I must begin with a confession. I am someone who, as an active and contributing member of 21st century Western society, is distinctly in the minority in one key area - I do not watch Game of Thrones. As such, there has been an evermore confusing occurrence that has grown in severity over the last decade. Every so often, groups of friends, colleagues and associates will all start raving with a spittle-spouting frenzy about things called 'Westeros' and 'the Lannisters' and such. Naturally, when I voice my confusion as to what on earth they're jabbering on about they declare that I must be living under some kind of rock to remain unaware of 'the latest season of Game of Thrones'. However, when I describe to them that my abode is actually more of a sort of lean-to made from branches and an old anorak I found in the woods, and not in fact 'a rock', they usually quiet down.
All of this is to say that, we are currently in the midst of one of these such confusing times, where conversation focuses entirely on the stories of high-end power struggles between various maniacal despots - to provide us with escapist fiction from the everyday reality of living in a world dictated by the high-end power struggles between various maniacal despots.
Game of Thrones, season 8, the final season of the much acclaimed show, is drawing to a close this weekend. The final ever episode of one of the most celebrated television shows of all time is set to air this Sunday evening.
However, fans - in all their rabidity - have been voicing their ire at the perceived direction the show is going in, following the penultimate, and pre-penultimate, episodes of the show. This stems from the fact that, as George R.R. Martin has yet to finish the final book in the series, the show's writers - having overtaken the material in the books - have now had to start inventing storylines to contrive their own ending to the material. Naturally, given the potent combination of fandom, Twitter, and people clearly having extensive amounts of time on their hands, thousands of fans have made their dissatisfaction with the series known.
Indeed, a petition on Change.org, calling for HBO to remake the 8th season - perhaps to this individual's specific liking, assuming they have the capacity to create satisfying conclusions to complex storylines and character arcs that have been running for dozens of hours - has garnered over 400,000 signatures. The petition, titled 'Remake Game Of Thrones Season 8 With Competent Writers' demands that HBO ditch the current season of the show, on the cusp of airing the final ever episode of the show - and start the whole process again, of writing, filming and editing an entirely new concluding season of the show.
The author of the petition, a 'Dylan D.' writes,
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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!
The number of signatories on the petition has been rising rapidly and looks set to surpass its target of 500,000. The end result of so many people voicing their discontent at the fruits of thousands of hours and millions of dollars worth of labour from hundreds of people will no doubt be absolutely nothing.
