Mad Queen Dany is probably not a show original thing and most fans I know hated their "qween" went vengeance fueled tyrant, so he knows he's gonna get backlash for it.
Tbf thats easily the thing I have the least problem with in that ending. Its a bit too sudden, but in the books (and in the show too) seeds for Mad Queen Dany have been planted so as long as it developes organically it could easily be her story's end.
The biggest issues is how the show's ending either skips or wipes away tons of character developement to get to where it wants to go, and then the largely non-sensicle decisions such as Bran becoming King.
For most decisions the final 2 seasons make I could come up with a reasoning why they happen (though I disagree with some of them), but basically all of them are rushed for no reason, or feel like just retreading old ground due to lack of creativity.
And then of course there is all the stuff they left out of the show that is likely could play a role in the books. Like I could see Euron stealing one of Dany's dragons instead of killing it for example. Not that the books are ever coming out.
No, it si pretty sure that books will end different, because they already differs from the show (or rather, show differed from them) in very important ways. Like, there are whole big factions which were not represented in the show. There is whole army led by the boy who declares himself Aegon (brother of Daenerys). Euron Greyjoy in show was ribauld simpleton pirate allied with Cersei, in books he is cunning sorcerer who has some much bigger ambitions and is collecting fragments of the occult knowledge from across the world. In general, in later books magical elements become more and more important - something which showrunners disliked and they wanted to keep show as mundane as possible. It is assured that in the books endboss is supposed to be magical (be it White Walkers or Euron or both), not Cersei.
I suspect that big parts of the show's ending were more or less what Martin had in mind. The terrible reception has made him gun-shy and ultra-critical of the work he has already done.
Combine that with the fact that he can do anything he wants, and he finds writing other stuff a lot more enjoyable, and the delay makes a lot of sense. He's probably written and thrown out a lot of material, and he's supremely discouraged and bitter (at both himself and his fans). The motivation to finish the series is all negative, rather than writing for the joy of it, which makes the output worse, which feeds into the discouragement.
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u/LemonFizz56 6h ago
More like - the show ended the way he was planning and everybody hated it so now he's pouting