TED talk on the Wars of the Roses, which inspired GoT

That title gave me a nerd boner

Love a good ted talk. Will check it out soon

I don't see it...

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And I don't mean that as a dis, it's a beautiful thing how he's woven all of those stories and themes together.and create this whole world that allows you to dive into.

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I do enjoy it, though he was pretty blatant regarding the War of the Roses. In real life, it was York vs Lancaster. In the book, it is Stark vs Lannister. The Lancasters won, though it was a junior branch of the family - Tudor. I have tried to see if I could suss out the ultimate victor in the Game of Thrones based on the War of the Roses, but the real War of the Roses did not have a Targaryen equivalent throwing a wrench in the whole thing.

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Now is the winter of our discontent
Made glorious summer by this sun of York;
And all the clouds that lour'd upon our house
In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

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ETA: John Snow knows something.

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Although by the way he has struggle to finish the books, he may have bitten off more than he can chew. He's got part A and part C down, it's getting from A to C that he's having issue with

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I have witnessed two very different writing processes in these highly successful fantasy writers. Robert Jordan, who wrote the Wheel of Time series, spent 10 years creating very detailed outlines of exactly what he wanted to happen. The detailed outline and reams of notes made it much easier for Brandon Sanderson to complete the series when he died.

GRRM, on the other hand, is much less structured. Like you said, he know what he wants to happen but doesn't know how to get there. He does not have a detailed outline of exactly what he wants to do. He starts writing and tries to figure it out as he writes. As a result, he wrote himself into a corner with Mereen in book 5. He even called it the Mereenese Knot. So if he dies before finishing, it will be much tougher for someone else to pick it up and finish as he intended.

Tywin Lannister is based, mainly, on Richard Neville, the 16th Earl of Warwick (22 November 1428 – 14 April 1471) - who was known for that period as "The Kingmaker". Ironically, he backed the Yorks (Starks), after originally backing the Lancaster (Lannister) King Henry VI - which is a twist Martin made to tell a better story.

Ned is loosely based on Richard of York, with elements of Richard III, Richard III's friend Francis Lovell and William Hastings thrown in.

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the real War of the Roses did not have a Targaryen equivalent throwing a wrench in the whole thing.

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That's just a little mixing up of the history to keep it interesting. The Targaryens are clearly the Norman invaders from the 11th Century. The "Andals" and the First Men are most likely the Germanic tribes - the Angles (from which the nation "England" and language "English" takes their names), Saxons and Jutes, as well as the Danes and the residue of the Roman occupation.

The Children of the Forest are most likely a mystical version of the primitives encountered by the early invaders, the pre-Roman British tribes, and/or a mystical version of some Celtic tribes.

That's just me spitballing. Obviously some things line up, while others do not. The Wall is Hadrian's Wall. Beyond the Wall is Scotland. It does not appear that Wales has a direct analogue (although some parallels with Dorne) - Dorne is a rotated Devon and Cornwall, but the folks are more exotic and Mediterranean than plain country farmers.

King's Landing is London. Winterfell is York. Some are obvious - others more subtle.

Pissed off dead things.

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I've said for quite some time that I see Daenerys as Queen Elizabeth I.

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I agree with some individual parallels, but Dany appears to lead Westeros' version of House Stuart - the King/Queen "Across the Water" - which followed Elizabeth I and the Tudors.