George R.R. Martin’s Biggest Game of Thrones Regret

George R.R. Martin recently expressed one of his greatest regrets in regards to writing Game of Thrones, leading fans to speculate that this may be the reason for the lengthy delay in the release of The Winds of Winter.

Since its inception in 1991, Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series began with A Game of Thrones and has since been followed by four additional installments: A Clash of Kings (1998), A Storm of Swords (2000), A Feast for Crows (2005), and A Dance with Dragons (2011).

In addition to the Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas (which served as the basis for the Knight of the Seven Kingdoms spinoff), he has also created other books set in the same universe, such as Fire & Blood, which inspired the House of the Dragon.

Despite readers’ continuous disappointment, he has yet to finish his initial saga. The Winds of Winter has been in progress for over 15 years, but it’s not due to a lack of effort on Martin’s part – it appears that he is unable to complete the story.

George R.R. Martin with a Westeros map — HBO

At an event hosted by Oxford Writers’ House, Martin was questioned about what changes he would make to Game of Thrones.

In his explanation, he mentioned Gene Wolf as an example. Wolf had written The Book of the New Sun in his free time and chose not to submit it to an editor, which is the typical process. He also did not receive a contract or a deadline, yet he managed to complete all four books.

Upon completing the fourth book, he gained a newfound perspective on the first book and noticed inconsistencies and deviations from the original concept. This allowed him to revise and improve the first book. He only submitted the entire series to Gene after all four books were finished, and it was then bought and published.

Martin expressed his admiration for the freedom that came with solely relying on income from his books. In other words, he had financial responsibilities that required him to continuously write, leaving no room for revisions to his existing work.

All of the Game of Thrones books in the Song of Ice and Fire series — Bantam Books

“According to him, not having to worry about financial constraints can be incredibly freeing for an artist. If one were to inherit a vast trust fund or a castle, for example, they could write their entire series without the pressure of selling it or meeting deadlines.”

“Contrary to what may be believed, I am not intentionally taking a considerable amount of time to complete Winds of Winter as if I am trying to mimic Gene Wolfe. In fact, I have been eager to finish it for years now, but unfortunately that has not been the case. That would be the main aspect I would like to alter.”

One Redditor pointed out, “That’s quite telling.”It is clear that he regrets some elements that were added to the series in hindsight, and they are currently weighing him down.

“To add to the sadness, some of the popular things he is regretting may be part of the problem as well,”another person commented.

“One commenter pointed out that the author seemed to struggle with tying certain elements together, which was hindering their completion of the book. They also questioned which storyline the author disliked the most for introducing.”

In the interim, discover all the information we have about the upcoming third season of House of the Dragon, explore our analysis of every Targaryen ruler, and browse through other television series available for streaming this month.