Let’s overanalyze George R.R. Martin’s latest cryptic message

SAN DIEGO, CA - JULY 25: Writer George R.R. Martin of "Game of Thrones" signs autographs during the 2014 Comic-Con International Convention-Day 3 at the San Diego Convention Center on July 25, 2014 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Tiffany Rose/Getty Images)
SAN DIEGO, CA - JULY 25: Writer George R.R. Martin of "Game of Thrones" signs autographs during the 2014 Comic-Con International Convention-Day 3 at the San Diego Convention Center on July 25, 2014 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Tiffany Rose/Getty Images)

It’s been a busy couple of days for Song of Ice and Fire fans. Most immediately, HBO dropped a teaser trailer for House of the Dragon, the Game of Thrones prequel series based on George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood. Matt Smith in a Targaryen wig! Dragons the size of a 747! The Iron Throne like you’ve never seen it before! It’s all there.

As if that wasn’t enough, George R.R. Martin himself had to chime in with a cryptic update on his Not a Blog. All he did was post one simple picture, but it was strange enough to catch our attention: it’s a picture of a human hand with eight fingers.

Why would he post this? What does this mean? Let’s speculate wildly.

George R.R. Martin and the mystery of the eight-fingered hand

You know what else involves the number eight? Game of Thrones, which had eight seasons. You know how many books Martin is planning to write in his Song of Ice and Fire series? Seven. But maybe now it’s eight. If you have a better explanation for this random picture of a eight-fingered hand I’d like to hear it.

Or maybe, considering that he marked his mood as “busy,” Martin is telling us that he’s so busy with various projects that he wishes he had more digits to work with. OR MAYBE, he’s hinting at how many Game of Thrones spinoffs are in development beyond House of the Dragon.

Or maybe he was trying to reference the six-fingered man from The Princess Bride and got his wires crossed. Or maybe it doesn’t mean anything and I’m so starved for news about the next book in his series, The Winds of Winter, that I’m reading into random images things that aren’t there. Probably that last one.

But hey, at least we have Game of Thrones-related things to busy our minds in the meantime:

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