content: 
  ===Writing===
  The episode was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss.
  This episode was written for television by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, the series' creators. It contains content from George Martin's novel ''A Dance with Dragons'', chapter "The Sacrifice", "The Watcher", and "Daenerys IX". It also contains material from the preview chapter "Mercy" from the forthcoming ''The Winds of Winter''.
  Like other episodes this season, "The Dance of Dragons" contains original content not found in Martin's novels, but it is in this case notable for containing content that had not ''yet'' appeared in the novels: Executive Producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss confirmed that George R.R. Martin told them that Shireen would be burned to death as a sacrifice in an unpublished future novel. Benioff said: "When George first told us about this, it was one of those moments where I remember looking at Dan, it was just, like, god it's so, so horrible, and it's so good in a story sense, because it all comes together." Weiss says he believes the decision to kill Shireen in this way is, "entirely narratively justified," questioning why "we're all highly selective about which characters deserve our empathy. Stannis has been burning people alive for seemingly trivial reasons since season 2."