What has Game of Thrones’ final season showed us about our generation
Game of Thrones is undoubtedly one of the biggest TV shows of all time. With an average of 17.3 million same-day viewers and about 43 million viewers per episode, the last season of HBO’s massive hit has just ended. And what an ending it was.
Never before in history have we witnessed such a level of borderline mass hysteria over a television run.
Game of Thrones books series’ fans all over the world repeatedly berated the showrunners David Benioff an D. B. Weiss going as far as starting an online petition (that has presently gotten over 1.2 million signatures) for the remake of season 8 with different writers.
It reads:
“Remake Game of Thrones Season 8 with competent writers.
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have proven themselves to be woefully incompetent writers when they have no source material (i.e. the books) to fall back on.
This series deserves a final season that makes sense.
Subvert my expectations and make it happen, HBO!”
Now — in my book — “woefully incompetent” is a pretty harsh statement and I won’t even try to make sense of what “subvert my expectations” might mean. It all just fells very, very aggressive.
I get that people who invest a lot of time in a franchise might feel frustrated. It happened to me when Disney took over Star Wars. It is also the reason I NEVER read fan fiction: I just don’t want someone ruining something I’ve learned to love and cherish. But what it feels is going on here is just a whole other level of frustration and it speaks stones about our generation: we just can’t be turned down.
A few years ago, another popular TV show had its mains character killed on its last episode: on September 29, 2013, Walter White left our fictional world of Breaking Bad in one of the most heavily acclaimed episodes of all times, Felina. A lot of people back then thought it was long coming (which may also be true in the case of Dany Targaryen’s flip out) but a lot of people hated it too. Would you imagine the creators redoing that episode to make those people happy too?
I mean, why do we feel entitled to have the actors and crew come back for a whole other season worth of shooting with zero regards to their personal agendas and — really — their lives?
Now, we all know that the showrunners decided to shorten the last two seasons in order to make the most of their shooting time: less episodes meant they would have more time (and budget) to focus on each episode. We knew it could mean they’d rush the story out so they could do it and, in all seriousness, this is still a business. More shooting time would mean more money, work and dedication from all parts involved, including actors who usually have other projects and really just want a rest after having given nine years of their lives to the same part.
Nine. Years.
…
Which reminds me of poor old George R. R. Martin.
George R. R. Martin — the mastermind behind the whole story — has been working on the books since 1991. That’s twenty-eight years.
Twenty-eight. Years.
Yet, whenever mister George shows up on interviews the one question he’s asked is “when are you going to finish the *insert a swear word* books?”
I think it’s safe to say he is pretty tired of being asked that. As it is safe to say that we, Game of Thrones’ fans may be a bunch of spoiled brats who won’t stop hating until we get what we think we deserve and not what the people who actually DO the thing we love so much are giving us.
