I don't really care about the show (it's just not subject matter that interests me), but one of the podcasts to which I listen covers the show (among other things). Their complaint about the last few episodes of the show (at least as of last week) was that the showrunners were obviously working from outlines, and didn't have the rich depth of background material that is evident in the episodes based on the novels. I think they thought it was evident in the sudden, mostly inexplicable, transformation of a character from rational to insane (Denarys?); it sounded like the outline told them what was supposed to happen, but not why, which makes it difficult to write it convincingly.the author had provided outlines to HBO for the seasons he had not covered in the books, he did not provide an outline for the ending season, i have heard from my daughter who started reading the books the same time as i did, around 20 years ago, she stays on top of things so i tend to believe the author was not involved in the final season.