In March of 2010, HBO announced it had greenlit a new series based on George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. A year later, in 2011, the Harry Potter film series came to an end, leaving HBO’s Game of Thrones as the leading source of fantasy entertainment for an entire legion of fans.
Immediately, the show became a massive cultural phenomenon. Every Lord of the Rings and the newly young adult Harry Potter fans jumped onto the Game of Thrones bandwagon – and for a good reason: the series was amazing, earning rave reviews left and right. It would be safe to say that the first four seasons of Game of Thrones were primetime television at its best.
Then, the first cracks began to show. The Dorne saga, the conclusion of Stannis’s arc… Suddenly, Game of Thrones wasn’t as infallible. As the show grew larger and more ambitious, so did the expectations of fans.
Why Game of Thrones Made Fans Believe No Character Was Safe
One of the qualities that made Game of Thrones feel unlike any other television show was that feeling that no character – no matter how beloved they were – was ever truly safe. It was always a running gag to kill a central Stark in every season of the show. Still, fans quickly realized that you shouldn’t have favorites in a show like Game of Thrones.
Even shows like South Park parodied Game of Thrones’ fascination with killing off main characters. Unfortunately for the showrunners, fans weren’t all too happy seeing their favorite characters being unceremoniously disposed of. Whenever a central character kicked the bucket, fans were quick to voice their displeasure, which was an early sign that, no matter which characters lived or died at the end, not everyone would be pleased by Game of Thrones’ conclusion.
How Game of Thrones Created One of the Most Divided Fandoms Ever
The fandom had spent nearly a decade crafting intricate, competing theories. Because these factions wanted mutually exclusive endings, Season 8 was destined to become a battlefield. If Jon took the throne, Dany fans would riot; if the White Walkers won, everyone else would.
The worst part is that there was no way to escape the bitterness of the finale. When a series amasses those high expectations and becomes such an iconic cultural landmark, there’s no way to please everyone. The fandom knew this from the start. The series debut was also what shaped today’s culture of extremely vocal online fandoms – the sort we’re seeing, right now, voicing their worries about the upcoming Harry Potter reboot series. That’s right, we’ve come full circle now.
It would be too easy to say that fandoms have become endless battlegrounds, but the reality remains that, once in a blue moon, their constructive criticisms can push showrunners to come up with better ideas.
It was the DC fandom that pushed for the Snyder Cut, and now, the disgruntled Game of Thrones fans have the spectacular A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms to enjoy. It just goes to show that, sometimes, even insufferable crowds can usher in some progress – even if they can be a bit, let’s say, obnoxious about it.
