“Game of Thrones”: What Is Dead May Never Die

Game of Thrones enamored us because it defied us. It enticed our engagement but refused to bend to our will. Week to week, season to season, it invited us to inspect its machinery closely, to try to see how the gears interlock, and to forecast the turning of its wheels. Daenerys said she would one day break the wheel. We watched with bated breath to see which wheel, on which turn, and which cogs of the machinery would be left intact?

This level of engagement is a rare species in the age of streaming platforms. Consider the colloquial verbiage: “binging.” It refers to mindless, uncontrollable consumption. When we binge-watch, we’re being force-fed content, eliding moments to ingest and contemplate what we are taking in for evermore autoplays of the next episode.

The weekly gaps between GOT episodes and the months-to-years that lagged between seasons infused the ritualized screentime of its devotees with fervency and anticipation. These waiting periods allowed us to take the imaginative reins of the storytelling for a week, or even a year, and progress the story with our own logic and desire. Podcasts, Youtube channels, fanfictions, and article after article on all the largest and smallest media websites dedicated themselves to nothing more than breaking down episodes and prognosticating what is possibly to come. Amidst this media storm…