Game of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin has mentioned his extremely anticipated subsequent A Song of Ice and Fire ebook, The Winds of Winter, will clarify the relationships between dragons and people, presumably together with Daenerys Targaryen’s.
In a blog post, Martin delved into his philosophy behind the dragons in Game of Thrones and the way they’re primarily based in realism, and like different beasts subsequently may be educated however not tamed.
While this appears to contradict the connection between dragons and House Targaryen, Martin mentioned this relationship would really be defined in The Winds of Winter and closing ebook A Dream of Spring, alongside Fire and Blood sequel Blood and Fire.
“They bond with males… Some males… And the why and the way of that, and the way it got here to be, will ultimately be revealed in additional element in The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring and a few in Blood and Fire,” he mentioned, earlier than noting that the character Septon Barth “received a lot of it proper.”
He continued: “Like wolves and bears and lions, dragons may be educated, however by no means solely tamed. They will all the time be harmful. Some are wilder and extra willful than others. They are people, they’ve personalities… And they usually mirror the personalities of their riders, because of bond they share are. They don’t care a whit about gold or gems, not more than a tiger would. Unless possibly their rider was obsessive about the shiny stuff, and even then…”
Martin nonetheless hasn’t revealed when followers will get to find these secrets and techniques, as The Winds of Winter is to this point 10 years late and seemingly making gradual progress. He mentioned in November 2023 that he’d written 1,100 pages of the extremely anticipated ebook, the identical quantity he’d written a 12 months earlier.
No author is blessed with producing an ideal first draft, after all, and Martin’s “writing” of The Winds of Winter can even embody re-reading, re-writing, enhancing, planning, and so forth, so there’s nonetheless loads of work to be performed with out really growing the web page quantity complete.
Martin mentioned in October 2022 the ebook was round three quarters of the way in which performed, noting he is fully completed some characters’ tales however nonetheless has others to weave all through them. The general progress of The Winds of Winter has grow to be considerably of an ongoing gag throughout the fiction neighborhood although, with even Martin himself getting in on the joke.
An estimated launch window for The Winds of Winter was first given in 2011 when the earlier ebook, A Dance With Dragons, was launched, as Martin mentioned it might take three years to complete at a very good tempo. That set expectations for a 2014 launch date, however 12 months after 12 months, and delay after delay, Martin nonetheless is not able to launch the penultimate A Song of Ice and Fire entry.
Fans can a minimum of benefit from the present books (that are about to get a refreshed cowl design) within the meantime, alongside Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon which is presently in its second season. In reality, Martin mentioned the newest episode options the very best dragon battle in leisure historical past.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll discuss The Witcher all day.
