Fans of George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones series are threatening a boycott of the famed author’s next book over accusations that his co-authors are “racists” for their past insistence that film productions stick to the source material.
Martin is preparing to release a “deluxe reference” book on the history of Westeros’ Valyrian family, entitled The Rise of the Dragon: An Illustrated History of the Targaryen Dynasty, Volume One. The book is co-authored by married couple Linda Antonsson and Elio M. García Jr. who have been Martin’s partners for years, Variety.
Back in 1999, Antonsson and García started the website Westros.org, one of the early fan communities. Eventually, Martin took notice of the pair’s efforts and began collaborating with them as fact checkers for his books to help him stay in canon.
But the pair also became staunch advocates of sticking to Martin’s original writings and also became critics of several of the film versions of Martin’s “Game of Thrones” books over deviations.
Recently, for instance, Antonsson said that the character of Corlys, portrayed by Steve Toussaint on House of the Dragon, was miscast as a black man.
“There are no Black Valyrians and there should not be any in the show,” Antonsson said of the common ancestors of Velaryons and Targaryens.
The criticism of the race swapping became a sticking point for leftist fans who want to add more racial diversity to the series but Antonsson accused fans of “cherry picking” for their arguments and bristled at being called a racist. She also said she has no problem with “inclusive casting” but insisted that “diversity should not trump story.”
“If George had indeed made the Valyrians Black instead of white, as he mused on his ‘Not a Blog’ in 2013, and this new show proposed to make the Velaryons anything other than Black, we would have had the same issue with it and would have shared the same opinion,” Antonsson said.
Antonsson insists that she is only focused on the source material and being true to it, not on racial stunt casting. Toussant, though, recently blasted fans for not accepting him as a “rich black guy” even as they accept the existence of giant, fire-breathing dragons.
However, Antonsson clapped back at Toussant’s criticism saying his comments are a “false dichotomy which completely misses the point of how secondary world fantasy functions.” she added that changing the racial makeup of characters “raises all sorts of logical questions.”
She also said she has complained about other changes made to logos and other things that have nothing to do with race, all because they are changes to the source material.
George R.R. Martin has not commented on the issue, but his continued collaboration with the couple seems to answer any larger questions of where he stands.
The newest HBO series has also taken heat from the LGBTQ community for killing off a gay character almost as soon as he was introduced.
Woke gay activists were triggered after the series killing off Ser Joffrey Lonmouth (Solly McLeod), who is a gay character, in episode five of its first season.
“To introduce a rare couple of queers to the series, only for one of them to be dispatched, quickly, in visceral fashion, leaves an awful taste,” British GQ writer Jack King wrote in a Sept. 20 piece, headlined, “Like Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon has a queer problem.”
King added that Hollywood often kills gay characters early.
The Dragons series was also blasted from the right for announcing their intent to explore “internalized misogyny” and “patriarchy.”
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