Okay so…the tea.
At the end of May, shortly after the end of the show, an upset, anonymous JB shipper messaged GRRM and was lucky to receive a response. We didn’t believe it at first. My friend (who also wishes to remain anonymous) asked for a screenshot of the email and her inbox for proof. The JB shipper showed the email to my friend and after doing some research, yup, it checked out. It hasn’t been shared until now because of many reasons, but I was bursting at the seams this entire time.
CONTEXT
The person who emailed GRRM is a JB SHIPPER. We don’t have a screenshot of exactly what she wrote because there was a lot of personal information. We tried reaching out to get a screenshot of the Jaime and Brienne content, but it seems like she’s no longer in fandom. BUT we have a general description of what she told him. She was displeased with the treatment of Jaime and Brienne, so she wrote about her personal struggles and why she related to the characters, particularly Brienne. She mentioned that she wasn’t going to accept the show’s ending for them, because the messages associated with that endgame were upsetting and nihilistic, and she was looking forward to an ending that was more inspirational and hopeful for that pairing.
That’s what we know.
What we THINK is that she mentioned the dream, because he randomly references it in the email, so I believe the first part about “your analysis” is in reference to her dream interpretation. Considering she’s a JB shipper, and from what I remember, her dream interpretation and analysis of the characters aligns with the average JB shipper: foreshadowing Jaime and Brienne being a romantic couple, Jaime outliving Cersei, Brienne outliving Jaime, Brienne’s light being symbolic of carrying on the Lannister legacy, etc. (I have a slightly different interpretation than she does, but I’ve seen her mention these points in the recent past).
THE EMAIL
The email retyped because it’s blurry af and
“Let me say this much –– your analysis is close to the truth. The butterfly effect was at work since the earlier seasons… and it changed some storylines more than others. If truth be told, I’m to be blamed for this too, because I had a load of work and I had to gradually step down from my duties after the forth season to concentrate on Winds. I haven’t read the scripts of the last two seasons. And I wasn’t exactly a fan of sacrificing some characters and stories at the expense of others… but I do need to mention that it was also an issue beyond the writing room and creative process.
The priority of a television network giant is rarely the story and the messages it gives. The desire of David and Dan (and HBO) to focus on actors like Peter and Lena is understandable. Sometimes certain scenes are written only for actors or for their memorability. And it’s not a bad idea to end a TV show which is well known for a controversial incest scene, with another memorable scene of the incestuous twins… it’s an ending. It makes sense in this medium, because it’s a medium that mainly relies on the memorability of imagery. A finale which brings two or three main actors together is more powerful. It’s a different animal when you are only dealing with characters, and not actors. The power of the ending in a book relies on the emotions which the words and the story itself convey.
I feel for you and understand your concerns, but I think you will be more satisfied with the books’ ending. Imagine that the books are the show are two parallel universes. There are two Briennes, two Jaimes, two Cerseis. Have you watched Sliding Doors? Sometimes taking a different path changes everything. Have you noticed that the dream might have more than one potential ending? Is Jaime’s ending in the show necessarily “wrong”? Can’t it be an ending which was the result of choices made and paths taken (by more than one character)? What if Jaime caught the train in one universe and missed in the other? Just food for thought…“
How we know it’s not a fake:
The writing style is nowhere close to how she writes.
The inbox is legit.
We verified the email address through westeros.org. Apparently there is a place called So Spake Martin that has email conversations, and other interactions, between fans and GRRM. He had an older email and the one she used is his most recent one, which has been active for a couple of years I believe. I tried emailing them, asking if they still take submissions for GRRM emails, so we’ll see.
This is one reason why I knew HBO and the writers were propping up certain actors and how some arcs (JAIME’S) were sacrificed and how they were shady af and LOOK AT ALL THE RECENT TEA THAT HAS BEEN SPILLED.
We had this email BEFORE GRRM did that recent interview, where he’s mentioning the show and books being “alternate realities” and all of that. He literally verified the email and we were dying. Proof that we had seen the email and were discussing it before the interviews? (Read from the bottom up. You can see me bothering my friend to show me the email lmao. She shared it with me in June.) Also, the date on the email itself is blurry, but it’s there.
MY INTERPRETATION OF THE EMAIL
So… he’s confirming that the twincest end is a show!only creation LOL.
“Your analysis is close to the truth.” He’s saying this to a JB shipper, most likely in reference to her analysis of the dream.
The JB shipper emailed him, SPECIFICALLY TALKING ABOUT JAIME, BRIENNE, AND CERSEI. THAT’S IT. He’s literally emailing her to comfort her over Jaime and Brienne, and straight up saying that they had to sacrifice character arcs for certain actors (Peter and Lena). Because her email was specifically about Jaime and Brienne, he is speaking about their arcs being sacrificed.
To comfort her, he then explains why they decided to go with a twincest end. He’s literally saying, “IN THIS MEDIUM it makes sense” because “memorability” and “imagery” and politics. And then he’s like, “NOW FOR BOOKS we don’t need to worry about that bullshit”
He then tells her -a JB shipper- that she’ll be more satisfied with the book ending. He then goes on to explain about the parallel universes, saying there are TWO BRIENNES, TWO JAIMES, AND TWO CERSEIS, and that the show’s ending isn’t “wrong” because it’s a parallel universe (meaning, DIFFERENT FROM HIS UNIVERSE, WITH THE SECOND JAIME), affected by the butterfly effect because “sometimes taking a different path CHANGES EVERYTHING”
Emphasizing again that second paragraph, because he’s saying THE END WE GOT makes sense FOR THAT MEDIUM because of imagery, memorability, and business. He mentions bringing a few actors together for THE SHOW’S FINALE because of it being visually powerful.
Literally all of his explanations about the end are about WHAT WORKS FOR TV, not what works for a narrative, implying that if you’re going by a narrative, it would be done differently, which is why he then segues into talking about books and how the emphasis is different so your ending isn’t driven by what’s visually pleasing and what actors need screen time. “It’s a different animal when you are only dealing with characters, not actors.” What he described is that on the show they brought three big actors together for the reasons mentioned, and to do that they needed to sacrifice Jaime’s arc, and even sacrifice Cersei to an extent, so they could have a good twincest aesthetic, since they built a reputation on that controversial incest scene back in S1E1. They leaned on the power of the visual instead of the narrative, and giving Peter his Emmy crying moment. And yes, when GRRM is talking about sacrificing character arcs, he’s speaking about Jaime’s arc because again, CONTEXT. Her entire email was about Jaime and Brienne and how the ending of Jaime ditching Brienne and running back to Cersei bothered her, and then he goes right into Jaime’s ending and trying to rationalize it FOR A SHOW.
As for the movie Sliding Doors, I’ve never seen it, so I can’t really comment on it. My friend says, “it’s a romantic comedy that alternates between two storylines, showing two paths the central character’s life could take depending on whether or not she catches a train. There’s some overlap in the two storylines, but she stays in a bad relationship in one version, and finds a healthy relationship in the other. She dies in one version, and lives in the other.”
And… I see where he’s coming from in his explanation, and I know he’s playing nice, but I disagree about it making sense, because they still could have made it GOOD and consistent while having imagery, memorability, and sticking to the business plan like any other good quality television show so never in a million years will I defend that ending but WHATEVER.
The point is, JB AND JC WILL HAVE DIFFERENT ENDGAMES IN THE BOOKS AND THAT’S THE TEA.