No. You’re not. You really don’t need to keep asking every year when a new series comes on. But don’t worry! This is the last season of Game of Thrones! Loads of people it seems from my social media claim they “haven’t seen a single minute” of the HBO show Game of Thrones and do you know what? No one cares. The fans of the show don’t care that you haven’t seen it, nor do the actors, directors, writers or anyone involved in the show. No one cares that you haven’t seen it. Finally, your question has been answered!
However, every time I see this I can’t help but feel those that aren’t fans are trying to get the upper hand for something. It’s like being at school, when you like something and then it becomes “mainstream” so it’s much more edgy and cool to say how much you fundamentally disagree with something that a lot of people like. It feels a bit juvenile. A bit like you’re trying to make fun of the fans of the show. A bit like it’s way too geeky or nerdy for you. You don’t have to like it. No one is forcing you to like it. No one is coming up to you and holding your eyes open and face directly in front of the screen to make you watch something that is not your thing. So you really don’t need to keep asking if you’re the only one. I’m sure there are many, many more people that have never seen an episode or read one of the books. They just don’t feel the need to imply that they are above everyone else that enjoys it. Because that is exactly how it comes across.
I could go on and on about how much I don’t enjoy daytime TV, any reality celebrity programme, most chart music, prawns, sitting at a table with my back facing the restaurant but it’s such mundane, irrelevant stuff that no one really cares about.
I’ll admit that this probably comes across as a bit like I do care and need your approval for the type of things I enjoy watching but since I woke up this morning all I’ve read is people saying “Is it just me that has never and will never, ever watch Game of Thrones?” that it’s just got on my nerves and made me feel a bit belittled for enjoying a TV show. It’s just too much negativity for an early Monday morning in the Easter holidays. I totally understand that if annoyed or angry or frustrated you are eight times more likely to complain or talk about something than if you enjoy it. But I don’t get it. I don’t get this sort of weird dislike for show that people who haven’t watched it, and never plan to watch it, want to keep banging on about how they “MUST be the only person that has never seen a second of Game of Thrones.”
So for those of you that haven’t seen it, that’s fine. You do you and enjoy whatever you like watching. But the snide comments are really not needed to make those that like and enjoy the really successful show are so unnecessary.
To clear a few misconceptions though – because there are PLENTY of misconceptions about a fantasy drama show – it’s not all boobs and sex and blood and dragons. It’s actually a lot of very good writing. It is fantasy, so if you don’t like that sort of thing, you’re probably not going to enjoy it. But it also really digs deep into relationships between families, people, the underdog coming through, expectations, class divides and war. It is emotionally driven and there are a lot of scenes and episodes that bring all the feels. It isn’t afraid to do the unexpected – which happens frequently but especially every penultimate episode. Episode 9 of the first six series has always been a hard hitting, shocking and emotional episode. It’s also acted really well and there are some beautiful filming locations.
And I really am a mega fan too. I’ve read the books, I have the audiobooks (although the voice acting is questionable), I have the extra books that talk through the history of the world George R.R. Martin has created. I hope, one day, I’ll get to read how it ended as well as watching and as much as I wish I had been able to read all of the books first, I’m looking forward to diving back into that world again. I’ve scoured fan theory reddit forums and watched fan made prediction videos on YouTube. My family have actual in depth conversations about the episodes, what we think is to come and discussing theories and possibilities.
We are going through a bit of a shit time in the world right now with the Tories, Brexit, low employment rates, the crisis and shambles of the NHS, cuts in schools, poverty, a million families using food banks to feed their families, all of the issues with Universal credit, global warming, plastic in the ocean and that’s just a scratch on the surface of the fundamental global problems that are existing right now. So maybe having a little bit of escapism in a world that (isn’t real) is going through a worse crisis than we are (an army of the dead coming to kill them all lead by a king that can raise more dead as he kills and rides a dead dragon) isn’t such a bad thing is it? If it gives us 60 odd minutes of enjoyment once a week until the middle of May to make us feel a little bit better about what’s actually going on outside, then I am all for it.
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