What a Game of Thrones protest petition says about modern popular culture

The perils of internet fandom run amok

Peter Dinklage.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Shendart/iStock, Helen Sloan/HBO, rootstocks/iStock)

You can count me among the legions of viewers who found themselves disappointed with Game of Thrones this past weekend. It wasn't so much the violence or the evil depicted, as the abrupt, cheap-feeling reversal. In response, I did what any good, 21st-century cultural critic does: I took to Twitter to whine and cuss about it, along with about half of my timeline.

It is part and parcel of what it means to consume entertainment and art in the 2010s. The interactive, participatory nature of the Web has turned pop culture into an event, and moments like Game of Thrones' denouement are among the few remaining collective popular experiences we have.

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Navneet Alang

Navneet Alang is a technology and culture writer based out of Toronto. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, New Republic, Globe and Mail, and Hazlitt.