But don’t worry, eventually they’ll release the “HBO” DLC, where the you can watch a couple of idiots make up their own ending to the game.
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But don’t worry, eventually they’ll release the “HBO” DLC, where the you can watch a couple of idiots make up their own ending to the game.
I mean, that’s not an *in*accurate description of the show…
I’ll wait patiently for either his death, or the conclusion.
So death it is. Sorry but Martin as a jackass. You can say whatever you want, i am 100% convinced that he has no intention of finishing The Song of Ice and Fire anymore.
I prefer Brandon Sanderson now. Much better author, much more amazing worlds and much more comitment for his work. Read the Stormlight Archives. Brilliant work!
Plus, he was tasked with finishing the Wheel of Time series after Robert Jordan’s death.
Was unaware of that.
I knew of sanderson, but did not know of any tie to martin.
how is that a tie to martin?
I feel the same about Patrick Rothfuss. I don’t believe he’s writing anymore, just streaming games and building blanket forts.
As much as I wish he would finish (ditto Patrick Rothfuss) I also know that you can’t force creativity or inspiration. A book he shat out to meet some arbitrary deadline mandated by the fans & his editor would be a terrible book. Being an artist and creative isn’t a job like being a mason or carpenter or a tailor where you can just do the work and produce a great product. If you’re not inspired and your heart isn’t in it, there’s no reason to force it. Writing to hit a monthly deadline is how we got Dicken’s catalogue.… Read more »
I’ve been writing with the goal of publication for closer to two decades than one – and the things you’re referring to encompass a lot of why I haven’t been successful. In spite of having developed several skills since I started, finding and hanging onto inspiration is often a real struggle for me, and things like deadlines and trying to do justice to expectations are huge stressors for me. Every time GRRM talks about the challenges of writing I feel like he’s describing my personal literary demons, and I relate to virtually all of the struggles he describes in his… Read more »
Funny. When the same happened to Rowlings people had gazillion excuses for her, but when it’s George it is “full of crap”… You’ve been writing with intention to publish so you know his situation?
Sorry pal, but it is you who is full of crap. You know nothing about his life but what you can see from far away and you dare to sit in judgement?
Childish and arrogant to the max.
If we know nothing about his life, where did your examples come from? The question is rhetorical – as one in the public eye I know significantly more about his life then, say, your life. Do I know everything? No, of course not. But I’m not claiming to. I’m not saying I’ve experienced everything he has (though I would note that being distracted by side projects is one), I’m saying that of the people in the world potentially faced with these challenges, he is by far among the most equipped. To use your example of people coming to him for… Read more »
And because he’s already made it there’s other factors. People coming to him with other jobs. Side stories. Other projects that aren’t as daunting or don’t have as much of a rapid fanbase you don’t want to disappoint.
He has the choice between writing Winds of Winter or editing an anthology or doing some video game worldbuilding.
Was in a hurry writing the above response so I sort of merged yours and Juzek’s points in my head – apologies, you’re clearly a separate person with a separate point.
If Martin can’t or doesn’t want to finish the series he owes it to the people who kept reading the books based on the understanding the story would be told to either admit he’s not going to do it or hand it over to someone else. Perpetually dragging it out is just cruel.
Writer writes. The readers pay for the privilege of reading the story. The writer owes the readers nothing. Don’t like it? Write yourself.
The man has a point. With a web comic it’s no different. Unless a subscription, pre order or other sort of fee is actually paid by the readers, the writer owes them nothing except perhaps from a moral point of view.
Makes sense – after going through the trouble and effort of writing your own book, just sit back and enjoy it; I’m quite sure that that enjoyment should be easy; no way are you going to overthink what you could have written differently; criticizing your own work is never a thing.
As far as not owing the readers anything, there is a difference between “the author doesn’t owe you anything” and “the writer just can’t be arsed”
I agree. And I disagree. It bears noting that ASOIF is not actually a complete story. Game of Thrones was written and marketed as the first in a trilogy (and later a longer series). It was purchased under the pretense that more is coming – there are even titles for future installments. There is absolutely an argument to be made that an author is not obligated to continue beyond the end of the story, but when the author clearly communicates (narratively, promotionally, heck VERBALLY) that more story is coming, that communication influences people’s purchases and has monetary influence that comes… Read more »
Unless the readers have pre-paid, he owes them nothing.
Oh, and he DID hand it over to someone else. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
I wish Sanderson would make some of his universes into more fleshed out books,
I got a copy of The Emperor’s Soul in a bundle and Jesus I could use more of that. He’s technically worse than R.R. Martin in that he picks up and just leaves laying around so many interesting worlds and universes that it’s like trying to make it across a toddler’s Lego-covered bedroom barefoot.
