I know I have talked about George RR Martin before, and I know I shouldn't be surprised but I thought he would know better than to say what he did. He was posting about the different projects he is working on, and of course they are all projects that are Ice and Fire spinoffs/take place in Westeros and he said he is sad to see that some people only care about Winds of Winter when there is so much Westeros content being put out.
I honestly was thinking how he could be so dense and honestly why should I give any time or money on side projects when he doesn't seem to care about finishing the main story. I remember a co-worker of mine was shocked when I told her I didn't plan on watching House of the Dragon, but honestly why should I?
Just a little nerd rant.
And it worked extremely fucking well because Rickman was a great actor who followed the author's intentions. A lot of face/heel turns come out of fucking nowhere because the build up to the twist either doesn't happen at all or it's planned to be exposition after the reveal. Snape works because despite being painted as an antagonist throughout he still has moments where he's clearly trying to keep the children safe and it throws up questions but they're consistent questions rather than complete out of character moments.