This Game of Thrones hot take destroyed the internet
I don’t watch Game of Thrones. Not because I am trying to be edgy. Because it’s not for me. Fantasy is not my jam, nor are shows that are about big battles among factions or royalty or war. So, yea. But another reason I don’t watch it?
The fans.
[Well, some very specific type of fans.] Yea, fans ruin it. Maybe I am judgmental about being that like something too much. This coming from someone who loves popular culture so much that I got a graduate degree in it. But to having a petition to remake it?
No. Nah. Stop.
This story, Fans’ reaction to Game of Thrones is a reminder that no one owes you the story you want, is spot on.
Just as “the death of the author” is used merely as cover to talk extensively about authorship while ignoring anything the author might say, discussion of television indulges in faintly ludicrous fan argot about the difference between “plotting” and “pantsing” (don’t ask), and deploys “deus ex machina” to mean “I was unpleasantly surprised”, pretending that there are rules about how stories must play out, rather than simply conventions about how they do. This faux-technical diagnosis is simultaneously couched in ethical terms, an attempt to condemn mere storytelling decisions as morally unsound as well as practically inept, asserting them to be objectively wrong in two senses.
If you watch Game of Thrones, this is an exciting time for you. You get to discuss something you love so much and connect with people over it. Pop culture brings people together. But be a grown up and don’t take action against the person who created it. Write a million think pieces. Complain on message boards. But “prestige” television is not transactional.
Speaking of thinkpieces, I love seeing the most think-piecy ones.
Count on The Intercept to do this one: The Rise of Game of Thrones Was Part of the Fall of America
Also, Scientific American reveals the REAL reason people hated the finale. It’s just science!