George R.R. Martin Feels Strikes “Will Be Long And Bitter”, Says His HBO Deal “Was Suspended” & Gives Update On ‘House Of The Dragon’ Season 2

I remember when Dance of Dragons came out because it was just before my wedding, in my 20’s. I’ve been divorced, married again, had 4 kids and I’m in my 40’s now.

Been waiting on these books for almost half my life. Heard about the series from the Something Awful forums back in the early 2000’s lol.

And they still haven’t caved to his demands.

I remember having the nagging feeling that GRRM had painted himself into a corner while reading the series. I took to the series knowing nothing about him or the books, and I was blown away when the character I expected to be the main hero of the series was brutally killed off. Then it happened again. And again.

On the other hand, he continued to introduce entirely new, well fleshed out characters and plot lines, even multiple books in. I started to feel like the story was getting away from him somewhere around the third book. He had a lot of great ideas that should probably have become series in their own rights, but which he has been trying to weave together into a coherent narrative.

There’s an old saying along the lines of “fiction is different from history, because fiction has to make sense.” It goes to the point about how, if you show a gun on the table in the first act, it has to be used by the final act.

I still hate Season 8 with the heat of a thousand suns. I cannot think of another franchise whose ending left me feeling not just disappointed but actually resentful. I thought Lost was okay. I thought Avengers reached the “let’s just wrap this up” stage. I always thought Stephen King, at least through mid-career, wrote fantastic books with crap endings even those O still love his work. I don’t think that the GoT team at HBO was set up for success. I do think they crapped all over the franchise - I have not rewatched a single episode since it ended - but it’s obvious that the fault also lies with GRRM for simply not knowing what happens next.

But what about Elden Ring!

I'm a huge Wheel of Time fan. If you're not, or for those that aren't, Robert Jordan, the author, died before he could finish the series. He had some rough notes, a few important scenes written out, but the man was diagnosed with a terminal disease. Despite best efforts, he didn't make it to the finish line.

The last three books were written, with the blessing and cooperation of Jordan's widow and estate, by Brandon Sanderson.

Jordan's death was a huge blow to the story. We didn't know, really, what was going to happen. The story and world were epic, and we knew Jordan had a plan, and that there were "notes", but no one save a handful of people, knew more.

When Sanderson stepped in to finish the series, there was an obvious shift in how the story was written. He is, after all, a different author. But he did an absolute amazing job. If there's one thing Sanderson is good at it's the "Sanderlanche", where the last chunk of the book is full of insane, crazy, over-the-top exciting things happening one after another. It's no secret that the entire series is building up to "The Last Battle", and there is a (cough, 200-page-long) chapter in the last book titled "The Last Battle" and it is, I shit you not, non-stop action, revelation, emotion, and more happening in rapid fire.

Sanderson took the build-up from 14 books and slammed it all down at once in a "...holy shit" moment. He couldn't have done what he did (well, after reading Stormlight Archive so far.. maybe he could've) without Jordan laying the groundwork.

What I'm trying to say: If GRR Martin has built a world that works, even if he dies, they'll find someone to finish it and leave us with a complete story. And if we're lucky, it'll be someone like Sanderson.

I've been a believer in the posthumous publication conspiracy since the backlash from the show ending. I wouldn't want to hear from the gaggle of fans that think they could have written a better ending either. Leaving "unfinished" works for the estate to hand over to the publisher to "finish" editing seems like a nice way to never have to answer antagonistic questions in a comic con panel ever again.

That would actually be a baller move to troll everyone and leave the fished books to be his final message to the world. I doubt that's his plan though.

If this is true I would laugh like crazy after he died that would be god level trolling at its best

At this point, because I've seen the show, I'd have to go back and re-read all the books, to even start Winds of Winter. It's all so mashed together in my head, I don't remember the real story very well.

I've also accepted that he isn't even going to finish the books.

Dude has written himself into three different corners and likely doesn't see a (satisfying) way to wrap it up in two books, so he's decided to give up. If the rumors are true and he gave B&B the elevator pitch version of his ending, he may be hemming hawing about how much to course correct from their version. His Bran running Westeros could certainly come into being more elegantly than the show's, but jeez it would be very weird in its own way.

Winds of Winter has literally nothing to do with the strike because it's a book. He's perfectly okay to write for Elden Ring 2, for that matter.

If anything, the strike should be good news for the people who still care about asoiaf because now George can't spend all his time writing five different pilots for the various projects that are all going to get cancelled or promote his tv shows on conventions.

If you take a minute to read what he wrote, he said he's writing for Winds of Winter nearly every day.

I see we're continuing the Reddit tradition of not actually reading the source...

It's been ten years since I gave up on ever reading the last books in that series.