It has been two and a half years since Game Of Thrones came to an end, and fans of the show are still unable to move past how it came to an end. After eight years of meticulous and incredible storytelling, GoT's final season felt rushed. Daenerys Targaryen went from powerful ruler to war criminal in the blink of an eye, and the Night King, who had spent eight seasons leading an army for thousands of miles, was killed by being stabbed in the gut.

New book Tinderbox: HBO's Ruthless Pursuit Of New Frontiers sheds some light on the internal struggle between those eager to bring GoT to an end, and those desperate for it to continue. George R. R. Martin, the author of A Song Of Ice And Fire on which GoT is based, would apparently fly to New York and beg then-HBO CEO Richard Pepler to extend the adaptation of his tales to ten seasons and 100 episodes.

RELATED: Daenerys Targaryen Makes It Hard To Care About House Of The Dragon

“George would fly to New York to have lunch with Plepler, to beg him to do ten seasons of ten episodes because there was enough material for it,” Martin's agent Paul Haas told Tinderbox author James Andrew Miller. Not only were Martin's pleas ignored and GoT instead ran for eight seasons, but the final two seasons were shorter than usual which meant the show stopped short at 73 episodes.

Martin wasn't the only one close to the project who thought the story needed a lot more time to be told. HBO's chief content officer Casey Bloys admits in the book that he would have loved season eight to have been longer. Or, even better, for there to have been two more seasons. Martin has even said in the past that he believed there was enough material for GoT to run for 13 seasons.

The decision to end the GoT TV show at a shortened season eight was made by showrunners Daniel Weiss and David Benioff. Haas says the pair were tired, although Bloys defends their decision and despite wanting more, he claims delivered they on their promise to fans and executed their vision for the finale. While the main series might be over, there is still more GoT to come on the small screen. The prequel series House of the Dragon is coming to HBO in 2022.

Source: Insider

NEXT: I Drank With Jinx And Stole Shimmer For Silco At Arcane: Enter The Undercity