George R. R. Martin: Just Kidding, I Do Watch 'Game of Thrones'

We should really know by now that George R. R. Martin likes to toy with fans’ expectations; the authorial mastermind behind excruciating events like the Red Wedding is not someone to be trusted. Well, he’s delivered us a shocking twist again, this time by reassuring fans that he does indeed watch Game of Thrones.

Not only that, but he told EW that he doesn’t even remember saying that he hasn’t been watching the show’s seventh season.

The story that Martin has given up watching the series went viral on Wednesday, leading many to speculate that he either has no time for TV (he’s touring a lot) or that he’s deliberately throwing shade at the series, annoyed that it will finish his own story before he does.

But EW reports that Martin never said any such thing. The information seems to have come from interviews the author conducted in Russia at a fan convention, so a translation error could have caused media outlets to incorrectly report the news.

Or, you know, Martin is deliberately pulling a 180 to mess with us. Both seem plausible.

However, EW does report that Martin is behind on Season 7 after his jam-packed travels. It’s funny to think that he may be unaware of all of the latest plot twists in the story, but then again, he doesn’t place much stock in the television series’ choices. He considers his books to be an entirely separate entity.

“The book series and TV adaptation go their separate ways,” he told Metro on Monday. “On the screen characters are killed right and left. About twenty of them have died already, which are quite alive to me and will appear in a new book.”

The fact that he’s a few episodes behind isn’t too surprising. He can’t even be bothered to hurry along the book series that is his magnum opus, so he clearly runs on his own, indifferent schedule.

Overall, the news that he’s still (slowly) watching should be considered some sort of victory for the show: It hasn’t totally alienated its creator yet.