Come on, you know you’re thinking it if you’re a Game of Thrones fan. Finally, right? It’s not rude or even churlish to say such a thing since George R.R. Martin has been getting plenty of criticism over his failure to produce the remaining books of the GoT saga, especially given that the explanation of just why it’s taken so long is, to many writers, enough to make us look at the author with something between disbelief and possibly even mild reproach. As Neeraj Chand of MovieWeb states, a lot of GoT fans were notably upset at the show’s writers for ending things in such a dreaded fashion, but very few of those ever bothered to wonder why Martin was so slow on the uptake when it came to finishing HIS story. It’s true that the show ended on kind of a sour note since so much was left undone, unexplained, and without a proper sendoff to many characters. But let’s face facts, Martin’s version is usually all about death as some of the most notable characters in the series were killed off quickly and without any preamble to speak of, leaving some people breathless and unable to fully understand the how and why of Martin’s line of thinking. There are still people that feel as though Lord Eddard Stark should have been given a chance to survive for a while, if only to give him a more deserved end somewhere along the way. In truth the Stark’s were pretty much doomed from the start of this story, and there’s no telling just what Martin is going to do now that he has time on his hands, and the motivation it would appear, to finish the story.
One thing that people don’t appear to realize when it comes to Martin’s version is that it might not be any better than what they received from HBO. Has anyone taken that into consideration as of yet? It might be the same type of debacle that’s occurred between The Last Jedi, the novelized version of the Rise of Skywalker, and the final movie of the trilogy, as people have been going back and forth trying to sort out theories, decipher just what went wrong in their minds, and what could be done to fix it. In a way it’s kind of amusing to watch the fans scamper about as they try to gather enough people for one petition or another to get this changed or that stricken from canon and end up finding out that petitions aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, and their opinions are worth less to the writers and those in charge than they would originally believe. Obviously the fans do have a small bit of power and sway since the first reveal of Sonic the Hedgehog was met with such hatred and vitriol that the studio changed the look to the tune of a few million or more to appease the fans. But once that movie is done and released it’s kind of like a child stating that they didn’t want a baby brother or sister and then signing a petition to the parents in order to get things switched around. I won’t any further on that since it’s bound to head into territory I don’t want to discuss, but the point is this: petitions after the movie is released are pretty much pointless. That cake has been baked, decorated, and delivered, and whether you like it or not you paid for it and it’s yours to enjoy or ignore.
As far as Martin’s final book, let’s just say this: it will likely be just as brutal and as final as the HBO series, and if people don’t like it and want to petition him to write a new one (feel free to laugh loudly at this) then they’ll likely have to wait for a while as he considers it and, if he says yes, takes another several years to create another story more to the liking of the readers. Or, people could accept what they’re given, like it or not, and simply move on. As a GoT fan who’s read the books and followed the show from its first episode all the way to the end I’ll admit, it was slightly disappointing to see how it all ended, especially given that there’s no plan to follow Arya, Grey Worm, Jon, or any other character following the main story. Being a big fan of Arya I would have loved to see just where she might go and what she might do, but there’s no such story in the cards at the time. In fact if I were a little more adventurous I might even ask permission from Martin to write a new story for Arya since her tale has quite a ways to go. But this is what we have, so like it or not, the book might not be what people are hoping for.
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