George R.R. Martin Did Not Hold Back About Battlestar Gal...
A Song of Ice and Fire author George R. R.
What’s Happening
Breaking it down: A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.
Martin had some harsh words about the series finale of Battlestar Galactica, and he wasn’t shy about sharing them. Television Science Fiction Shows George R. (we’re not making this up)
Martin Did Not Hold Back About Battlestar Galactica By Danielle Ryan Feb.
The Details
21, 2026 8:00 pm EST SyFy When you’re telling an expansive story, it can be difficult to wrap everything up in a satisfying way and stick the landing. For every truly brilliant TV series finale , there are dozens that didn’t deliver for audiences, leading to plenty of TV show endings that the fandom still argue about to this day .
Among them is the ending of the science fiction reboot series “Battlestar Galactica,” which had a pretty divisive final season and ending, leaving many the fandom feeling bitter — including “A Song of Ice and Fire” author George R. The author has never been particularly shy about sharing his feelings, and in a blog post 2009 titled “Writing 101,” he bashed the ending of “Battlestar Galactica” pretty thoroughly.
Why This Matters
In his opening salvo against the finale, he wrote that it “looks like somebody skipped Writing 101, when you learn that a deus ex machina is a crappy way to end a story. ” “Deus ex machina” refers to a trope that originated in classic Greco-Roman dramas, where a god would appear at a convenient time to bail a character out of an otherwise hopeless situation. Since the actors playing the gods had to be lowered from above the stage on cranes, they were referred to as deus ex machina, or “a god from a machine.
The entertainment world moves fast, and this is a prime example.
The Bottom Line
Martin’s not wrong about the finale leaning on an ancient trope, but his sheer vitriol toward it is kind of funny given his own track record. Martin lashed out against a trope his own the fandom accuse him of HBO After briefly lamenting the ending of “Battlestar Galactica” on his blog, George R.
Is this a W or an L? You decide.
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