Game Of Thrones is in the news every second day and not necessarily for the right reasons. The HBO Hack, the leaked or untimely premiered episodes and more have certainly kept the show in the trending section. But frankly speaking my dear, I have stopped giving a damn about GoT or at least started to anyway. GoT seems to be on a fast track down the hill and no matter what it does, to me, it seems to have lost its former glory somewhere around season 4.
1. The Leaks Have Really Ruined The Fun
First and foremost I believe the reason behind this disgruntled feeling would the numerous leaks that GoT has experienced. And I am not just mentioning the recent ones that HBO has been saddled with but also talking about the previous ones.
The first 4 episodes of season 5 were leaked back in 2015, then while the death of Jon Snow was an epic cliffhanger and almost made me turn back to GoT, news leaked that Snow was not actually dead.
I am fine with fan theories, they are the fun part of being in a fandom, and considering how huge of a one GoT fandom is, there were some extremely interesting ones.
But it was the paparazzi confirmation of having spotted Harrington at the Game of Thrones sets that really burned out that flicker of interest I was regaining for GoT. The confirmation that Snow was not actually dead and will be back, instead of it just remaining a mere speculation of the fans was only something that re-confirmed how mainstream GoT was becoming.
Read More: Stop Leaking Game Of Thrones For F**k’s Sake; We Don’t Need Hackers And Their Pseudo Cyber Rebellion
2. Audience Have Gotten Used To GoT Antics:
Apart from the leaks, one thing that has also worked towards the decreasing interest in Game of Thrones would be the desensitized audience.
The audience is now so used to the antics of GoT that there are very few moments where we actually get shocked or surprised by the turn of events.
The last actually surprising scene from GoT I got was the fight between The Mountain and the Viper. The way the tables flipped and suddenly Oberyn Martell was killed was not just horrifying but completely unexpected.
Of course, the death of Tywin Lannister was extremely interesting the watch, but while it lacked the surprise factor, I mean, we all knew it was coming, but the manner it was done in was extremely gratifying to watch after all the torture Tywin had lain on Tyrion.
Along with that, I would also add that according to me the reason why the first few seasons were so successful besides the novelty of the show was also the fact that the storylines were pretty concentrated on a select few houses. There was the Stark house, the Lannisters, the Dothraki, and such. Not that there weren’t other storylines and characters besides them, but the center stage was given to just these limited houses and fleshing out their storylines and character dynamics.
This allowed us, as a viewer to, better connect with the characters, their storylines, their internal struggles and more. Which further enhanced the viewing experience seeing as how we as an individual were also invested in the plot.
But with later seasons, killing of many fan favourites, bringing in of new characters that were either there for a shock murder (yes, I made up the term) or just not interesting enough due to not getting enough screen time and being a question mark for the viewer, the interest from the plot itself seemed to slowly dissipate.
Also speaking of shock murder, the viewer by the 3rd season at least had a fairly good understanding of who is safe and who isn’t. We pretty much know that there are a couple of characters that are going until the end. Jon Snow, Tyrion, Daenerys, Cersei, Arya are probably going to last until the end and maybe Jaime and Sansa though they could just be killed either in this season’s finale or early next season, again as a shock factor.
3. It Feels As If The Show Itself Is In A Hurry To End
This season has especially cemented the fact for me that maybe, just maybe even Game of Thrones has had enough of Game of Thrones and wants to be done with it all as soon as possible.
This could explain the flurry of characters being suddenly brought in, new teams being formed like that of Jon Snow, Gendry, the Hound, Beric Dondarrion, Thoros of Myr and Jorah Mormont all going on the mission to find an ice zombie. While the group itself is quite interesting, it felt as if we the viewer were automatically supposed to know beforehand the group dynamics and the reasons behind their conflicts.
No explanation, no time to build up, that let us know what the reasons behind the conflicts were. Just a brief glimpse of them and then off they were smooshed into a closet and the door closed shut.
The show also seems to be focusing more on the effects and finally using the ‘dragons’ to their fullest rather than giving good screen time to all these plethora of characters that are being dumped on us.
They do give us a few jolting in our seat kind of scenes, like the Battle of Meeren when Drogon, Vicerion, and Rhaegal all burned down the slave ships. Or the recent one in 7×04 the Battle of the Lannister army and the Dothraki and Drogon was just a visual spectacle to watch.
But these scenes are few and far in between and will soon lose their novelty.
I believe I must stop now otherwise there will be no end to why Game of Thrones is slowly going downside and losing the edge it used to have. But these were just a few reasons why this is happening.
Image Credits: Google Images
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