so many episodes in a season. Fewer and fewer as time goes by, it seems. When I was a boy, shows had 39 episodes a season… Cable shrunk that even further,” Martin said.
Martin also calculated the number of episodes “House Of The Dragon” needs to cover all critical points without massive time leaps – 40 episodes!
“If “House Of The Dragon” had 13 episodes per season, maybe we could have shown all the things we had to “time jump” over. Though that would have risked having some viewers complain that the show was too “slow,” that “nothing happened.” As it is, I am thrilled that we still have 10 hours every season to tell our tale… I hope that will continue to be true. It is going to take four full seasons of 10 episodes each to do justice to the Dance of the Dragons, from start to finish,” he wrote.
As of now, Martin is focusing on “The Winds Of Winter”.
