As I sat through the finale of season 6 of Game of Thrones, fully aware that my brain was leaking out of my skull, I realised that I was watching something truly spectacular, helped in no small part thanks to how patient it has been in telling its story.
Things are finally looking up for the “good guys”, a line which has always been sort of blurry within the Game of Thrones world. Throughout the whole episode, we had justice served and triumphant heroes – it’s difficult to point at one moment in the finale that wasn’t positive. Well, perhaps Ser Pounce is going to be a bit lonely now, but the guy don’t need no human.
After telling a nudist Shakespeare story over the course of many years, fans could be forgiven for thinking that was never going to be a happy ending. Season 6 has had its ups and downs in terms of how much it tore out our heart, but overall, it’s looking like the final closing credits will bring with it smiles from viewers.
However, some aren’t happy. They see it as fan service, which has somehow become a dirty phrase.
The Game of Thrones finale AKA: fan service galore.
— Thatguywhodoesstuff (@guywhododgers) 27 June 2016
Game of Thrones is getting too fan service-y. I hope tonight a White Walker beats Jon Snow to death with Sansa's body (killing her also)
— Rob Fox III (@BaconTFM) 26 June 2016
After watching tonight's Game of Thrones, I have to say I don't think I've ever seen 69 minutes of fan service before. Disappointing but fun
— Pro-Fetty Wap (@NawidA) 27 June 2016
Another thought: fan service is *particularly* irksome in Game of Thrones, especially when it doesn't feel earned.
— Jason Caffoe (@jcaffoe) 27 June 2016
Fan service revenge tactics going on right now. Waterboarding Septa Unella with wine…really HBO? Really?
— Ashley Nicole (@geeksandcleats) 27 June 2016
Fan Service of Thrones
— Adam Dershowitz (@AdamDershowitz) 27 June 2016
Let’s clear this up: Game of Thrones fans deserve some joy. In the past half-decade, we’ve seen:
– Pregnant women being murdered
– A baby being fed to dogs
– A renegade king having their Direwolf’s head stitched onto their corpse
– A harmless Stark failing to understand how to strafe
– The most honourable man in Westeros being beheaded
– The Mannis turning to the dark side
– Castration
– Rape
– The greatest Dothraki who ever pillaged dying
– A door being held
– A young girl being burnt at the stake
– A viper falling off of a mountain
And that’s just half of it. Game of Thrones fans suffer probably more than any other fandom out there, even when The Walking Dead leave us hanging for six months almost every season.
Season 6 of Game of Thrones isn’t fan service. It’s one of the richest tapestries in television history applying the finishing stitches to tie everything together. Yes, some of it is predictable, but isn’t that to be expected when the books it’s based on come out with as much regularity as a double rainbow during a solar eclipse? If people are allowed enough time to speculate, they will be able to figure out the final stitches for themselves eventually. Winter has arrived for Game of Thrones.
Plus, if Daenerys crashed her boat into a giant middle finger in the middle of the ocean, Arya tripped and ended up baking herself into a pie, and Jon Snow decided to holiday in Lanzarote instead of worrying about what’s creeping ever closer from behind the wall, wouldn’t people still complain that it’s too masochistic? Benioff and Weiss will never properly win.
If you know anyone who’s hating on Game of Thrones, I recommend you show them this.
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