Nobody Cared About The 10 Year Anniversary Of ‘Game Of Thrones’
We're not ready to forgive 'Game of Thrones' yet.
On April 17th it was ten years since the first episode of Game of Thrones aired, but no one felt like celebrating. HBO pushed the hashtag ‘#IronAnniversary,’ boasting marathons and a cast reunion over Zoom — but all to no avail. People are still angry.
Even here in Australia, Foxtel hosted an all week marathon of the series. But on its 10th anniversary, this once-great behemoth of television couldn’t even muster trending on Twitter.
HBO Max is advertising game of thrones to me because of the anniversary and it is hard to say if I’ll ever want to watch that show again
— Gita Jackson (@xoxogossipgita) April 11, 2021
They gave Zack Snyder 70 something million bucks to "fix" Justice League.
Fix season 8. You could probably do it in three episodes. https://t.co/27qMD3iFjC
— John Hornor Jacobs (@johnhornor) April 14, 2021
Airing between 2011 and 2019, Game of Thrones‘ cultural impact was incredible, and the show was once seen as a beacon of hope for how great week-by-week television could still captivate audiences in the streaming age. With some series, it can be hard to pinpoint where or why viewers fell out of love with them, but with Game of Thrones, it essentially happened overnight.
After a disappointing end to a disappointing final season (and disappointing is perhaps the kindest word to ascribe to it), the series’ legacy that once seemed so promising was reduced to memes of a misplaced coffee cup and morose mourning of what might have been.
A year on from the series’ final episode and it’s clear that legacy-destroying disappointment hasn’t wavered, with many outlets using the #IronAnniversary to look back on what went wrong with the series more than looking back on what viewers once loved.
Game of Thrones not trending on it's 10 year anniversary says it all #GameofThrones
— Nerdrotic (@Nerdrotics) April 18, 2021
Eight years of memes, refferences, a presence you could not get away even if you tried and didn't care and all of this, ALL OF IT, undone to such a point that i can't even remember the last time i saw GoT refferenced or talked about.
— Windlass🔞 (@MusketAnna) January 18, 2020
HBOMax: celebrate the 10th anniversary of Game of Thrones by binging watching.
All of us: pic.twitter.com/qcCYjnDHPm— Openly Black Brown Skint Fatty (@ritaresarian) April 3, 2021
While Game of Thrones‘ cultural legacy wanes, its legacy within the entertainment industry isn’t difficult to see. Despite the (at best) lukewarm reception to its finale, there are several spin-offs in the works at HBO.
Daniel D’Addario argues in an article for Variety that Game of Thrones‘ legacy reshaped the delivery of streaming content to week-by-week formats in attempts to replicate the social culture associated with Game of Thrones. Series on Disney+ like The Mandalorian, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and WandaVision certainly make a case for this.
What’s more, is that Game of Thrones saw fantasy return to mainstream primetime television and streaming. Series like The Witcher on Netflix, HBO’s own Raised by Wolves, or Showtime’s Penny Dreadful were all attempts to cash in on the renewed interest in the fantasy genre spurned by Game of Thrones.
Happy 10 year anniversary, Game of Thrones! You were really good for exactly 4 seasons
— WEEGEE THE GOD (@WEEGEETHEGOD) April 17, 2021
hbo: the game of thrones ten year old anniversary is this year 🥰
everybody in response: pic.twitter.com/hyuyXsIiHT
— paulˣ (@dearapriII) April 17, 2021
A year on from the grand finale and fans are still more prepared to forget than forgive. Perhaps the greatest legacy left by Game of Thrones is the lesson that nothing too big to end badly, and on the tenth anniversary of the show’s beginning its abundantly clear that stories and their legacies live and die on their endings, not their beginnings.