The 'Games of Thrones' creators say George R. R. Martin doesn't like every change from the books

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George R. R. Martin

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The sixth season of "Game of Thrones" was the first time when the series truly surged ahead of its source material, the "A Song of Ice and Fire" book series. Things were spoiled. Things were changed.

It's an interesting position for author George R. R. Martin to be in. He started writing the series more than two decades ago, and was heavily involved in bringing it to the screen, though he's had less involvement in recent seasons. Since he hasn't yet delivered on the final two books of the series, he's had to watch some of his biggest, oldest twists get spoiled on the show, and for the plots to occasionally diverge.

Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss had to do a lot of reworking while plotting out the sixth season, since they were adapting it from source material that didn't technically exist yet. There were a lot of changes, and while Martin was consulted and approved of all the changes, it doesn't mean he liked them.

As Digital Spy notes, the showrunners were guests on the UFC Unfiltered podcast last week, where they revealed that while Martin's been gracious about the changes, since he knows how television is made, he's not always thrilled.

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"He'd got Emmy nominations before this [show] so he knew how the sausage got made. A lot of authors who have their work adapted have never been part of an adaptation process before and they get really precious about every last thing," the pair explained.

"Not to say that George has agreed with everything we've done, but by and large, on the grander scale, he gets what you need to do to adapt something and he's a grown-up and a gentleman about it."

They didn't explain exactly what Martin didn't like, but it's a safe assumption that he, like most people, had some qualms with all of Arya's adapted story line.

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