By Nardine Saad
Los Angeles Times
Author George R.R. Martin was among the minority of fans who applauded “Game of Thrones” showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss on Monday following the polarizing series finale of their HBO series.
He also teased that their conclusion might be different from the end he has in mind for his protracted “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series, the show’s source material.
It also might not be. As always, Martin was maddeningly evasive about it.
“Book or show, which will be the ‘real’ ending? It’s a silly question. How many children did Scarlett O’Hara have?” the 70-year-old scribe wrote Monday on his Not a Blog.
“How about this? I’ll write it. You read it. Then everyone can make up their own mind, and argue about it on the internet.”
His words, which waxed poetic and nostalgic about the epic TV series he sourced, are a direct response to fan discontent over its small-screen conclusion.
Needless to say, just about every character conclusion left droves of fans angry or unsatisfied and left many questions unanswered.
Though viewers have petitioned for a remake of the uneven eighth and final season, Martin isn’t one of them.
That’s partly because he’s too busy with all his other projects, which include writing the final two novels in his fantasy series, the long-delayed “The Winds of Winter” and “A Dream of Spring.” (“A Game of Thrones,” the first installment of the seven-book saga, came out in 1996.)
He also has five shows in development at HBO, two shows at Hulu and one on the History Channel. He said that he’s involved in a number of feature projects, short films and video games too.
But he promised he’s still writing.
“Winter is coming, I told you, long ago … and so it is. ‘The Winds of Winter’ is very late, I know, I know, but it will be done. I won’t say when, I’ve tried that before, only to burn you all and jinx myself … but I will finish it, and then will come ‘A Dream of Spring,’” he wrote.
“How will it all end? I hear people asking. The same ending as the show? Different? Well … yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes.”
The once diligently paced TV series outpaced Martin’s books seasons ago and recently suffered for it. But the author reminded fans that he’s working “in a very different medium” than Benioff and Weiss. The showrunners opted to wrap up “Game of Thrones” quicker than expected, but Martin said his final two books will “fill 3,000 manuscript pages between them” before he’s done.
“And if more pages and chapters and scenes are needed, I’ll add them,” he wrote. “And of course the butterfly effect will be at work as well; those of you who follow this Not A Blog will know that I’ve been talking about that since season one.”
“There are characters who never made it onto the screen at all, and others who died in the show but still live in the books … so if nothing else, the readers will learn what happened to Jeyne Poole, Lady Stoneheart, Penny and her pig, Skahaz Shavepate, Arianne Martell, Darkstar, Victarion Greyjoy, Ser Garlan the Gallant, Aegon VI, and a myriad of other characters both great and small that viewers of the show never had the chance to meet.”
