I’ve noticed something.
So season 6 of Game of Thrones is pretty close to starting. Usually the start of a new Game of Thrones season brings with it an ocean-load of hype and speculation.
This time? Not so much. Have we all gotten a little tired of Game of Thrones?
I’ve had a couple of people give me reasons for this.
1. Season 5 was a bit poo poo.
2. Season 6 is the first time the books are truly behind on a number of storylines.
3. Just general fatigue with the show — happens to most long-running shows.
I wanted to ask you all — are you still excited about Game of Thrones? Are you over it?
Comments
40 responses to “Off Topic: Game Of Thrones”
After the Dawn Service we’ll convene back at our place to watch before the footy, the majority are more excited by the footy if I’m honest.
There’s still some character arches I’m interested in, just not all of them.
Excited af.
I honestly couldn’t tell you where I’m up to.
Game of Thrones was always a show that I binged after the season ended. I typically used people going nuts on Twitter as a reminder to do that. At some point my reminder failed and I have never felt in the mood to go back and catch up.
I had a similar issue with the books. I reached a point where it felt like nothing was progressing. Instead there were a bunch of things that had to happen in later books but hadn’t been set up properly in earlier ones. It felt like a slog so I stopped reading.
A lot of these problems seem to come from the story’s structure. It started with a handful of storylines that felt like they were going to come to a head and instead they diverged, leaving us with overflowing with plots that didn’t appear to have any meaningful direction.
I’m sure there are people out there that think that I’m entirely wrong. They may be right but I simply have more interest in going back and watching the first few seasons than finding out what happens next.
Currently watching every episode again in preparation for Season 6. No fatigue here.
honestly, I was over it after season 3.
& season 4 was too crowded with characters & sub plots. trying to fit 46 separate stories into each 1 hour episode means each plot gets 5 mins per episode. cant do much in 5 mins.
end effect is not much actually happens in each series for 8 episodes, then half the cast suddenly die in episode 9, then episode 10 sets up another series when nothing much happens for 8 episodes.
I think it doesn’t help that season 5 was rather weak, As a book fan, I was extremely disappointing with how the Dorne arc was handled (Doran Martell is hands down one of my favorite characters in the book).
It certainly doesn’t help that the supposed “cliffhanger” with Jon Snow is going to have the most obvious resolution, This is mainly due to the fact that, despite the show’s “anyone can die” mentality, Jon Snow is one of two characters who has plot armor that is 6 inches thick.
Totally agree with you: I was really waiting for Dorne – it could have shone with great acting and an exciting story arc (I really enjoyed it in the books) but was completely bland in the series and the characters were unremarkable (while in the books they weren’t).
Also, it annoys me to have the HBO version of the plot coming up first – it’s almost impossible to avoid GoT spoilers so we’ll all become aware of their version of the story even if we don’t wan to, and meanwhile I want the book to be where I find out about the big plot points.
Completely agree. What surprises me is that in the show, there has been no mention of Maester Marwyn, and the events of the last episode have potentially torpedoed Doran’s “master plan” arc.
By god I hated how they handled the Dorne arc, Doran’s actor wasn’t given a chance with such little screen time, but the way they handled the sandsnakes was legitimately some of the worst television I have ever watched (I mean who on earth writes “You want the good wife but you need the bad pussy” into anything other than a poor quality porno, and that it came from some of the most interesting characters in the books at that point just made me die a little inside). I’m not sure if I even want to watch it at this stage, but because it’s guaranteed to be spoiled I feel like I have to, I’m almost resentful of the show now, despite for the most part being really high quality TV, just because they so thoroughly butchered my favourite part of the book. The whole of the last season just left a bad taste in my mouth.
I’m still pretty excited for it.
If there’s a lack of excitement I think it’s more to do with the fact that it’s so long between seasons. We get 1 season a year and it’s only 10 weeks long. Then there’s 42 weeks in between of absolute nothing when we all go and watch other shows and do other things. Now it’s getting close the excitement is building again, and once it actually gets underway and there are episodes to watch and discuss and look forward to, I think the hype train will get up and runnning again. Unless the new season sucks, of course.
Not excited. The last season really made watching it unfun.
First year that I don’t care about spoilers
SO EXCITEMENT!!!
I think it’s because the show has finally caught the books.
This is the first year where book fans aren’t smugly saying “I knew this was coming” and show-only fans aren’t screaming “DON’T TELL ME WHAT HAPPENS YOU FUCKS.” Everyone’s in the same boat, the war is over, and therefore the smug free media has stopped.
Also, it’s fucking impossible to watch it legit here in Australia, without having to fork out almost a hundred bucks. I think the US might be a little more hyped.
That said, I’m keen! Just trying to figure out the best way to watch it.
If I didn’t have Foxtel for the sport (and my wife is happy ’cause she gets her murder shows… she’s bloodthirsty…) then yeah, what a pain it would be.
