Following an online uproar in the wake of the latest episode of ‘Game Of Thrones’, the show’s creator George R. R. Martin has waded in to quell some fans’ dissatisfaction at the brutal fate of one of its key characters, Sansa Stark.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Martin said in a blog post that some fans had begun e-mailing him and leaving comments on his website expressing their outrage not only at Sansa’s altered storyline but also at HBO’s continuing divergence from the plot of Martin’s books, defending the network and saying the producers are “trying to make the best television series that they can”.

George R R MartinGeorge R. R. Martin

On Sunday night’s episode, Sansa (played by Sophie Turner) was got married to the cruel Ramsay (Iwan Rheon) and was depicted in a rather sadistic scene being forced to consummate the marriage. In the novels, Ramsay gets married to a girl who he believes is Sansa’s sister, Arya.

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“There have been differences between the novels and the television show since the first episode of season one,” Martin wrote in defence of the TV series. “And for just as long, I have been talking about the butterfly effect. Small changes lead to larger changes lead to huge changes.”

While he is a co-executive producer on the HBO show, he apparently does not have to give his approval to any changes in plot direction that the TV show takes from his novels.

The author continued: “HBO is more than forty hours into the impossible and demanding task of adapting my lengthy (extremely) and complex (exceedingly) novels, with their layers of plots and subplots, their twists and contradictions and unreliable narrators, viewpoint shifts and ambiguities, and a cast of characters in the hundreds.”

Fans have also expressed concern that the TV series will overtake and ruin the ending of Martin’s novels. This is currently the fifth season of the show out of an anticipated seven, and the sixth and penultimate novel ‘The Winds of Winter’ is not expected to be published any sooner than 2016.

“Two roads diverging in the dark of the woods, I suppose... but all of us are still intending that at the end we will arrive at the same place,” Martin wrote in response to these concerns. “In the meantime, we hope that the readers and viewers both enjoy the journey. Or journeys, as the case may be. Sometimes butterflies grow into dragons.”

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