In what I can only describe as an act of self-flagellation, I have started watching Game of Thrones again. It’s rare that I rewatch a drama series (comedy I can watch over and over), and most times in the past when I have done, it’s because my partner didn’t catch it the first go around. But we both watched Game of Thrones when it was airing. We watched separately, then as we got together over the show’s run, side by side. We turned to each other as the show ended and asked “Was that it?” So why are we watching it again?
The factual answer is ‘because she wanted to’. I’m more of a movie watcher and, especially in this very spooky month, can shuffle in a lot of cool horror films. She usually picks the TV series, and so Game of Thrones it is. But more accurately, why she picked it and why I agreed to it, is because Game of Thrones is actually very good.
It’s Easy To Forget How Great Game Of Thrones Was
It was the most watched TV show of the last decade, the biggest ‘water cooler’ TV show ever, and the most influential piece of fantasy since The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, if not the original novels themselves. It’s not news to you that this show was good. But it’s amazing how its ending completely tanked its reputation. It’s not just a bad ending, it’s one that’s enough to put you off watching and kill any cultural cache the show had accrued up to that point.
This was a factor in our rewatch. My wife was hesitant to pick Game of Thrones, because of how it all ended. I pointed out that, as people with a mild dose of self respect, we didn’t buy season eight on DVD, so our run could stop at the end of the seventh season. This was agreeable, and now our watch begins. I have endured shows with endings I didn’t enjoy and a general drop off as it ran out of gas towards the end, but Game of Thrones’ dismal finale is as unprecedented as its success.
I’ve never been too concerned with the end point of things. As wiser folk have said, it’s about the journey. I recently wrote about how I vehemently disagree that all the choices we made in Dragon Age: Inquisition (or earlier games) ‘don’t matter’ just because The Veilguard won’t let you import World States. I know I dislike how Jaime’s, Tyrion’s, and Bran’s stories end, as well as everything about Euron’s. I know Varys has an ill-fitting death. I know Arya and Sansa’s arcs are undercut by a decline in their writing quality. I know Dany… well. I can still enjoy the tales they tell until then.
Game Of Thrones Was An All-Time Fumble, And House Of The Dragon Is Not Enough
Again, we know this. Anyone who watched Game of Thrones will remember Blackwater, The Rains Of Castamere, The Laws Of Gods And Man, and Mockingbird. As independent episodes, and even with the context of the episodes immediately around them, they are brilliant. But watching the series again, I am reminded of the dearth of Game of Thrones in our current cultural landscape.
I have read the books, and have given up on ever getting another one. I have been reluctant to watch House of the Dragon, still soured from Game of Thrones’ ending, but it also seemed like one of the less interesting spin offs planned. It’s just Game of Thrones again – warring factions for the crown, a mad family corrupted by power, and dragons ruling over all. After this rewatch it will probably be time to dive in, but I know it won’t fully scratch the itch.
Earlier this year, reports emerged of a Game of Thrones MMO set during seasons four and five, and I was hesitant. An MMO doesn’t seem like the best way to experience this world, while setting it in the middle of the story we already know all about would only exacerbate that. I suggested at the time A Song of Ice & Fire game, one that could take in aspects the show cut or explore the wider mythos, but honestly I would take a game set in the thick of it were it something more interesting and less probably-just-a-cash-cow than an MMO.
Game Of Thrones Still Needs A Truly Great Game
There have been Game of Thrones games before. Telltale had a decent crack, incorporating a new family into the mix – Stark bannermen House Forrester. Mixing in characters like Ramsay, Cersei, and Margaery, it was clearly set in the show’s reality but managed to feel like its own thing. Unfortunately, it was a middling effort by Telltale’s standards and it’s weird that Game of Thrones doesn’t have a better soldier in its army.
We are in an era now where video game adaptations have a little more freedom. Guardians of the Galaxy and Marvel’s Avengers are both clearly inspired by the movies’ interpretation of their characters, but tell a fresh story in a fresh universe. Saber Interactive is adapting A Quiet Place and Jurassic Park into fresh stories set in the universe of the movies. Xbox’s big 2024 hitter is an original Indiana Jones title. Game of Thrones has a universe begging to be explored in this way.
A Game of Thrones action-adventure game where you play as Robb Stark would be cool, whether the Red Wedding serves as the ending (or the beginning setting up an alternative narrative), but we could also see some stories the show cut, tales from a different time period in Westeros, or through the eyes of a lower-born character whose fate is at the whims of the wheel.
Rewatching Game of Thrones has put me in the same frame of mind I was watching it the first time – why are there no video games that let me kill the brave men at my gates? Maybe by the time it ends, my appetite for it will be spoiled once more. But I have fallen back in line with the show so easily, and I’m sure many other fans would too if games gave them half a chance.
