George R.R. Martin Teases a Darker Fate for Tyrion and Sansa in His A Song of Ice and Fire Finale

You don’t exactly have to twist a Game of Thrones fan’s arm to get them to talk about how that HBO finale was... well, divisive (I’m trying to be polite here). But in a twist that will surprise exactly no one who’s followed George R.R. Martin’s approach to storytelling, it turns out the TV version might have been downright optimistic compared to what the author had originally planned for the final books.

Martin: 'I was going to kill more people'

Martin sat down with The Hollywood Reporter and got pretty candid about his plans for the A Song of Ice and Fire novels. Apparently, the body count HBO chalked up in season 8 is tame by his standards.

'I was going to kill more people. Not the ones they killed [in the show]. They made it more of a happy ending. I don’t see a happy ending for Tyrion. His whole arc has been tragic from the first.'

Translation: If you thought Tyrion’s show ending was a win (survives, becomes Hand, stands around sorting quippy council business), Martin thinks you’re missing the point. He hinted his take on Tyrion’s fate is going to be pretty grim.

Another surprise: Even Sansa—Queen in the North standout and, let’s be real, a huge fan favorite by the end—wasn’t exactly safe in the books. Martin even admitted, 'I was going to have Sansa die, but she’s been so appealing in the show, maybe I’ll let her live…'

A refresher on the big TV send-offs

In case your memory is foggy or you rage-quit the show before the last two episodes, here’s a quick run-down:

• Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) meets her end in the finale—stabbed by Jon Snow after destroying King’s Landing.
• Cersei (Lena Headey) and Jaime (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) get the poetic/crushing exit, literally, in the episode right before, courtesy of falling rubble as Dany and Drogon torch the Red Keep.
• Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) lives—if you call being named Hand of the King again living—but is left more or less alone, his family gone and legacy in ruins. Some fans read that as a ‘happy ending’; others saw it as bitter irony.

Compared to Martin’s original vision, a lot of these resolutions sound positively chipper.

So when are those books actually coming?

If you’re holding your breath for The Winds of Winter (the ever-delayed next novel in the series), you might want to exhale for now. It’s been 15 years since A Dance With Dragons dropped back in 2011. Still, Martin swears he genuinely plans to finish. Or as he put it,

'I would hate that. I want to finish. If I wound up doing everything in my head, this could be the longest book in the series.'

So... we might be waiting for quite a long time, but at least he’s still working on it and not ruling out that monstrous page count.

Meanwhile, if your appetite for doomed Westerosi nobility isn’t sated, all of Game of Thrones is streaming on HBO. Just don’t expect Martin’s book endings to match what you’ve already seen—especially if you’re rooting for Tyrion and Sansa.