'Winds Of Winter' Author George R.R. Martin Teases A Tolkien-Style Finale For 'Game of Thrones'

George R.R. Martin has been a busy guy lately thanks to his recent guest role on Syfy’s “Z Nation” and his constant homework of finishing the “Song of Ice and Fire” book series. Now, with two novels left to go, the famed author is teasing his vision for how all of the volatile events in Westeros will finally come to an end.

As the character Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) put it best in Season 3, episode 6: “If you think this has a happy ending, you haven’t been paying attention.”

Such is the case for Martin’s book series as the 67-year-old writer has routinely confessed that the ending of the “Game of Thrones” saga won’t necessarily involve all the good guys winning and all the bad guys getting their comeuppance. Most recently, the author spoke about the series’ end while being inducted into the Medill School of Journalism’s Hall of Achievement at Northwestern University. During a Q&A, Martin covered a wide variety of topics about both the popular HBO drama, as well as the book series for which it’s based – specifically, his plan for wrapping up the storyline.

“I think you need to have some hope,” the author teased, according to Vulture. “We all yearn for happy endings in a sense. Myself, I’m attracted to the bittersweet ending. People ask me how ‘Game of Thrones’ is going to end, and I’m not going to tell them… but I always say to expect something bittersweet in the end, like [J.R.R. Tolkien]. I think Tolkien did this brilliantly. I didn’t understand that when I was a kid -- when I read ‘Return of the King.’”

This isn’t the first time that the “Winds of Winter” author has teased a “bittersweet” ending that mirrors his idol, Tolkien. Previously, Martin spoke to the Observer about the same topic, specifying that the aftermath of the heroes’ victory in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, where readers learn that the events of the books have changed the characters beyond repair, is the exact tone he’s aiming for with the conclusion of “A Song of Ice and Fire.”

Still, fans can’t get excited about any kind of ending to the series since the notoriously slow writer is still hard at work hunting and pecking his way through book six of the series. Many expect the author to go as far as seven books before finally bringing the “Game of Thrones” story to its final end. Unfortunately, that won’t be before the HBO series surpasses his slow writing pace.