Blaming anyone other than RR Martin is delusional.
I choose to believe that he was very upset that the world didn't like his ending, so he leaned hard into Targaryen fanfiction as a coping mechanism.
I think he's more just overwhelmed by the expectations and pressure put on him now, and I think everyone telling him to finish the books before he dies really pissed him off in a visceral way and made writing them feel really uncomfortable. I could see that sentiment, that he owes the ending of this series to the world and that he needs to do it before he dies, making writing the rest of the series feel like a chore to meet the demands of others instead of as an outlet for his creativity and also a race against his own mortality. That would feel terrible. I can understand why he'd ignore the ending and just focus on writing short stories nobody asked for instead. Keep the creative outlet, but shun the pressure and the death clock ticking in your ear with every page completed.
I gave up on an ending to song of ice and fire when the the tv series passed it by and then car crashed into a shite ending. I'd probably reread everything and the new ones if he wrote them but not gonna hold my breath. I assume by D+D you mean house of the Dragon? I watched about 5 minutes of House of the Dragon and decided it wasn't worth the time.
I think D+D is short hand for the writers/show runners of the Game of Thrones show, D. B. Weiss and David Benioff, whom everyone blames for the lackluster final seasons and essentially all the issues that came about from adapting books that haven't been written yet into a TV show.
This reddit thread from a couple months ago actually covers some lesser known details about the situation, while D+D certainly deserve some ire for their handling of how the story ended which in turn may have influenced the continued lack of finishing the books it sounds like they're not the only ones who were burned out on the project, especially if they only agreed to 7 seasons under the assurance that the books would be done by the time they got to the end.
I haven't read any of the books yet and only watched the show about a year ago after the second season of House of the Dragon came out, I figured it was time to see what the hype was all about. I can definitely see both why it was the hottest thing on TV for years as well as why everyone was furious at the ending. I can see how all the plot points that got crammed into the final seasons could line up to end the way it did and I can see how it could have been structured differently in a way that could have filled in more of the character development, kept the important plot notes and explained why people did what they did, but I can also see that it would probably have taken another half season or more to tell that much story and without the actual books to fill in the details and actors that were ready to move on, they did what they could with what they had.
They definitely fucked it up, but sometimes there's no good way to end something that's not what it started as.
I think they started departing too far from the book content and struggled to get the many key threads included and by the time they had gotten towards the end it was a debacle. The books are fantastic. Don't worry about there being no end, that's the game of thrones.
I got off lucky, I intentionally avoided it while it was airing because the show didn’t appeal to me. It was only a few years ago after hearing that the books were better that I checked it out on a whim and realized the books were much better than the show. So I got into it knowing it might be a perpetually unfinished series, and I’m glad I did. It’s a rich world I’m happy to have immersed myself in.
I hear you on the pain, though. I listen to Alt Shift X and Glidus when I need that part of my brain tickled again.
Seeing this on all it looks like an insane person wrote it lol. The community name is an acronym and you used three different acronyms in your post without explaining any of them, including one in the title.
Asoiaf = A Song of Ice and Fire. The Game of Thrones book series.
GRRM is George R. R. Martin - the book author.
D+D would be the Game of Thrones showrunners, who's names both start with D.
TWOW is The Winds of Winter I believe, the next book which the author supposedly still works on, after god knows how many years. For context, the last book was published sometime during GoT airing, during early seasons I believe.
The way the TV show went has ruined the franchise entirely for me.
I can't believe it's 2025 and people still believe it will come out tbh
I’m currently in the middle of a rewatch and yesterday i had the exact same thought.
I get that writing isn’t easy but come on GRRM. Give us something, anything. It can’t be as bad as season 8 so just drop the damn manuscript.
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News and discussions relating to George R. R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire" novels, his Westeros-based short stories, "Game of Thrones" and "House of the Dragon" TV series, and all things ASOIAF - but with particular emphasis on the written series.
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