Game of Thrones’ Red Wedding remains one of the most gruesome scenes ever witnessed on television. The deaths of Robb and Catelyn Stark hit every fan like a dagger to the heart. Those who have read A Song of Ice and Fire were the first to experience and feel the betrayal of this scene.
While many hated this in the show, readers who have perused A Storm of Swords in 2000 also couldn’t take the blow. They had to express their anger at the author—and they did—with one woman feeling very distraught by what she had read.
George R.R. Martin apologized to a disappointed Game of Thrones fan
George R.R. Martin is aware of the effect that the infamous Red Wedding had on his fans. In Game of Thrones, it earned the badge of being one of the most horrifying death scenes in the series. Robb and Catelyn Stark were key players; in fact, two of the most beloved Stark members. To kill them off early in the story was diabolical.
The same impact happened when he released the book. Some of his readers even threatened to throw his novels into the fire, but later on realized they needed to know what happened next, so they got themselves a new copy.
One woman in particular sent Martin a letter telling her story and why she reads his books. The feeling of betrayal rang in her words, as the author shared in his interview with Rolling Stone:
One letter I got was from a woman, a waitress. She wrote me: “I work hard all day, I’m divorced, I have a couple of children. My life is very hard, and my one pleasure is I come home and I read fantasy, and I escape to other worlds. Then I read your book, and God, it was f—king horrifying. I don’t read for this. This is a nightmare. Why would you do this to me?” That letter actually reached me. I wrote her back and basically said, “I’m sorry; I do understand where you’re coming from.”
The 76-year-old writer knows that people read for many reasons, and one is for escapism. It has tremendously helped him deal with his own life problems at one point, so he knew exactly what the woman was going through.
George R.R. Martin’s books are not everyone’s cup of tea
Many of us read because we like stories where the good always defeats evil; we read because we believe in happily ever after. This isn’t the kind of story we would find in Martin’s books. Even J.R.R. Tolkien’s novels had tragic endings.
What the author wanted to say is that other books in the market cater to people’s various needs. All they have to do is find the ones that resonate with them. Martin knows he lost readers after he wrote the Red Wedding chapter, but as he continued writing and releasing new books, he gained even more.
He’s not worried about this at all, for Martin knows he cannot please everyone but himself.
Game of Thrones is currently available to watch on Max.
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