George R.R. Martin Says The “Internet Is Toxic” After Reaction To ‘Game Of Thrones’ Finale

George R.R. Martin has seen how brutal the internet can really be.

Season 8 of Game of Thrones ended in May 2019 and it left a lot of fans disappointed. Martin, the creator of the book series, saw the toxicity of the internet during the final season.

“The Internet is toxic in a way that old fanzine culture and fandoms  — comics fans, science fiction fans — in those days, was not,” Martin said on his recent appearance on Leonard Maltin‘s movie podcast. “There were disagreements. There were feuds, but nothing like the madness that you see on the internet.”

Fans were so outraged about the season finale that there was even an online petition to remake Season 8. The petition went viral with over 1.5 million signatures.

Martin has yet to share his thoughts on the final season of Game of Thrones, but has tried to calm down the backlash by publishing on his blog after the series finale aired, that not everything that went down on the HBO series would be similar to what he’s planning for his next two unreleased Thrones novels.

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“How will it all end? I hear people asking,” Martin wrote. “The same ending as the show? Different? Well… yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes. I am working in a very different medium than David and Dan [the TV show creators Benioff and Weiss], never forget. They had six hours for this final season. I expect these last two books of mine will fill 3000 manuscript pages between them before I’m done… and if more pages and chapters and scenes are needed, I’ll add them.”

Martin will also be producing a prequel series to Game of Thrones with showrunner Jane Goldman.