This past Sunday, Game of Thrones aired its ninth episode of
the season, entitled ‘The Rains of Castamere.’ As anyone that has read the
books predicted, the Internet exploded with reactions to the wild, shocking
events of the episode. I wish I had had the foresight to setup a hidden camera
to record the reactions of those I was watching with (like so many of my fellow
readers). Watching the expletive laden reaction videos has me thinking about
the second community paper I’m working on, wherein I compare and contrast two
websites. One of the websites I’m looking at happens to be one of the most
popular destinations for fans of the novels/television series.
Tower of the Hand has a number of things going for it –
insightful essays, detailed family trees, brilliant theories – but perhaps its
most useful feature is the ‘scope’ toolbar. This is the very same feature that
allowed this cultural shockwave to hit. Simply put, anytime a unique I.P. first
visits the website, the content’s scope is set to “No Books Read,” and “No
Seasons Watched.” Anything that might reveal a spoiler from one of the seasons
or novels a user has not viewed or read on their own will automatically be
hidden. And this is extremely important in keeping such a shocking moment,
known to readers (and now viewers) as The Red Wedding, a secret.
The paper won’t really allow me enough space to properly
address the genius of this feature, nor the bewildering circumstances of how
and why the Red Wedding impact was able to work, so I figured I’d indulge my
passion here. Tower of the Hand recently reported that they had record numbers
of visitors ever since the episode aired but they’ve also been garnering
astounding numbers since the moment the show began to air. And yet, thanks in
part to the ‘scope’ toolbar and perhaps perversely passionate fans the secret
was kept.
These books have been slowly released for nearly two
decades. The author set out to tell a story that purposefully thwarted the
traditional narrative and culture’s expectations for the hero’s story. It’s a
decidedly dark - some might say realistic - fantasy novel and its willingness
to not use take the easy storytelling route worked to make these shocking moments
so impactful. And keeping these moments fresh for new readers/viewers has
always been a priority of the true fans.
The events of the Red Wedding happen around 60% of the way
through the third novel in the series, which was first released thirteen years ago. I won’t spoil what
happens but I’ll just say that the moment is so unbelievably shocking that it
has the author on a publicity blitz now, hitting the talk shows to talk about
fans’ reactions. This is a feeling I’m dying to have.
Here he is on Conan:
