George R.R. Martin Won’t Change His Books Based On Negative Reaction To ‘Game Of Thrones’ Season 8

George R.R. Martin provided the perplexing twist in the series finale of Game of Thrones (“The One Where Bran Becomes King,” to put it in Friends terms), so it’s safe to assume that he liked the final season more than many viewers.

He’s not unaware of the negative reaction to season eight, though.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the A Song of Ice and Fire author/New York Giants skeptic admitted that he’s felt tempted to change storylines in The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring based on how viewers reacted to them on the HBO series. But Martin is sticking with his original vision because “I want to write the book I’ve always intended to write,” he said:

“There is a temptation to change it — ‘Oh my god, it’s screwed up, I have to come up with something different.’ But that’s wrong. Because you’ve been planning for a certain ending and if you suddenly change direction just because somebody figured it out, or because they don’t like it, then it screws up the whole structure… I don’t read the fan sites. I want to write the book I’ve always intended to write all along. And when it comes out they can like it or they can not like it.”

Martin also discussed when he felt the most pressure to finish the books.

It was a few years ago, probably in the months between seasons five and six, when he was trying to keep pace with the show. “The show was coming out in April and my editors said if I could finish the book by December they’d rush it out,” he said. “And the pressure I felt that fall was the greatest pressure I’ve ever felt and then at a certain point it became apparent I’m not going to finish it by then. I don’t only want to finish it, I want to make it as good as I possibly can.” But now that Thrones is finished, Martin added, “there’s no longer a race. The show is over. I’m writing the book. It will be done when it’s done.”

And if it’s never done, we can always send him to prison.