We spent pretty much the entire arc of Game of Thrones’ TV existence, and then some, wondering about one of the biggest questions in Westeros: just when the hell was The Winds of Winter going to come out? Well, we kind of have an answer now; you’ll know when George R.R. Martin is damn well sure of it.
Recently speaking to Vanity Fair about his writing process during the pandemic — and his own recent diagnosis with covid-19 after attending San Diego Comic-Con — Martin, who has spent years telling fans when he thinks he’ll be done with the next book in the A Song of Ice and Fire saga only for those rough estimates to just fly on by with not a preview page in the world, finally said the obvious thing: he’s done doing that, because he’s tired of people yelling at him. “I’m making progress, but I’ve given up on any hope of predicting the end. Every time I do, I don’t make it and everybody gets mad at me, and there’s no sense. It’ll be done when it’s done.”
To be fair to Mr. Martin, he did it a lot, to the point that it became less of a genuine frustration and more of just a running joke. But it’s also understandable, in that the author expressed frustration that in part some of the speculation of A Song of Ice and Fire’s future conclusion, especially recently, has also come alongside morbid speculation about his health. “Hopefully, covid won’t kill me, so we won’t have that issue. I do find it a little grisly, people speculating online about what’s going to happen to the rest of the books when I die,” Martin added. “I don’t like to speculate about that. I don’t feel close to dying.”
Which is a good thing, because it would be really nice for Martin to just finish his books in peace at this point. If this is the last we get to hear about The Winds of Winter before it is actually a thing we might have in our hands one day, “it’ll be done when it’s done” is a fitting way for Martin’s updates to end.
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