Martin tends to make closed universes as I understand it.
If you want more of that specific world, it’s the setting for his first published book Elantris, although the two share little else than their world. I’ll leave it to you if you want to delve more into Sanderson’s Cosmere, but “he picks up and just leaves laying around so many interesting worlds and universes” is only half accurate. He builds plenty of worlds, but it’s mostly one universe that’s only getting denser with time. The more of it you read, the more connections you’ll be able to pick up on. That said, there are some minor world’s from novellas… Read more »
Sanderson is amazing. I think Pat Rothfuss is not far behind Martin in terms of “writing final book vs taking final breath”, though I respect Rothfuss a lot more than I do Martin.
I mean… Rothfuss is MUCH younger and in much better shape than GRRM, I don’t think you have to worry about that yet.
Both stormlight and mistborn stories were good reads. Honesly my only real complaint about sanderson’s work is he seems overly fond of emotionaly broken characters. I swear by book 3 of stormlight every major character’s internal monolog was more emo than a goth boy band.
It’s not so much that he’s a jackass, more that he’s going senile while writing. How many details could he keep track of fifteen years ago vs. Now? And what about 5 years from now? Can’t really blame a guy for growing old.
Funny that’s what RR Martin is waiting for to
I’m not sure whether to be underwhelmed or to draw my sword for battle… ?
Great, now he’s going to go kill another Stark. We don’t have a whole lot of them left, you know.
I’m pretty sure at this point the next book will be Slaughter of Starks where we just keep introducing new ones, make them likeable, then watch them die horribly.
I mean it worked pretty well for a while with Dan Abnett..
It’s a little known fact that George had a token writing credit in Avengers: Endgame.
Take that how you will.
… OK, so he didn’t, but it’d be wild if he did, right?
I think all of us who have been around since the first book of the A song of Ice and Fire saga are disappointed in the author.
There’s not much we can do about it either.
I discovered the series sometime in the gap between 3 and 4. Never got around to watching any of the show because I thought it’d be more fun to watch it all after the books were done. Between spoilers from the show, the general bad reactions to the end of it, and a decade of waiting for the next book… I’m not sure I’m gonna bother with the show or the books if they ever come out. There’s plenty of other series for me to read, and some notable gaps in my reading history I need to patch (Wheel of… Read more »
I mean, Amazon is expected to release the first season of their Wheel of Time adaptation late this year, so you’ve got time to read the books before it launches…
And it’s actually finished! No GoT shenanigans here!
I… hadn’t actually heard a series was in the works. I’m Just about finished with the Thomas Covenant books, so looks like that “eventually” is turning in to next week. Appreciate the heads up!
Better hurry Wheel of Time show is coming out likely early next year.
No better motivation to stop getting distracted by other series than a surprise deadline I didn’t know about! \o/
We might get the next book – one day – if we’re lucky. But I’m pretty damn sure we’ll never see the last book. He lost interest. So many other projects, so many shiny balls!
Fuck those cunts that fucked up GoT (I refuse to utter their names). May they burn in hell! Gyah, just when I thought I had put it past me, Tim felt the need to bring it up again… I guess I kinda forgot about it, but turns out I surely did not!
Just call them Dumb & Dumber
Seems like quite a bit of an overreaction. They made a bad tv show ending, that’s not a hell-deserving sin!
You’re right, but man if I can’t relate to how much they got under my skin. It wasn’t the bad ending so much of the smugness and self importance that seemed to ooze off of them in the post-show vignettes, combined with the overall picture I got of HBO giving them a lot of leeway to do a longer season or more seasons to do things right. It created the impression, whether true or false, that they saw the fans as stupid rubes that would eat up whatever they put on the plate as long as they slapped the GOT… Read more »
you’re right, hell is too good still
If it simply was incompetence, I’d be at peace with it. This was arrogance and the way they fucked up and basically got away with it? Yes, they should be hung in public.
it was “Poochie left and went back to his home planet but the rocket exploded on the way and he died” kinda ending bad
Yeah, the rushed the final two seaons, but they also made all the previous seasons that were amazing. Given the fact that they got more seasons right than they got wrong I think they deserve some credit…
Like Voldemort…….erm, He Who Must Not Be Named
I guess it’s the best they could do with only GRRM’s “cliff notes”
This is quite accurate
I’d love to see how GRRM’s actual setup compares to that antiquated one depicted in the last panel.
Pretty close, I’d imagine. He writes on an old DOS computer running Wordstar.
Thats why he cant finish the books, he fell asleep at the keyboard one day and the 40th page of Winds of Winter is burned into the screen. You can’t buy a CRT now you know. 🙂
I can sell you one only slightly used. Or four.
