The Devil in the Details

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This blog was originally intended as a submission for the #Bastard2024 challenge, presenting GRRM as a figurative bastard, but didn’t finish in time.

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Fun Fact:

If someone was 17 and still in high school and started reading ASOIAF when it first came out, they would now be 47 and potentially a grandparent.

A History of ASOIAF

1991

Originally intended as a short story involving a boy named Bran who comes upon a litter of direwolves. George Martin (GRRM) is unable to develop the story beyond a few chapters and shelves the project.

1994

He comes across the shelved story and begins toying with potential world building elements. He plays with the idea of applying tropes, and then subverting them, and he concludes he could a write trilogy in this manner (even though he had voiced his disdain for such “planned” trilogies in the past as a mere marketing gimmick).

1996

A Game of Thrones is published.

1998

A Clash of Kings is published. GRRM announces the series will entail 4 books.

2000

A Storm of Swords is published. GRRM announces that the series will grow to 5 books, and soon after revises that to 6 books.

During this time, GRRM is made several movie and TV offers for ASOIAF.

Imagine being an author and there are people offering to dramatize your story—and it isn’t even close to being finished!

Why rock that boat by giving away any more of the story than you have to?

This goes on for several years but ends up declining all offers.

2005

A Feast for Crows is published. GRRM announces that the series will grow to 7 books.

This is where things get really dicey.

First of all, I’ll share a little book reader perspective.

The character Beric Dondarrion was introduced in Book 1. Throughout Book 2 and Book 3 continuous mention of this charactered occurred mixed with an increasing amount of mystery concerning him. Then, in Book 4, it turns out that there is indeed something special about him, in fact quite unique. He dies and comes back to life again, multiple times.

And then it stops and ends up not adding one bit to the story.

FOR TEN YEARS a book reader would follow this very unusual character only to be left with nothing but a convoluted mess lacking any rationale of cause and effect, that really had no purpose. It’s why I didn’t miss “Lady Stoneheart”, she was nothing but a reminder of disappointment. So, the next time someone cries that developments in the show were “illogical” or “doesn’t make any sense”, that GRRM did much and more in the books.

Second, let’s take a good look at the Afterward of A Feast for Crows:

You’ll notice that the characters that the TV/Movie people were most interested in, Jon, Dany, Tyrion etc. were left out; GRRM still playing with his cards close to his chest for producers interested in the rights to the story, while providing something to the readers who were becoming impatient.

Also, that bit about not wanting “an end with ‘to be continued’”…ALL the books have ended that way! smh

This leads directly to the third point, that GRRM had material that could have been published but didn’t. This could be construed in either of two ways. He could have come out with the 4th Book sooner, or more certainly, he held back with the 5th Book.

He said himself that in 2005 he had enough for both books.

But A Dance with Dragons didn’t come out until SIX YEARS LATER!

Understand, that means he spent 11 years on those chapters, the ones he said were all but finished in 2005

I know he had a bag of excuses as to why that happened, but I know the real reason:

In 2007, HBO came knocking at the door.

That’s when this whole thing went straight to hell for the readers.

2011

A Dance with Dragons is published.

Another thing about ADWD being held back is marketing strategy. To have the book released in the same year as the premier of the show helps both. It’s business, I get it, but still…

Then right in the middle of his own story, he quits working with the show, and provides no further source material for it.

First he claims that he quit the show “so he can spend more time writing Winds”.

But what does he actually do? The bastard starts, in mere months, working on five other shows!

FIVE OTHER SHOWS!

Soon after, he states that he “is cancelling all other conventions that he hasn’t committed to”.

WUT? How can you cancel something that you’re not committed to? It actually meant he wasn’t really canceling anything at all. Just more bastard BS. This kind of subterfuge has gone on for years now.

I have neither the time or inclination to list the dozens of projects, books (whether writing or editing), TV shows and movies along with his extensive travel and other “noncancelled commitments” that he has been involved in whilst supposedly “struggling” with writing Winds.

So now it has been 13 years, actually 19 years since the time he said, “I could cut what I had in two”. No one is going to convince me that the bastard hasn’t finished “Winds” along with A Dream of Spring as well. So, why hold back? For these reasons:

1) The Bastard is wallowing in glee over the fact that D&D are taking all the flack for whatever negative turns HIS story took. Do not discount this as being trivial, it has definitely helped to maintain his popularity. How? Read number 2.

2) He readily its no one is going to like Winds and he and HBO don’t want the prequels to be negatively impacted (see marketing strategy above) until they have been established. How many? Definitely until Dunk & Egg begins and perhaps one other.

3) He has been allowing showrunners/writers to shape elements of the stories to some degree, so he will be retconning some of those elements that might pertain to ASOIAF and D&E Tales.

4) He has given his  publisher more time to release coffee table books. That’s not a joke, those are big money, the greedy bastard.

5) When Winds comes out, the story will finally have gotten over the hump, so to speak. A lot of things will become reconciled and there won’t be too much left except for end game stuff. More than half of the discussions pertaining to ASOIAF will be concluded.

6) It will definitely affect his drawing power for conventions and other meets. Will it affect his popularity? He has been loving the whole “Let a thousand theories reign” thing  (that’s a GRRM quote) but when that “reign” ends how much more will there be to discuss?

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People are thinking he is doing so many things (We now know he is already getting busy producing Dunk and Egg, writing episodes no less) that there is no way he can finish the series. I counter that the reason why he allows himself to take on so much is because they are already finished.

I would add that not only is ASOIAF finished, but so is vol. 2 of Blood and Fire, and at least four more D&E Tales.

(Seriously, do you think HBO is going to let GRRM pull that stunt again with D&E? No way. D&E would not have been greenlit unless he showed HBO he had the source material for it)

I hope this has been as therapeutic for you as it was for me

THANKS FOR READING!

/rant

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