Game of Thrones went from being one of the most celebrated shows in recent memory to the poster child of how not to end a show and waste a decade’s worth of character development. While the initial part of the show is still considered some of the best that television had to offer in the 2010s, the ending of the show, five years on, still remains a sore topic for fans and audiences.
The conflicts and the environment that the show set up in its initial seasons were not congruent with the resolutions and solutions that were put forward in the finale of the series. Westeros was a country plagued by vassals having more power than they needed, which put the crown at risk. The solution would have been a stronger regime rather than an autocratic system of power. However, George R.R. Martin decided to not let the ending affect him, as he revealed to The Guardian, in 2020.
The ending of Game of Thrones is not going to affect the ending of A Song of Ice and Fire
Geroge R.R. Martin was reluctant to engage with the ending of the series way back in 2020, deciding to sidestep any questions that came his way about the series finale. However, the author was very clear as to how the show’s ending might affect his own. Speaking to The Guardian about the ending of his own books, when asked whether they would be influenced by the show’s ending and the reaction to it, he said:
No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t change anything at all… As Rick Nelson says in Garden Party, one of my favorite songs, you can’t please everybody, so you’ve got to please yourself.
While this might cause some fans to feel a little miffed, given that a similar ending might ruin the books just like the television series, Martin has talked about how he expects the books to end differently, as the writing process for The Winds of Winter drives his story further and further away from what the show depicted.
It must also be noted that some deaths of the show will be in the books as well, albeit depicted slightly differently. Regarding this, in 2022, the writer revealed in an online post:
What I have noticed more and more of late, however, is my gardening is taking me further and further away from the television series,” Martin writes. “Yes, some of the things you saw on HBO in Game of Thrones you will also see in The Winds of Winter (though maybe not in quite the same ways)… but much of the rest will be quite different.
Given that the books are on a scale that even the show was not able to replicate, and given that there are a lot more moving parts in the books as compared to the show (such as Aegon Targaryen/ Young Griff and Jon Connington, the books have a lot more leeway when it comes to solving character arcs and paying off plot points that have been set up.
So, when can fans expect Winds of Winter?
The Winds of Winter has been a long time coming, and Martin has repeatedly said that it is a ‘big, big, book’, bordering somewhere near 1500 pages. The author revealed in 2022 that the was three-quarters of the way through with the book, but there is still no confirmation on when fans can expect the sixth book in the series to be released.
Given that there will be a new, or at least a relatively different, ending in the books, George R.R. Martin has to make sure he does not repeat the mistakes that plagued the ending of the show. While Martin has a stronger grasp of his story than the creators of the show, it is important that the author not fall into the same traps of ‘subverting expectations’ in the name of gimmicks, and sacrifice the story for it.
While A Song of Ice and Fire deconstructs the epic fantasy genre pretty well, Martin has been careful not to let it get in the way of the story, which must be continued to see the series through in a satisfying manner.
