Game of Thrones book coauthors respond to fan boycotts and accusations of racism

Linda Antonsson and Elio M. García Jr., the writers behind The Rise of the Dragon companion novel, have addressed uproar over past controversial remarks.

With the upcoming release of The Rise of the Dragon, the first volume of a visual history of the Targaryen family from George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire book series, past remarks and controversies surrounding its coauthors have resurfaced among the Game of Thrones fandom.

Writers and married couple Linda Antonsson and Elio M. García Jr. have now responded to claims of racism in a new interview with Variety published Tuesday. This comes after fans have threatened to boycott The Rise of the Dragon.

Antonsson, who previously coauthored Game of Thrones companion book The World of Ice and Fire with García, has consistently expressed incendiary views about inclusive casting on HBO's series Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. That has included the recent casting of Steve Toussaint, a Black actor, as Lord Corlys Velaryon and more generally the casting of people of color portraying other members of House Velaryon.

But Antonsson told Variety that people have "cherry-picked statements stripped of context." She also stated it bothers her to be "labeled a racist" when she says her focus "has been solely on the world building." She added that she has no issue with inclusive casting but strongly believes "diversity should not trump story."

A representative for the authors' publisher Ten Speed Press did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment.

The Rise of the Dragon
The cover of 'The Rise of the Dragon,' a visual history of House Targaryen. Teen Speed Press

The issues certain fans have with Antonsson and García are multilayered and go back years, as many have already catalogued on social media. Antonsson and García created and manage the online fan forum Westeros.org. Martin then recruited them as "fact-checkers" for his A Song of Ice and Fire book A Feast for Crows. They collaborated with Martin on The World of Ice and Fire and now The Rise of the Dragon.

Antonsson has taken to her Tumblr blog and to Twitter to decry the casting of actors of color as characters described in Martin's books as white. That included Nonso Anozie's casting as Xaro Xhoan Daxos in Game of Thrones. She then applauded Ed Skrein, a white actor, for playing Daario Naharis, despite a casting rumor that suggested the show had been looking to hire a person of color. Of Toussaint's casting as Corlys on House of the Dragon, Antonsson wrote that the actor was "miscast," adding, "There are no Black Valyrians and there should not be any in the show," Variety reports.

Fueling the fires, Antonsson seemed combative and, as some even stated, bullying when addressing criticism surrounding her remarks in the past. She has called her dissenters everything from "a miserable, delusional feminazi" to "a rabid, man-hating crazy b----" to a "c---," according to screenshots of her blog and tweets. She was also called out for using the Swedish version of the N-word online and has been accused of transphobia when she seemed to scoff at the phrase "assigned gender" on social media.

Furthermore, Antonsson has publicly stated that all Martin wrote for The Rise of the Dragon "was his name on a contract."

Regarding her past comments on inclusive casting, Antonsson told Variety, "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."

She pointed to the fact that she has had problems with other elements of House of the Dragon that veered from the book, specifically the depiction of House Velaryon's sigil (a seahorse in the books but half horse, half fish on the show). Most recently, Antonsson took issue with a change to Laenor Velaryon's (John Macmillion) arc on the series that diverges from Martin's Fire and Blood.

Antonsson supports the boycotting of authors, she told Variety, but wishes fans were boycotting her and her husband "because of our actual opinions rather than those they project on us."

Read Variety's full story on Antonsson and García here.

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