Warning: Contains Spoilers
As well as being the most highly anticipated, the latest and final season of Game of Thrones has been the most debated and disputed.
And these days, if you want to debate or dispute anything, you start an online petition to make yourself heard.
Such was the response by some fans to the final few episodes of Game of Thrones, they called for the entire season to be rewritten, so the hard – but disappointing to some – work by D.B. Weiss and David Benioff could be undone and redone more to their liking.
Of course, opinions are like arseholes – everyone’s got one. And no matter what your thoughts are about the final season or how many people sign the petition, it’s a fairly futile act to try and change it.
Despite its futility, those involved with the show haven’t been best pleased that a million people want them to redo their years of hard work.
Sophie Turner, who played Sansa Stark throughout the eight seasons, has spoken out about the fans’ reactions, and that she wasn’t surprised by some of the backlash.
She told The New York Times:
People always have an idea in their heads of how they want a show to finish, and so when it doesn’t go to their liking, they start to speak up about it and rebel.
All of these petitions and things like that — I think it’s disrespectful to the crew, and the writers, and the filmmakers who have worked tirelessly over 10 years, and for 11 months shooting the last season. Like 50-something night shoots. So many people worked so, so hard on it, and for people to just rubbish it because it’s not what they want to see is just disrespectful.
Sophie wasn’t the only one to discuss the backlash, and the criticism the show’s creators have faced in recent weeks.
Jacob Anderson, who plays Grey Worm, appeared on Strahan And Sara, and also had a few words about the petition:
He said:
I think it’s rude.
Obviously, the show feels to people like it belongs to them. That’s really good – I think it’s really important when people take something into their heart and it means something to them.
However, it doesn’t. I just mean that in the sense that I was there and the crew, in particular, are like the hardest working people I’ve ever met. I think to trivialise their work in that way – I find it quite sad.
It’s not like the show was a flop though – far from it. According to Deadline, the final episode – The Iron Throne – raked in a staggering 19.3 million viewers, beating last week’s episode, The Bells, which brought in a record-breaking 18.4 million.
The opening episode also broke records, as it had the highest number of viewers for a season opener since The Sopranos 17 years ago, which had 13.4 million viewers. The opening episode of the final season of GoT attracted 13.6 million.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.