It wouldn't matter even if he plans to have the exact same ending. He could very well aim for the same characters to end at the same place as they did in the show, but what matters is how they get there. He would most certainly do a better job than the D directors 1 & 2 (I kinda forgot their names).
For example, it's absolutely possible to spend a book on Daenerys's gradual descent into madness, making her subjects question her actions, even giving her a “valid” reason – from her point of view – to burn King's Landing (i.e. if she thought she couldn't win otherwise) to drive the final nail in her coffin.
But I fear after several decades spent with the book, Martin largely lost interest and doesn't plan to finish the two remaining books.
It almost pisses me off he won't just work with a ghostwriter or something. I go back and forth when people say that authors don't owe the fans anything because I'm one hand I agree. However, on the other hand, we've invested time and money into something that made you rich and famous.. we might not be owed anything, but I think we should allowed to be annoyed at someone like him for being so flippant about a series that he obviously has no intention to finish
They have, but they typically don't just settle for what they've already made. There is a decent argument to be made that they stood to make much more if Dance of Dragons alone had released when it was meant to, which would have been at the height of GoT fervor.
A publisher can't be "pissed off" at an author of that status for not writing a new book, that's not how it works. If they pissed him off for any reason, he could quite easily take his business elsewhere and make millions. There'd be publishing companies who would kill to have him release a GoT book under their label.
Fair enough, even if he's poisoned the idea of game of thrones for most people because it's almost certainly never going to be finished at this point I'm sure most publishing companies would kill the publish a dance with dragons because they're still going to be people, like me, who is going to end up buying it to read it.
However if anything, it's just makes George rr Martin look even more like a piece of shit in my opinion.
I'm locked into this series so whatever he ever manages to come up with I'm sure I will consume. However, as a manner of principal, I will no longer be consuming anymore of his media. He's basically Netflix, you can't trust him to continue on with a popular series because he's too excited about all the other bullshit he can spew out for money.
The thing is it would actually work better (not great, but better) as GRRM's end. The books have plenty of foreshadowing for Dany being pretty crazy. But the show cut almost all of them. So for the show it's totally out of left field.
But what about Arya sneak attacking the Night King after all the build up with John Snow? I know GRRM likes his surprises but that was some sloppy shit.
GRRM or the DBs confirmed as much. I forget which. Basically said all of the major plot points were in line with GRRMs plan for the books.
But IMO the major plot points weren't the problem, it was how they were written. Having Arya kill the Night King makes sense. But having her unexpectedly fly in from off screen, evidently launched by a human catapult, was just silly. If GRRM had written that battle we would know the stakes, we would know the battle is a distraction, and the tension would come from Arya and a small team working their way to assasinate the Night King -- not flying in off screen after "all hope is lost".
Further all hope wasn't lost, because countless characters had obvious plot armor at that point. GRRM doesn't write that way. I feel like all of the major plot points could have happened, while the CGI/Hollywood of it all gets toned back to reality. Meanwhile GRRM would have probably invented dozens of new plot points and characters, accidentally writing yet another book between now and the end. That's his style. And it is utterly absent from the shows final seasons.
My favorite one to point to was the stark kids playing littlefinger, in retrospect it's obvious that's what was gonna happen with Bran there, but they cut out the actual scheming, it's all off screen so it comes across as a surprise when the trial isn't about Arya, but rather littlefinger. There are alot of little moments towards the end they chose to omit for whatever reason that provide the necessary context and foreshadowing for the story beats they needed to hit to get to the end.
my headcannon is that the last two books are written and he's sitting on them doing all his fun side projects and listening to the readers whine. When he dies and everyone flips out, they'll be released posthumously as a final Eff You to the whiny fans.
or he saw all the hate for the ending and you're absolutely right.
Not a guess - there were interviews online quoting him as saying it was more or less the ending he had in mind. Those are gone now though.
To be fair the same general plot points could have been told much better… one of the biggest issues with the series was the showrunners wanting to fuck off and do Star Wars so they rejected the blank cheque and offer for as much time and episodes as needed (damn near unheard of) and rushed through everything.
Now no matter how well GRRM might tell the same story the show already fucked it.
The show runners absolutely fucked the last seasons and the same story beats could have been hit with better reasoning through better writing. However when it comes to having more time, if I remember correctly it wasn't just them rushing off to do Star Wars, a few of the other actors had other projects they wanted to work on and I think it was Bran who just wanted off the show to focus more on college without people hassling him about GoT (his freshman year delayed S8's filming as well I believe).
Sorry it's been awhile so maybe I'm wrong but as I recall there were other factors in them not going forward with more seasons.
The problems with the later seasons had very little to do with the happenings of the plot and almost everything to do with execution. I mean, look at the two versions of the Kingsmoot we get. One is one of the best scenes in the entire series, the other is unironically one of the worst.
To be fair to George. With a story as intertwining as his i bet its a bitch and a half to write. Earlier on its easy to write in sub plots and side plots. The deeper you go the more of a web to tie them together in a way that is satisfying. And if anything George is a perfectionist when it come to this aspect. It's a daunting and really slow task that I could never commit myself to do.
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u/Arschfodse3000 14d ago
my guess is that this was actually george r r martins end and now he doesnt know what tf to do lmao