It’s Wednesday night, a full three days after the Game Of Thrones finale. By my calculations that’s a full 14 years in internet time. I get it. No one asked for this blog. Sorry, last GOT blog (I think).
So what happened? I’m not talking about the ending. I’m talking about everyone’s reaction to the ending. The majority of people seemed upset. So honestly I ask again, what happened? Was it actually bad? Was it actually good? I don’t even know anymore. What I do know is we got to a point of hype in which no one could judge it fairly. It’ll take some time. Then we’ll revisit it and maybe be able to pass a more level-headed judgement.
Expectations is what happened to GOT. There was a great line from the last episode – Love is the death of duty. Well I think expectation is the death of satisfaction. Game of Thrones honestly never stood a chance. Too many hardcore fans. Too many fans that binged over the last few months. A dangerous combination of past success, future hype, and a substantial hiatus between the last two seasons. In other words, the let down should have been… expected.
Here’s what annoys me though. And this point deals with expectations but in a manner a little deeper than just expecting to watch television gold unfold before your eyes. What I can’t stand is how fans expected certain things to go the way they saw fit. Certain plot lines to pan out in ways they imagined or had read about online. Certain characters to act in ways they would’ve liked to see. I guess that’s acceptable to expect from a normal show but it’s downright ludicrous to expect from Game Of Thrones. The show was built upon giving you what you don’t expect. It’s shocking to kill your main character and series protagonist in the first season. But you were delighted when they did it. And it was fine right? Because we still had that character’s son who was a mighty fine protagonist himself? Nope. Too bad he gets murdered too. And his mom. And his pregnant wife. At his wedding. Where the spread was probably shit too. Okay I added that last one but come on already!
The unexpected is what kept you around for 8 seasons so don’t you dare tell me you wasted your time because the ending wasn’t what you…expected.
