David Benioff and D.B Weiss accept the award for outstanding writing for a drama series for “Game of ... [+]
After the disastrous final season of Game of Thrones, which left many fans furious at the flat conclusion to an epic story, writers/showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have been extremely quiet, even going so far as to cancel their scheduled appearance at Comic Con.
At this point, every single scene, character arc (or lack thereof), and poorly-planned plot point has been thoroughly dissected and dismissed, by disappointed fans, critics, and YouTubers.
Blame fell squarely on the shoulders of Benioff and Weiss, with Game of Thrones fans recognizing that the sudden shift in quality was entirely due to decisions made in the writing room, and were generally mature enough not to blame the actors or crew members. (Benioff and Weiss are due to tackle Star Wars next, so we should wish them, and their future cast and crew, good luck).
But Benioff and Weiss emerged from their public hibernation to attend a panel at the Austin Film Festival, and finally answer some questions from fans. The two were brutally honest, essentially admitting that they were never fully qualified for the job from the beginning.
Heroic Twitter user @ForArya documented the Q&A session, and much of it reads like satire, written by furious Game of Thrones fans.
Benioff and Weiss still aren’t sure why George R.R. Martin entrusted them with his magnum opus, as the two didn’t have any comparable experience, or even an appreciation of the book’s themes.
It seems that the two men aimed for a moonshot, and somehow, hit their target, suddenly tasked with retelling an immensely complex story, without fully understanding it. In fact, Benioff once said: “Themes are for eighth-grade book reports,” which tells you all you need to know about his dedication to the art of storytelling.
If you’re wondering why a wildly successful writer is comfortable dismissing “themes” as childish and unnecessary, it should be noted that Benioff’s father is the former head of Goldman Sachs. Do we live in a meritocracy? Well, Bret Stephens still writes for the New York Times, so ...
The two went on to admit that they had absolutely no idea how to work with costume designers (kind of important for a fantasy series), and described their experience making Thrones as “an expensive film school.”
On some level, I almost admire their candor. They could have come up with excuses and defended their hideous creative choices, but they realized that there was nowhere left to hide. Fans were almost unanimously united in their disappointment, and little of the anger has evaporated in the months since.
Oddly enough, the show was at its peak during its early seasons, when Benioff and Weiss were still learning how to do their jobs. The two initially downplayed the fantasy elements of the books (a decision that helped ground the universe before dragons started flying through the sky), and wanted to expand the audience to non-fantasy fans. This worked in their favor at the beginning of the show, and helped expand it into a pop culture juggernaut, but meant that the intricacies of Martin’s lore were never explored.
The Faceless Men, the Lord of Light, the Night King; all magical elements of the story that were never resolved, despite clearly being vital to the story. Hence, “the Prince that was promised” never showed up, and Beric Dondarrion’s grand destiny was teased, but never delivered.
Benioff and Weiss were elevated to success by HBO’s polished infrastructure, the architecture of George R.R. Martin’s books, and the immense talent of every individual that surrounded them, particularly the actors.
They were exposed only when they ran out of material, and had to finish the story themselves. Amusingly, the two never went online to read criticisms of the show from fans, who clearly understood the books better than they did.
Well, Benioff searched online, once, but the results “upset him,” so he never did it again.
It seems that the Game of Thrones writer’s room was a “safe space,” shielded from criticism and outsider perspective. In a way, it’s a relief to finally understand why the show went in such a bizarre direction; there was no one there to tell Benioff and Weiss that their ideas were nonsensical.
Nobody was there to tell them to stop inserting random rape scenes for shock value, or that Euron Greyjoy was dreadful, or that the Great Houses of Westeros finally putting aside their differences and crowning a wheelchair-bound shaman as king was immensely, indescribably stupid.
Kevin Smith once said: "In Hollywood, you just kind of fail upwards," and I think that’s a pretty apt description of how Benioff and Weiss created their hit show.
But an even better analogy comes from Hunter S. Thompson, who famously responded to an impending deadline by ripping the tattered, intoxicated scribblings from his notebook and sending them to his editor, producing his famous article, "The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved."
Thompson described his accidental success as “falling down an elevator shaft and landing in a pool full of mermaids.” Well, Benioff and Weiss have swum with the mermaids, and hopefully, they learned how to keep their heads above water, because there’s another elevator shaft down below, and at the bottom is a swamp full of ravenous, flesh-eating Star Wars fans.
Let’s hope they learned how to talk to costume designers, at least.
Update: According to Deadline, Benioff and Weiss have (wisely) walked away from Star Wars, citing time constraints, having signed a nine-figure deal with Netflix: “There are only so many hours in the day, and we felt we could not do justice to both Star Wars and our Netflix projects. So we are regretfully stepping away.”
If you enjoyed reading, you might want to check out what’s happening with HBO’s Game of Thrones spin-offs
