Hey! As I really enjoy the show predictions you've made on here in the past, do you have any idea of what the upcoming "big butterflies" could be that GRRM was referring to in his blog post? I'm kind of scared to even speculate at this point, and sadly I don't think these writers are going to change much. I know for sure he's not happy about the Rhaena/Nettles situation.
Do you mean 'toxic butterflies' ? Because I can speculate on a few, and I believe we've already seen manifestations/hints of some.
Severed parent-child bonds, which is something that NEVER happened in Fire and Blood. We saw Alicent betraying her 3 sons. And some have even gone ahead to predict that Alicent will be the one to poison Aegon in the end of the story. There were also rumors from 4Chan few months ago that Ryan and Sara were considering making Jace overthrow Rhaenyra temporarily with Corlys' help because they don't find her competent enough. Another grotesque rumor is that they had planned for Aemond to lust after his own MOTHER. We're all holding our breath, hoping Harrenhal doesn't traumatize us in season 3, because a writer has a mom-son kink that gave us the Daemon/Alyssa scene as some twisted form of foreshadowing bullshit they're contemplating rather than just adapting more important themes in grrm's STORY.
Rhaenicent/Rhaenyra and Alicent become lovers rather than enemies. I don't think this needs explaining. It greatly reduces the stakes of the story and turns the leading women in this conflict into traitors against their own family members and idiots who could've ended the war before it started by just kissing and making up lmao.
Exclusion of key characters: Nettles and Maelor's absence will cause a big imbalance, especially when you notice how shallow the replacements for these characters' arcs are. Rhaena is NOT an inspiring low born girl and Rickard Thorne dying defending Jaehaera, who will live anyways, just isn't as interesting and tragic.
Tampering with asiaf lore: First thing that comes to mind is how the dragons were handled in season 2 e.g how they're claimed, who they let claim them, where they live. The writers fucked up by being wishy washy and it might cost them ahead.
Condensing the timeline: as a result some events have to be merged, especially battles e.g they writers could be forced to combine the battle of the Gullet with the taking of King's Landing, which is all too much if you ask me. Also, some characters that must exist don't (Maelor) and others that do are too young or too old (so we will never get Aegon iii escaping on Stormclooud, or him witnessing hismother be fed to Sunfyre). Do you see the problem?
Man bad woman good agenda: Exhausting nonsense that turns female characters into boring, righteous players robbed of agency in the war, while giving all the action, agency and popularity to male characters. Let's not even talk about how the women have no role, apparently, in each other's misery. There's a joke circulating in the fandom that Helaena will just kill herself because of fulfilling the prophecy rather than being moved by a fresh triggering event (and grrm has already complained about this). Why? Duh! Because neither Rhaenyra nor Mysaria can play active roles in the death of another woman, didn't you know? These things just cheapen the womens' stories, on top of making them boring and annoying. I want to nuke this gender based morality out of this world so bad! But you can be SURE you will be seeing more of it in the coming seasons.