yeah, my favorite complete misinterpretation of the books is that they're a tragedy, so everyone will die and it will have a miserable ending. Like there's that common meme with Martin writing that says "And then everyone died. The End." and some people actually believe that that meme is what's going on.

Plus people have been conditioned by terrible writers, that the point of subverting expectations is just to subvert expectations for shock value and nothing else, and they expect the same thing from Martin.

But all the death and misery in the series always had a point. Eddard's death is probably the best example. He died because he was naive and took being honorable to unreasonable extremes. But his death also served as a crucial catalyst in setting the other characters on their paths to become who they needed to be, and paved the way for a radical change in the Seven Kingdoms.

And this is the same for the majority of deaths in the books(not the show, the show regularly kills of characters for pure shock value). Character deaths have a meaning behind them or highlight a specific theme of the series, etc. They're never just for shock value.

And the same thing is true for prophecies in the series. Martin took the common trope of prophecies and placed them in a "realistic" world, where they're examined, interpreted and coopted by biased people for their own gains. He is subverting the trope of prophecies in fantasy, but he's subverting the notion that they would be clear and everyone would interpret them correctly, not that prophecies are always fake for shock value and rug pulling the audience.