#like damn i admit i haven't read the books myself (though ive read excerpts and know the differences between the books and the show)

[snowstcrm]

When people think that GRRM subverting common fantasy genre tropes in his story means that the ending has to be as shitty as possible..

I could write an essay explaining why this is one of the stupidest things that I keep seeing time and time again in this fandom, but is it worth my time?? Probably not. How do you explain to people that an author subverting common fantasy tropes doesn’t have to equate to them also trashing their entire story just to make a shock value, curve ball ending.

When GRRM talks about subverting fantasy tropes, he’s referring to things in his story like the prophecies. Prophecies in fantasy literature are commonly used as the be-all end-all, but GRRM has instead made prophecies in his story dangerous and fickle things.

GRRM may like to flip fantasy tropes on their heads, but he is still a WRITER. All the foreshadowing, symbolism, and build up in his writing is there for a reason. While yes, this story is unique in that it unexpectedly kills characters off and the good characters aren’t always rewarded because the world is cruel, there are still some things that can be predicted about the story if you take the time to analyze and understand his use of literary devices. It doesn’t make his writing ‘predictable’. It just makes you clever enough to interpret the foreshadowing and symbolism. There is a large portion of the audience that doesn’t.

I wouldn’t call myself an expert but I’ve studied fantasy literature in school, and something you’ll find is that almost ALL fantasy stories have bittersweet endings. They either have a ‘consolation’ or a ‘eucatastrophe’ or both. The wrongs have been righted, but there is a feeling of loss because of how rough the journey has been and how the characters can never go back to how their life used to be. Bittersweet does not mean ‘your fav is going to die and everything sucks’.

The number one question people ask me about the series is whether I think everyone will lose—whether it will end in some horrible apocalypse. I know you can’t speak to that specifically, but as a revisionist of epic fantasy—


I haven’t written the ending yet, so I don’t know, but no. That’s certainly not my intent. I’ve said before that the tone of the ending that I’m going for is bittersweet. I mean, it’s no secret that Tolkien has been a huge influence on me, and I love the way he ended Lord of the Rings. It ends with victory, but it’s a bittersweet victory. Frodo is never whole again, and he goes away to the Undying Lands, and the other people live their lives. And the scouring of the Shire—brilliant piece of work, which I didn’t understand when I was 13 years old: “Why is this here? The story’s over?” But every time I read it I understand the brilliance of that segment more and more. All I can say is that’s the kind of tone I will be aiming for. Whether I achieve it or not, that will be up to people like you and my readers to judge. [x]

So yeah, the ending of this story (both book and show because he shared the ending with D&D) won’t be as bleak as so many people are imagining. Game of Thrones may be dark and intense, but it is still a story that is meant to have a pay off in the end. All good stories do.