Dear 'Chad' - An Unpopular Opinion About Game of Thrones and Creative Control

So there it is, the end of Game of Thrones. We sat through 73 episodes over the course of 8 years to watch the journey of the Starks, Lannisters, and Targaryens as they fought and schemed for ruling power over the 7 Kingdoms. Masterminded through a story by George RR Martin and presented to us by Showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, GoT has easily been one of the most ambitious shows to grace our small screens. And now it’s over.

However, I’m not here to talk about the ending of the show. Though I will say I think it ended exactly as it should have. Did anyone really want to see a happy ending with Daenerys sitting on the throne? More so, did everyone really expect there to not be a twist from expectation? It’s what GoT does. From the moment they lopped off Ned Stark’s head, it was kind of obvious this was a show that would not follow expectation.

I’m writing this more as a commentary on creative rights and to answer the question: as consumers, do we, the viewing public, have any right over how a story should be told? The answer, to the disappointment of at least a million people, is absolutely f*cking not. We don’t have the right to say ‘this is how the show should end’. By all means, make assumptions, tell people how you think it should end, and what should happen because a good story should spark discussion. But at no point does Chad from Florida get to say ‘well, Daenerys should be allowed to sit on the throne and rule it all . . . make it so!’. Let me rephrase, he can say it all he wants, but at no point is it going to happen.

​Stories are dictated by creators, and for better or worse, those stories may not match up to your ideal conclusion. This appears to be the case with Game of Thrones for a lot of people. So much so that before the show finished, a petition was started to ‘do-over’ season 8. That petition has over a million signatures. That’s a lot of Chad’s from Florida who were very upset that their vision was not realized.

As viewing public we can control certain things. We can control whether we watch or don’t watch. We can choose to invest time into the characters and the story, or we can choose to watch something else. Whether we’re happy about the outcome or not, it won’t change the ending because we do not have creative control and that is perfectly alright. If we lived in a world where we got everything we wanted, it would be a miserable unrealistic world. Endings are not always what we want them to be. Dexter, Lost, Seinfeld, True Blood, X-Files, Heroes . . . all had endings that most people didn’t think were good enough. But why exactly do we think we deserve to say ‘we want it re-made’?

​We can give an episode a negative review, and that’s fine. Maybe it didn’t resonate with you, maybe it failed your expectations, and maybe you, Chad, want to share how upset you are about it all. That’s okay. That’s why we have the internet (that and to watch cute puppy/kitty videos and order our groceries online). But to ask that an entire season be re-made because you’re not happy about it is possibly the most rude and disrespectful thing you can say (read Misery by Stephen King for additional context). The showrunners, cast, crew, writers, producers, HBO, and everyone else involved with the creation of this show deserve better than a bunch of Chads sitting in front of their computer or on the their phone and demanding that they re-do the show they’ve worked tirelessly at for 8 years.

Counter-argument from Chad - “If I order a steak at a restaurant and it isn’t cooked to my satisfaction, I’ll send it back!” Solid point Chad, thanks for joining the convo. However, you steak didn’t cost several million dollars and thousands of people around the world didn’t spend months creating your steak. Thanks, Chad, go back to your oddly-colorer furniture and your pet chinchilla (probably called Drogon).

As an author and a creative person, I’m happy to accept negative reviews. Stories are subjective and you can never please everyone. However, if someone told me to re-write a story to suit them I’d just laugh, and laugh, and laugh, because it’s my story, and not theirs. I hope they’ll come along for the ride, I hope they’ll enjoy it, I hope they might even learn something. But it’s still my story and creators of any type shouldn’t have to bend their imagination to suit the wills of others.

So get over yourself, Chad. Game of Thrones Season 8 will never be re-made and it’s even less likely that Martin will bother finishing the final book(s). Love or hate the ending, try and appreciate the amount of hard work and dedication that went into the creation of the books, and the transition of those books from page to screen. It’s no easy feat, and it should be applauded, not dragged through the mud by opinionated audiences who think they know better.

​Now . . . bring on the new Lord of the Rings TV Show so we can complain about something else.