In his latest in a long line of interviews about the thing he’s currently too busy giving interviews about to finish, George R.R. Martin tells The New York Times about some of the things he would love to change about Game Of Thrones—as tweaking and rewriting a Game Of Thrones that is already completed is certainly easier than writing a whole new Game Of Thrones. For instance, Martin said in an interview by a telephone that was presumably far away from a word processor, he would still like to something more in the neighborhood of 13 episodes per season, which he believes would allow for the many “smaller scenes… that make the story deeper and richer.” It would also make George R.R. Martin richer, and, of course, stretching out the season would allow him more breathing room in which to conduct more interviews.


Nevertheless, Martin understands the practicalities of budget constraints and the fact that his role on the show as a co-executive producer is “secondary.” Still, he says that, were he allowed, he couldn’t help but make some suggestions regarding set and costume design (his thoughts on the Iron Thone are already well known). And he would probably do something about these many revisions for TV, noting, “Small changes lead to big changes.” For example:

Take the musician Marillion, from Season 1. On HBO, Marillion is maimed — his tongue plucked out — at the whim of King Joffrey and then vanishes from the show. That isn’t the case in the books, where he served as the fall guy in Lord Petyr Baelish’s murder of Lysa Arryn (shown on HBO this season). “So that has to be changed” for the TV show, Mr. Martin said of her murder. “The butterfly effects are accumulating.”


Well, if you don’t like it, Mr. Martin, why don’t you go write your own Game Of Thrones stories? No, seriously: Why don’t you go write your own Game Of Thrones stories?

