George R.R. Martin calls the fan response to ‘Game Of Thrones’ season 8 ‘toxic’

George R.R. Martin has responded to the divisive reaction to Game Of Thrones’ eighth and final season, calling the furious response from disappointed fans “madness.”

"The Internet is toxic in a way that the old fanzine culture and fandoms — comics fans, science fiction fans in those days – was not,” the Game Of Thrones author told the Maltin On Movies podcast. “There were disagreements. There were feuds, but nothing like the madness that you see on the internet."

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Game Of Thrones’ final six episodes were met with an underwhelming response by critics and audiences alike. In fact, the eighth season of the show scored just 58% on Rotten Tomatoes. In comparison, the second lowest score for the show was season one’s 91%.

During the interview Martin also joked that he expects teachers will grow to “hate” him, too, for introducing the world to the name Daenerys. "Kindergarten teachers are going to hate me, with the 'a' and the 'y,' when all these little Daeneryses start hitting school.”

But while Martin was clearly perturbed by how fans took to Game Of Thrones’ farewell, he is already well aware that he’ll probably never be involved with something quite so popular ever again.

"The scale of Game of Thrones' success has—reaching all over the world and invading the culture to [such an extent]—it’s not something anyone could ever anticipate, not something I expect to ever experience again.”

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Those involved in HBO’s upcoming prequels and spin-offs to Game Of Thrones will try and prove Martin wrong.

We’re still not exactly sure how many of these series we’re going to see. Martin previously revealed that five were in the works, but so far only one has been ordered to pilot, which was written by him and Jane Goldman (Kingsman: The Secret Service, X-Men: First Class) and will star Naomi Watts.