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The House of the Dragon Season 2 finale didn't go down particularly well with fans, but the show may be about to get its biggest critic yet: George R.R. Martin, the author of the book the series is based on, Fire and Blood.
On Friday, Martin posted a new "Not a Blog" entry in which he talked about Siesta in Sante Fe, during which a giant marionette called Zozobra is burned as a way of "devouring the darkness."
SEE ALSO: 'House of the Dragon' Season 3 predictions: What's next?"Believe me we need that, more than ever before," wrote the author. "The world, the country, and yes, certainly me. This has not been a good year for anyone, with war everywhere and fascism on the rise… and on a more personal level, I have had a pretty wretched year as well, one full of stress, anger, conflict, and defeat."
Featured Video For You House of the Dragon Season 1: Everything you need to remember about Season 1 in 60 secondsMartin went on to say that he plans to talk more about this in future blog entries — and that he'll also be sharing his thoughts on House of the Dragon.
"I do not look forward to other posts I need to write, about everything that’s gone wrong with HOUSE OF THE DRAGON… but I need to do that too, and I will," Martin wrote. "Not today, though."
Yikes. This is particularly notable because the language Martin uses is fairly blunt. When speaking about Game of Thrones' ending in the past he's explained that he wished it could have gone on for longer, but he's typically avoided giving his own personal opinion about the show.
If we had to guess, we'd say Martin's most likely to have some things to say about what's gone on behind the scenes of House of the Dragon — maybe some of the logistics that caused a key battle to be pushed into Season 3, leaving Season 2 on a cliffhanger, for instance.
If you're reading this, you're looking for a little help playing Strands, the New York Times' elevated word-search game.
Strands requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There's always a theme linking every solution, along with the "spangram," a special, word or phrase that sums up that day's theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.
SEE ALSO: Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more: Play games on MashableBy providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.
If you're feeling stuck or just don't have 10 or more minutes to figure out today's puzzle, we've got all the NYT Strands hints for today's puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.
SEE ALSO: NYT Connections today: See hints and answers for September 2 SEE ALSO: Wordle today: Here's the answer hints for September 2 NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Order in the court!These words are more commonly heard across the pond.
Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explainedThe answers all relate to noble titles.
NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?Today's NYT Strands spangram is horizontal.
NYT Strands spangram answer todayToday's spangram is Titles.
NYT Strands word list for September 2Viscount
Queen
Knight
Duchess
Esquire
Titles
Baron
Earl
Looking for other daily online games? Mashable's Games page has more hints, and if you're looking for more puzzles, Mashable's got games now!
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Not the day you're after? Here's the solution to yesterday's Strands.