Tag Archives: George R. R Martin

Will Game of Thrones Lose Fans?

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(Don’t read ahead if you are not up to date with the show. No spoilers for future episodes contained.)

I have heard numerous people this week cry out that they are only one character death away from never watching Game of Thrones again. This has caught my interest. I am one of those smug people who has read the books and likes to give people those all knowing grins whenever they cry outrage at a new twist. I kept reading the books after every setback, every shocking death. It actually only made me want more. 

However, I too was shocked at the end of the latest episode. I knew what was coming but I felt the same profound sense of loss that others felt. I can only tip my hat to the producers and applaud their ability to arouse such feelings in someone who knows what is going to happen. However knowing what is coming makes it easier for me to keep watching.

Those who are pulling their hair out at last weeks events and cursing to the old gods and the new have a right to be doing so. The show isn’t heart-breaking, it’s heart-shattering with a side of disintegration. But have they gone too far. How many more times can viewers be shocked before they throw in the towel and declare their constitutions can take no more? For many people I know they probably only have one more shock in them.

I am very interested to see what happens next season. Whether the producers can continue to keep the gigantic viewer base or whether people will slowly break off, nursing their wounds and saying to HBO, Not today! 

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Game of Thrones syndrome

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Time for a rant!

Has the modern consumer lost the ability to find a good book? Or have we all become victims of the almighty, unstoppable band wagon? Most people I know are watching game of thrones. Most of those people are now reading game of thrones. Far be it from me to shake my head at this. I’ll be honest, I absolutely love the books and having read them some time ago am glad that the show does them so much justice. However how many of those people reading the game of thrones series now would have picked up George R. R Martin’s novels without the HBO series?

This game of thrones syndrome has been around for some time now. You may have seen people with other forms of it over the past decade. There was the Hunger Games malady recently, you still see a few cases of it on the trains and buses. Before that there was twilight disorder, a rather unfortunate disease, (I have been told there is no known cure). More recently I have noticed people with a bad case of the Gatsby epidemic (Currently #1 best seller on Book depository), the threatening life of pie disease and the slightly rarer Warm bodies plague.

These afflictions manifest themselves in many ways. First signs are a media hype before a soon to be released show or movie. Then patients see a sudden rush to purchase the said book that, unbeknownst to them, has been around for some time prior to the screen rights being sold. Before anyone realises the full blown syndrome has caught the publishing world in its villainous grip. Soon our top ten bestseller list has been diluted by ten books that are currently made into a movie or show, and those few books that are trailing behind them, that have not yet sold their rights to a movie studio are left holding on for dear life, whilst the syndrome looks for its next target.

Credit to the authors of these novels. I tip my hat to their creative genius. (Ok, sparkling vampires, does not qualify as creative genius). Yet it saddens me that prior to the movies/shows, few people would have walked into a bookstore and picked up these books.

Ok I admit, the situation isn’t that dire. Sometimes I just wonder if future generations will remember that the books come first. They should try walking into the bookstore for a change and finding the next victim of the syndrome before its collected by the band wagon. Then again, where do you even find a bookstore anymore 😉