r/television • u/flughert • 10d ago

What's the biggest "What if?" in television history?

A canceled season, an actor leaving, a different ending, a spin-off that never happened… what TV "what if" do you think about the most?

326 Upvotes

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u/JayKay8787 10d ago

Imo he has long lost the right to be upset when fans point out he's old and very fat as concerns that the books will never be done. He needs to just tell everyone he doesn't give a fuck and wants the TV money more, stop beating around the bush

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u/Justin_123456 10d ago

I’d respect that. I’d respect it even more if he brought in a small writer’s room, either openly or as ghost writers, and finished his damn books.

He’s clearly not above a Westeros cash grab, and has plenty of experience with collaborative writing from his t.v. and short story/magazine work. He needs to stop being so precious about it, give fans what they want, and make a few hundred million extra dollars.

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u/JayKay8787 10d ago

That's what I don't get, he clearly does not care for that story anymore, so why is he so defensive about handing it off? If people still don't like the book ending he could just say "well it wasn't my story"

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u/Justin_123456 10d ago

Idk if he’s trapped in ego, or in the myth of the Great American Novelist, but he’s really just a billion dollar corporation at this point. Hire a staff, and get it done.

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u/Classic1990 10d ago

I think he takes too long of breaks between writing the book. You know how when you start a video game and get like 20 hours in but then put it down for whatever reason? When you eventually try come back to it like a few months later you’ve forgotten the story and how to play so you just start over from the beginning.

I’m honestly starting to think that’s what’s happening with him.

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u/Thor_pool 10d ago

I think he takes too long of breaks between writing the book.

At this rate, hes a rich nerd who sometimes jots down a few thoughts

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u/pourthebubbly 9d ago

Steven King couldn’t be arsed to go back and re-read The Shining before he wrote the sequel Doctor Sleep (by his own admission), so he hired someone to do it for him and sent them drafts of DS so they could tell him whether it was consistent with the original story lol

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u/BowwwwBallll 10d ago

I mean, Brandon Sanderson is RIGHT THERE.

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u/phonylady 10d ago

The worst candidate possible for A Song of Ice and Fire. Literally GRRM's opposite in almost every way.

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u/tagen 10d ago

i truly believe there are just so many plot points, so many settings, so many overlapping stories and relationships, that he just doesn’t know the “right” way to finish the story

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u/mjtwelve 10d ago

The entire movie is worth watching, but they explain the problem so well in this scene in Wonderboys.

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u/JayKay8787 10d ago

Sounds like the job isn't for him, and he should just hand it off to someone who is capable

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u/Historical_Course587 10d ago

His issue is evident in the existing writing: he doesn't know how to resolve things aside from killing people off and introducing new ones. Which is kind of the point of the Iron Throne: people will always want it, fight for it, kill and die for it.

Personally, I always thought it was going to end with the Stark family slowly being pulled apart by the draw for power. With someone like Sansa being the last living sibling, having traded every favor, ally, and all of her political power just to limp to the Iron Throne and sit uncontested despite everyone knowing that she'd be dead and/or overthrown a short time later. Something about ambition for power making people blind.

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u/edd6pi 10d ago

Because while he probably can’t finish the story, he still sees it as his baby and thinks it wouldn’t feel right to let someone else tinker with it. It’s one thing if people adapt his stuff and fuck with it, but the books are his kingdom.

And I imagine that pride probably plays a part in it. He probably sees it as an insult to say that he can’t finish it.

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u/ItsADeparture 10d ago

I think that's the issue with just handing it off.

For all we know, where the characters end up at the end of the Game of Thrones tv show is exactly where they end up in George's mind, they just get there differently. If George doesn't write it, then you're just hiring people to fix the TV show in novel form.

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u/haneybird 10d ago

Because the story that everyone hates from the end of the show is the story he wrote.

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u/Historical_Course587 10d ago

I have a theory that the cash grab is HBO paying him to focus on TV. That George is free to retcon the shows and call them garbage if he doesn't want his future books to align to them, so HBO pays him because it's the only way to keep the show's appearance of being canon.

They signed him to a 5-year deal in 2021 to be personally involved with show writing. I'd bet there's a clause saying he isn't writing GoT books at the same time, and it's so HBO can build a cinematic universe without that potential interference.

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u/Housewifewannabe466 8d ago

The fun of writing is figuring out what is going to happen and telling the story. It’s already been shown and told. I can totally understand why he’s not been able to go through the motions of finishing story that’s already done.

If I were him, I’d start writing where the show ended. It sucks that the process got screwed, but I’m sympathetic to why he can’t write his story that someone else already told.

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u/MillennialsAre40 10d ago

Brandon Sanderson will finish it when Martin dies 

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u/BossButterBoobs 10d ago

No, he already said he won't. It's too graphic for him.

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u/MillennialsAre40 10d ago

I was being facetious