ASoIaF is an endless series of setups with no payoffs.
Every time I criticized the story people would insist "it's all building up to something!" in spite of all evidence to the contrary. The last season backlash was the realization that I was right all along, with the diehard fans resorting to "the books were adapted wrong / Martin will fix it" cope.
We learn from Martin's writing people will read 6000 pages of rape and descriptions of food as long as you keep fooling them into believing it's leading up to something. You can keep this train rolling forever by just pilling new mysteries onto the old ones. "Audience strip mining" as I call it. You dig a massive pit harvesting your audience's goodwill, then abandon the giant wreck as you abscond with their cash. It's a talent to be sure, but I consider it exploitative. Such is the nature of the market.
The unfortunate thing is Martin not only seemed to burn his own fanbase down but everyone elses' too. Readers and editors are loath to produce or consume more epic fantasy as they become leary of these sleazy writing tricks.
ASoIaF is an endless series of setups with no payoffs.
Every time I criticized the story people would insist "it's all building up to something!" in spite of all evidence to the contrary. The last season backlash was the realization that I was right all along, with the diehard fans resorting to "the books were adapted wrong / Martin will fix it" cope.
We learn from Martin's writing people will read 6000 pages of rape and descriptions of food as long as you keep fooling them into believing it's leading up to something. You can keep this train rolling forever by just pilling new mysteries onto the old ones. "Audience strip mining" as I call it. You dig a massive pit harvesting your audience's goodwill, then abandon the giant wreck as you abscond with their cash. It's a talent to be sure, but I consider it exploitative. Such is the nature of the market.
The unfortunate thing is Martin not only seemed to burn his own fanbase down but everyone elses' too. Readers and editors are loath to produce or consume more epic fantasy as they become leary of these sleazy writing tricks.
There have been plenty of payoffs. The Red Wedding itself was a payoff, for example.
There are also a bunch of other payoffs we already know like Jon Snows origin and such.
Red Wedding isn't a payoff it's an exploding cigar. Like all of his plotlines, it's not resolved but aborted, rug pulled out and everyone falls flat.