‘Game of Thrones’ Haters Explain Why They’re Glad the Show Is Ending
Credit to Author: Nicole Clark| Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2019 16:16:52 +0000
The final season of Game of Thrones is finally coming. April 14 marks the start of season eight, which will give fans 432 minutes of political intrigue, dragons, and bloodthirsty brutality. (The finale will be 2 hours, and luckily you can record it if you need to pee in the middle.)
Since its premiere back in 2011, the fantasy show has been practically unavoidable in popular culture—you can’t even log onto The Internet or walk into a Shake Shack without encountering a mercenary amount of discourse or being given the option to order a burger in Valyrian. And like any consumingly popular show, lots of people are thankful to finally see it end. Some are tired of keeping up with the storylines, others balk at the show’s frequent torture and sexual assault. For fear of being flayed, I will not divulge my allegiances, except to say that I have a very hard time stomaching gore, which has made watching Game of Thrones an endeavor pockmarked by hiding behind my fingers, running into another room, or rolling into the fetal position. But I reached out to fans and non-fans via social media to learn just why some of you are happy Game of Thrones is ending. Here’s what those people had to say:
“So I can stop pretending to be interested in various fan theories from people I didn’t want to host in the first place.” – Abbie, 25
“To be fair, the writers of GoT put themselves in the worst situation possible: stuck between ‘tits and dragons’ primetime TV viewers, and ‘the books were better’ pedants who no longer even have any books to ground their wildly unrealistic expectations. That being said, they have shit the bed spectacularly ever since the opening scenes of season 6 by failing to maintain even the most basic internal logic that made the show interesting in the first place. Even though I’ll feel a twinge of sadness to see it go, the truth is I said goodbye to GoT in 2016.” – Eric, 36
“I dislike Game of Thrones. So much sexual assault, and such questionable treatment of women. Not what I’m looking for in my fantasy. I love the actors, but especially in the early series the way women are treated is not something I want to watch for fun!” – Courtney, 24
“The most boring people in the country will have to find something new to fixate on, thank God.” – Harry, 32
“I like it, however the last season [season seven] was disappointing to the extreme. Hopefully the last season [season eight] will concentrate more in the actual ‘game’ and less in the fantasy aspect of the series.” – Demo, 49
“I don’t believe in escapism that delights in torturing women. It’s not escapist for me.” – Samantha, 24
“I am happy it’s ending because I no longer have to ‘break it’ to everyone I talk to that I’m not into it. I feel like my having this opinion always comes across like I’m trying to be an edgelord. The truth is I’ve watched it several times, and without fail, fall asleep 10 minutes into every episode. Dragons and blood aren’t exciting to me. My interest was only slightly piqued when it was revealed there is an entire sect of dickless people and their whole deal is that they’re dickless. But, they even found a way to make that dull.” – Sam, 29
“I’ve been over this show filled with white people and needless rape.” – Kelly, 25
“I love the show, but I’m ready to be done pretending like I remember all the characters’ names and who’s related to who. I don’t have the brain space for all those overlapping story lines and unusual names.” – Ryan, 24
“Holy hell, just send them all on a season of Survivor and let them fight it out there instead.” – Sue, 57
“I generally avoid shows with gratuitous sexual violence (especially when that violence is subjected on female characters to be used as a plot device for their male partners), so listening to my coworkers prattle on about it for the past few years has been a little grating.” – Nell, 25
“Hmm. I’m happy I suppose. I’m all for definitive endings, and it’s exciting to be present for the ending of something that has been so culturally omnipresent for almost a decade now (even longer with the books). It’s kind of the last ‘must-see’ TV show. And now it’s over and it feels good to move on. It’s definitely fun not to think about. My eyes start to glaze over when I encounter deep reddit galaxy brain GoT theories.” – John, 31
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This article originally appeared on VICE US.