As Game of Thrones creator George RR Martin finishes off The Winds of Winter, fans are looking forward to the Battle of Ice aka the Battle in the ice between Stannis Baratheon and Roose Bolton. But now trusted ASOIAF expert BryndenBFish has revealed to fans that originally the 71-year-old wasn’t planning on the battle taking place on-page. He tweeted: “One of the strangest things about TWOW is that GRRM wasn’t planning on having the Battle of Ice occur on-page.”
The ASOIAF expert continued: “Like he seems to have decided very, very late in writing ADWD that he should write it — like we’re talking a few months before he finished ADWD.
“GRRM finished The Wayward Bride for AFFC circa 2003/2004 before cutting it to ADWD in 2005.
“He didn’t pick up writing more Asha chapters until December 2010.
“Seems like GRRM originally planned for the entirety of Stannis’ story to be off-page until he changed course.”
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He continued: “But his editors urged him to cut the Battle of Fire two weeks prior to finishing the book, and he did.
“The problem is that GRRM didn’t have the space for the Battle of Fire and all of the other storylines from the books.
“So, he ended up ending Tyrion’s arc in an unsatisfying manner and leaving Barristan’s story a cliff-hanger for WINDS.
“The end of Victarion’s arc still rules tho.”
Martin has been writing The Winds of Winter from his isolated mountain cabin.
During the lockdown, the 71-year-old has revealed he’s making great process.
In fact, the times given updates on his blog he’s admitted to have been writing every day.
Fingers crossed then that The Winds of Winter releases later this year.
