Fans Rush to George Martin's Defense Amid Renewed Winds of Winter Accusations
George Martin’s recent The Winds of Winter update led to a new wave of hate toward the author, but his devoted fans are willing to defend Martin against all odds.
Summary:
- George Martin has been working on The Winds of Winter since 2011, and the book is yet to be completed.
- In his recent interview, the author claimed he had 1,100 pages done; he said the same in January 2023.
- Martin received a huge backlash after this revelation, but some fans wanted to defend the author against hate.
The author of A Song of Ice and Fire has been subject to his very own controversy for the past 12 years. There have been over a dozen years since A Dance with Dragons was released, and a whole new generation of angry fans has grown up in that time, demanding that George Martin finally hurry up and finish the next book.
Admittedly, Martin is taking his sweet time to work on The Winds of Winter — but he gets way too much hate for that, including even threats. Fortunately, not all fans are hate-fueled, and the calmer ones defend the author’s right to do as he pleases.
How Did GRRM Cause the Recent Fan Backlash?
One month ago, George Martin gave an interview to Bang where he revealed his progress on The Winds of Winter.
“I have like 1,100 pages written but I still have hundreds more pages to go,” the author shared.
It’s been 12 years since the release of the previous book, meaning GRRM averages less than 100 pages per year!
But apart from the author’s underwhelming writing speed in general, there is a whole other issue with that statement. See, George Martin told Bang he had 1,100 pages done in November; and in January, he told the same number to The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. That’s almost nine months with zero progress made on the book.
Fans didn’t like this “update,” and the amount of hate George Martin started receiving increased tenfold once again. But not every fan thinks the same.
How Do Fans Defend GRRM Against the Accusations?
Amid all the backlash A Song of Ice and Fire author received for his unfortunate revelations, many connoisseurs of his works decided to speak up against the haters. On the ASoIaF subreddit, they started a thread to support George Martin.
“I really sympathize with George, I fully appreciate an artist not wanting to release something he feels isn't up to his personal standards of quality even if it means a long delay and fans being frustrated. It's a pretty rare quality to put making good art as your number one priority,” Kewl0210 said, referencing worse-quality content.
Apart from pure support, some fans tried to reason with haters, explaining that GRRM’s creative process is way more complicated than people think this deep into one of the world’s largest and most popular fantasy book series.
“People act like he has one draft with 1100 pages and he has had that for a decade, but more likely he has finalized those and rewritten the other 500 a thousand times to try to get everything working exactly the way he wants it,” lonesometroubador pointed out.
Others argue that after the notorious Game of Thrones finale, they completely understand George Martin’s hesitation to conclude his epic saga.
In their eyes — just like in GRRM’s, most likely — everything’s better than a poor ending. Including no ending at all. After all, the author has created a vast and interesting world already.
And we are free to explore it at our own whim. Everyone would have hated Martin if he released an unsatisfying The Winds of Winter anyway, so he might as well wait.
Sources: Bang, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert via YouTube