George R.R. Martin believes fans wrongly exaggerate his character-killing skills

Game of Thrones was infamous for killing off some of the best fan-favorite characters. These deaths helped to generate motive and a sense of revenge in the story. However, Game of Thrones author George R. R. Martin thinks that people wrongly exaggerate the frequency of deaths in his books and the TV show, and there are, in fact, a lot of shows and movies with a lot more kill count than his own.

In a recent interview with The Independent at the Santa Fe Literary Festival, Martin complained of how unfair it is to view him as a character assassin. He compared his works with Star Wars, and said, “Star Wars kills more characters than I do!”

“In the very first Star Wars movie they blow up the entire planet of Alderaan, which has, like, 20 billion people on it, and they’re all dead. But you know what? Nobody cares. Everybody on Alderaan is dead. Oh, OK. But we don’t know the people on Alderaan. We don’t feel their deaths. It’s just a statistic. If you’re going to write about death, you should feel it.”

Fans have often complained of their favorite characters dying on-screen on Game of Thrones. Do you think the accusation is fair? Talk to us in the comments below!