Martin has always been a kind of hack in ways. Ambitious and persistent, but a hack. Just like the guy who novelized Star Wars, he's in entertainment for the money. Although the Star Wars guy was merely a prostitute, Martin seeks fame and fortune but thinks he's literature,

Let me dispel that illusion. He writes historical-flavored D&D soap opera not far above fan fic. He is the male equivalent of some romance writer pumping out books for love starved fat girls. Anyone calling him a Tolkien has their head up their ass.

Now, the problem is when television takes the work of a hack and applies TV hacknosity to it. The child of that is born crippled and doomed. Logic and common sense have never bothered TV creators. But when on top of that you add pompously pious virtual signalling. you get travesty. Covid is not the danger; woke is the virus that kills all. In the castle hangs a tapestry that says 'Be less white! Drink Mead Cola!"