Look, not everyone watches Game of Thrones. Just because its grand finale outperformed even the much-better-liked closing of The Sopranos, or that it’s pretty much all anyone can talk about on Twitter, doesn’t mean absolutely everyone is a follower. Cast in point: Someone took to social media to ask if someone, anyone, could summarize the entire eight-season, 71-episode run in a single tweet. Some fans took that as a challenge.
https://twitter.com/amyjccuddy/status/1130318338259849216
That person was Amy Cuddy, a psychologist and bestselling author. It’s not clear whether she had never seen Game of Thrones, or if she was just throwing down an impossible challenge to see if there would be anyone foolish enough to try. Well, there were.
People with powerful ambition and poor impulse control explore the intersection of lust, greed, and fear. Lives and reputations were lost, painful wisdom was gained, and if you were really lucky, your favs just might end up back where they started. @bullypulpit_hq https://t.co/W3soxoFW7j
— Ryan ⏩ Sleep (@AJustConspiracy) May 20, 2019
The worst leaders believe they are good and right. The best know they are flawed and despite having imperfections visible to everyone, they persist. https://t.co/kFbhnrjHUj
— cam (@rulesbycam) May 20, 2019
Doomed love and incest leads to multi generation conflict for power across seven kingdoms, starts/ends with mad rulers burning down people, and finally, the least interested guy becomes king in a pseudo show of democracy where only whites vote. Oh, and zombies. https://t.co/q3bTO8MSLY
— Amit Das (@das_think) May 20, 2019
https://twitter.com/StephenLimbaugh/status/1130478209307254785
Honor, ambition, and love clash as 3 great houses battle for control of their own destinies and a seat on the Iron Throne. In the end, the battles are for nothing as the throne itself is nothing but a symbol of pettiness and the pride. Also, snow zombies. https://t.co/ErOp0R5qJX
— Brad Wells (@BradWellsNFL) May 20, 2019
The above were serious and ambitious, taking full advantage of the 280-character space. Others were succinct.
https://twitter.com/leadfreely/status/1130343290254049280
Some were Ian McShane-level snarky.
https://twitter.com/ChickenHalf/status/1130337101948555264
https://twitter.com/MrCappadocia/status/1130470112237105153
"Shakespeare, but with zombies, dragons, and an odd fixation with castration." https://t.co/BrKkf43ppD
— Peter Wang 🦋 (@pwang) May 20, 2019
Seven years of winter is coming finally came in the 8th year and lasted an hour and then we were tortured for a few more hours to see a king and a queen rule.
— 6% of de❌ocrats are useful (@craner72) May 20, 2019
https://twitter.com/ocmonalisa/status/1130524077494493185
https://twitter.com/reva_alena/status/1130427796084461569
https://twitter.com/DoomlordVek/status/1130527952083529729
And some were by William Shatner, whose most famous show famously never got a spectacular send-off that aggravates longtime fans.
Craycray incestuous family rules 7 kingdoms. Baddies from the north invade so most put away their differences to fight together. After winning they go after the craycray Queen who didn’t help them fight and everything ends up in a hot mess and a big disappointment. The end.😘 https://t.co/IA9qHeJCLE
— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) May 20, 2019
Anyway, what will we do when without Game of Thrones? At what point will the discourse around it even slow down, let alone disappear? What show could ever fill the Drogon-sized void in our souls? Perhaps it will be that forthcoming program based on books that inspired a failed franchise with fighting polar bears and a flying Eva Green.