A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin was recently a guest on Leonard Maltin’s Maltin on Movies podcast, where he called the internet “toxic” (no argument here!) following the negative reaction to the Game of Thrones series finale. “The internet is toxic in a way that old fanzine culture and fandoms — comics fans, science fiction fans — in those days, was not,” he said. “There were disagreements. There were feuds, but nothing like the madness that you see on the Internet.” It’s this “madness” that led to “The Iron Throne” being voted a worst finale than “Last Forever: Part Two” from How I Met Your Mother, “Remember the Monsters?” from Dexter, and “The End” from Lost.

Speaking of Lost: in 2011, shortly before Game of Thrones premiered, Martin told the New Yorker that he “watched [Lost] every week trying to figure it out, and as it got deeper and deeper, I kept saying, ‘They better have something good in mind for the end. This better pay off here.’ And then I felt so cheated when we got to the conclusion.” He added, “I want to give them something terrific,” referring to Game of Thrones readers and viewers. “What if I f*ck it up at the end? What if I do a Lost? They’ll come after me with pitchforks and torches.” You might say Martin’s comments, which ended up on the internet, were… toxic, and Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof hasn’t forgotten them.

“I agree with you, George. And I remain a huge fan of your work,” Lindelof wrote on Instagram over the weekend. “That said, I’ve always wondered if you’d be House Stark or House Lannister… now I know it’s House Glass. Let’s stop throwing stones, shall we?” He then added the hashtags #TheNorthRemembers and #Turd, which are both Thrones references, sort of. Anyway, this unlikely feud can only end one way: with peace and understanding after Martin invites Lindelof over to his house to show him his extensive hat collection. Or maybe GRRM will write “who watches the Watchmen? Not me!” on his blog, I dunno.

At least we can all agree The Leftovers series finale? Perfect.

(Via Instagram)