George R.R. Martin Feeling “Flexible” About Killing Characters

He’s making a list and checking it twice, and this is one list you don’t want to be on, whether you’re naughty or nice. Santa Claus lookalike George R.R. Martin used to be very picky about which of his Game of Thrones characters he would kill off.  Not any more. Recently he told an audience of fantasy readers that as the series is getting on he has “a lot more flexibility for killing people.”

Martin is not as concerned as he once was about leaving story threads dangling by removing key characters. He is currently putting the finishing touches to volume six of A Song of Fire and Ice, and characters that went their separate ways will be reunited. “The way my books are structured, everyone was together, then they all went their separate ways and the story deltas out like that, and now it’s getting to the point where the story is beginning to delta back in, and the viewpoint characters are occasionally meeting up with each other now and being in the same point at the same time, which gives me a lot more flexibility for killing people.” Apparently that means when he puts two key characters in the same room, one of them won’t get out alive. Fans can only speculate as to what that might mean for some of their favorite characters. As long as he doesn’t kill off loyal and chubby Samwell Tarly, one of the few truly decent people in the series. Martin wouldn’t be so heartless as to do that, would he?