The Game of Thrones franchise has been having a positive resurgence lately thanks to the release of the prequel series, House of the Dragon. And the franchise’s creator, George R.R. Martin has no plans of stopping as his upcoming new book will showcase more of the Targaryen history.
However, fans are not keen on this book’s release. Not because they’re tired of hearing about this fictional family and their interest in incest. But rather, it’s the co-authors that worked with Martin on the book and their supposed history of writing allegedly offensive and racist posts.
The Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of the Targaryen Dynasty, Volume One is Martin’s upcoming book that will be released in late October. According to Vulture, the book was co-written by Linda Antonsson and Elio M. García Jr. These two were known to have founded the fansite Westeros.org. But at the same time, the two made it known how they’d interpret the characters — that they’re all white/white-passing and those who disagree are “whiny social justice crusaders.”
To understand how bad their “hot takes” were, Twitter user @CNymerosMartell released a thread back in August 2022 filled with “intolerant and bigoted” takes that were published in 2012.
Fans on social media plan to boycott the upcoming release due to the co-author’s social media history. Fans also argued that the book is just an illustrated version of Fire and Blood (the book that House of the Dragon is based on), and they’re better off buying the original book.
The screen adaptations of House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones made it possible to cast people of color in these shows, and fans praised showrunners and George R.R. Martin for these decisions as, according to them, they “made sense” considering the landscape and family background of these characters.
In an interview with EW, the show’s creator, Ryan Condal, said that Martin originally wanted to make the Velaryons Black. Despite the original descriptions in the book, Condal encouraged Martin to portray this family in his original vision on screen.
“Long, long ago when he was conceiving of this world, [Martin] himself had considered the idea of making Velaryons a race of Black people with silver hair that essentially came from the other side of the ocean and conquered Westeros. That’s a fascinating idea and that always really stuck with me because it’s such a stark image. I just thought, ‘Well, why couldn’t we do a version of that now?'”
If you’re still keen to learn more about the Targaryen family despite the drama and allegations, Rise of the Dragon will be released on Oct. 25.