This is definitely a big part of it. Last year there was this anticipation over “omg what’s going to happen with the whole Jon Snow thing and the wildlings and Sansa and Dorne?” and then those things played out a little bit differently than we’d hoped and everyone got deflated. We’re now in charted territory so there’s very little to talk about until the episodes start airing. I guarantee we’ll see a massive surge in interest following the season premiere this weekend.
Because Foxtel is so adamant to dictate when and how you watch GoT, I’ve watched a grand total of 1 episode.
If I cant be up to date with the watercooler conversation, theres no rush to see it. So I’ll do like I did with other shows like Breaking Bad, and buy the lot as a box set when its done.
Its not like theres nothing else to watch.
Really looking forward to it. It will be interesting now that they are past the books.
I’m actually avoiding the tv show now that it’s caught up to the books. While the show is fun to watch I’ve always preferred the fuller/more developed stories the books tell. I don’t want that experience diluted by the tv show.
At the end of Book/Season 3 I begun treating the books and the show as two separate entities. As a result, I have managed to avoid the resentment that I often feel when the screen adaptation bungles the story line right up.
So when Jon Snow happened, rather than rage about how it made almost no sense, I instead focused on the fact that the show has its own personality and shouldn’t be compared with the books.
So in that vein, bring on Season 6 😀
I feel with all the great television shows now at our disposal Game of Thrones has just been left behind and forgotten. With shows like Vikings were there is so much action in each episode and doesn’t seem to have the slow pace as GOT, so many other shows that are easier to watch. But that being said would love to have closure on the where the series ends up.
Thanks for the laugh.
No problems.
True comedic genius.
We’re laughing because Vikings is a great show, right?? Hahaha, yes I love it too!
The assertion that GOT has been ‘left behind’ because of Vikings is simply comical, I’m sorry. GOT is a pop culture phenomenon with stratospheric ratings. Vikings is, by comparison, very much a niche show.
Just to be clear I am talking about my own preferences not everyone else. I know its super popular and great but for me it has been left behind. No assertion at all just my feelings.
Got too hard to watch it legitimately during release, couldn’t be bothered paying specifically for the privilege of watching it late (conversation’s long gone by that point anyway), so just watched other things on Netflix instead.
Still haven’t seen season 5, and feel rather eh about ever bothering.
I’m interested to see how this season pans out, but I believe with book readers still hanging out for the new one (years after show started production) and the yearly breaks between seasons that it’s hard to keep this hype train rolling.
I was only interested in the first season, and even then it didn’t impress me at all.
yeah, no, i’m ampted. still enjoy it greatly, if for nothing else than not knowing who and when someone will be killed off unexpectedly.
Def think Snowy will be back, I suspect he will come back and be new king of the wildlings, displace all the nights watch, and guard the wall with the wildlings.
Waiting for the books and keeping my head underground, sad to say.
I’m very excited, however the bigger issue I’m having at hand is HOW i’m going to watch it.
The monopoly game HBO have built around this TV series is absurd:
Watching on Foxtel is out of the question as their blood suckers and I refuse to acknowledge them as even an option.
HBO Now would be great but they’ve clamped down on Australians trying to access it.
Sigh.
I’d really like to pay HBO, if only they would let me.
I think it’s confirmation bias on your part Mark, I’m seeing the usual level of hype, along with cautious optimism that going beyond what’s currently written will allow the show to actually develop some plots meaningfully instead of treading water.
I’m personally pretty hyped for season 6. While season 5 had some truly awful moments, there was actually more going on than people give it credit for, and I think season 6 will have more development, but less issues with them trying not to tread on the established arcs of the books too much.
Watching Season 5 again in preparation. Will be interesting now that it will be all new territory.
Also, the producers have said that this is the best season yet by their mark. They admitted to usually a few weak episodes per season but think every single one here is top notch.
Less than a week now!
I think the fact the show isn’t generating the same level of buzz due to a poor prior season may have something to do with the producers hyping the next season as the best evar!
But in fairness Im a bit of a cynic
I read this at least 2 months ago, so it wasn’t really a reaction to that. Either way, so far nothing has led me to believe they weren’t telling the truth.
I think the issue is that the hype never got turned off after S5! There hasn’t been any hype build up since it never died down. This has true to a certain extent for every season but so much more for this hiatus because of Jon Snow, catching up with the books etc.
No, its just confirmation bias. There’s plenty of hype for Season 6, and has been since Season 5 ended. The fan sites (watchersonthewall, winteriscoming etc) are constantly linking to this or that article on media sites talking about cast and crew interviews, speculation, trailer breakdowns, behind the scenes photos, etc. People have been frantically speculating about Jon Snow for the better part of a year. Spoiler photos have had people with long lens cameras crawling through shrubbery to take pictures of location shoots. There’s simply no reason to believe that there’s less hype.
Not all uncharted territory, the books have delved into the greyjoy’s story arc for sometime and I do believe the show is going to show alot more of the iron isles this season. Am I excited for season 6…..no not at all, Am I excited for the next book hells yes!
As a huge cynic and someone who’s been increasingly angry with how the show has been going I just want to say that by god leave Jon Snow dead. That is all.