Trier watching. To much brother sister love. My opinion it felt a bit contrived and overbearing. Not attacking those who watched and enjoyed.
Iv’e not kept up with the book series,Apparently it still not out yet?
Robert Jordan Rule: I’ll start a series when the author is finished or is dead.
Can I take a moment to throw Patrick Rothfuss name in the ring also?
Rothfuss at least shows some regret for not having finished the third book yet and is more open about whats going on.
The Ben Kane Hannibal series is very much the same.
3rd book of the series leading to the 4th book with a bunch of loose ends, and he’s done 3-4 different series since then (2014)
So I’m not sure which is worse, leaving a series unfinished or writing a bad book that butchers the series.
thankfully, with spin-offs, you can do BOTH
Tim revealing his r/freefolk loyalties in this one
We will never forget and never forgive. At least they lost their Star Wars deal.
oh god, imagine if they had been put at the helm for mando
He kinda looks like an evil Santa ClauS……..
Or, the author croaks before they’ve finished. And they get “someone else” to come in to finish. *yeeeeech*
which is more or less what happened with the GoT show, because let’s face it, by the time GRRM was done with his book, the actors from the show would’ve aged quite a lot and couldn’t look their own roles anymore
I watched the show for the first few seasons, but then stopped because it was getting boring and repetitive. I stopped roughly when what’s-her-name lost her eyesight and was about to become an assassin.
I came back to watch the conclusion, and personally… I thought it was alright. I still don’t see what all the fuss was about. It ended pretty much how I expected it to, the only difference is, I can’t believe it took that many seasons to get there! What were they doing during that time? That should have been one season away at most!
The reason I hated the ending is that it undid all of the character arcs that you didn’t sit though. Dany never had an evil thought in her life until the last two episodes. Jamie HATED Cercei, and was genuinely becoming a good person. Arya had a huge arc as an assassin, and then decided to sit things out after the night king. (which was also stupid…) Blech.
Dany had a murderous streak in her the whole time. How many people she murdered and tortured in the slaver cities just because? Jaime though that he hated Cersei. But it was like an addiction – you may tell yourself and the whole room that you are over it, but when the push comes to shove you may easily relapse.
stopped at the toilet murder, the show peaked at this point and I started doing other stuff and lost interest right then and there XD
Not going to lie, was expecting a comic about Randy wasting time on the Gearbox presentation again. (Cue flashbacks to the magic show he did last time…)
Thank goodness Martin’s involvement with the game was actually completed a long time ago
This is going to be From Software’s absolute best game yet
The most unrealistic part of this is that you depicted him actually writing. His fingers should be nowhere near that keyboard.
Not true, he apparently writes a lot. Basically anything and everything that isn’t ASOIAF.
No wonder it’s taking him forever, that computer is a relic!
Good! People are slowly starting to get this!
Now, let’s rephrase that last bit: But don’t worry, eventually they’ll release the “HBO” DLC, where Martin’s inability to finish things leads to a disappointing ending.
While they’re not without blame, let’s move away from holding Benioff and Weiss solely responsible.
The show relied on the source material, and the source material dried up.
Martin’s as much, if not more, to blame for Game of Thrones’ ending.
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.
Nope B and W are 100% to blame. They knew going in they were almost certainly (if not certainly) going to outpace the books. And they chose to rush the ending and make horrible choices in terms of plot and character in the last two seasons. HBO literally said they could have more episodes and they turned it down. Maybe like Martin they got bored with the universe or maybe they just never had the talent to finish the story without the blueprint of the books to build on, but it wasn’t like they were surprised by that. Absolutely their… Read more »
Well, it was my understanding that they did have a “blueprint”. They (or HBO, don’t remember) claimed that JRRM disclosed to them (not in much details, obviously) what the ending will be and how the story will lead to it.
(mmm. is it still a spoiler?)
However B&W are 110% to blame for rushed pace of the last season which prevented any possibility of believable arrival to the ending such as it is.
Away googling which is longer in development – The Winds of Winter or Star Citizen ….
Upd.: A Dance w/ Dragons was published in 2011, Star Citizen was announced in 2012 (production started in 2011).. So, tie?…
“It was a year of eternal projects..”
The first time I experienced something like this was back in the 2000’s with the anime industry’s first take on Full Metal Alchemist, the anime outpaced the manga and had to make up an abrupt, weird and unsatisfying ending. When the manga finally finished years later they just rebooted the whole animated series, with the first so many episodes retreading what the original series already covered. This is partially why many serial anime will drag on with lots of filler episodes, in order to give the manga artists time to advance the story with enough content that the anime studios… Read more »