I agree on basically every count, and George has even said that this next book is going to be pretty dark. Idk though. He's described himself as a "gardener" w

I agree on basically every count, and George has even said that this next book is going to be pretty dark. Idk though. He's described himself as a "gardener" when it comes to writing. I'm not sure he'll be able to prune things down to where he needs to to finish. Another tinfoil hat theory of mine is that the reception to the end of the series has put extra pressure on him to bring home all his plots in a satisfying way. It would definitely be a strange feeling to see some of your major plot beats happen in an unsatisfactory way before getting to release them in book form.