This Is The Only Fan Petition You Should Sign
SPOILERS for the most recent episode of Game of Thrones.
Over 300,000 Game Of Thrones fans have signed an online petition calling for HBO to remake the final season -- presumably so that Daenerys doesn't murder a bunch of people out of spite, and Euron Greyjoy dies of syphilis offscreen. Of course, this is A) ridiculous and B) yet another example of the galling entitlement of modern fan culture. It's also nothing new.
Most recently, The Last Jedi prompted the ire of embittered Star Wars fans, who launched online petitions (albeit under the influence of prescription painkillers) to remake the movie. Because why should Luke Skywalker die when he could just as easily, say, have taken Rey and Chewie to Space Dairy Queen? One dude actually began crowdfunding a remake, raising over $400 million!
Which would be super impressive, if not for the fact that all of those pledges were hypothetical, and no one was giving any real money. They may as well have accepted donations in Imperial credits, or Quatloos, or whatever currency they used on ALF's home planet.
Even back before the internet was a thing, fans were using petitions to throw hissy fits. As we've mentioned before, in the '80s, fans circulated petitions calling for Warner Bros. to reconsider casting Michael Keaton as Batman.
It takes almost zero effort to throw together a petition in order to express your personal opinion. In the days since the Game Of Thrones petition went up, we've even seen fan petitions calling for the end of online fan petitions.
Which isn't to say that all fan petitions are useless. Instead of throwing support behind impractical ideas that threaten the very definition of art, sci-fi and fantasy fans could put their signatures to far better use. We are, of course, talking about the petition to erect a statue of Chief O'Brien in Dublin, Ireland. Yes, the guy who stood in a windowless room with no stool for hours on end in Star Trek: The Next Generation, then got a job with windows in Deep Space Nine.
Come on, guys. HBO isn't going to spend millions of dollars remaking an entire season of TV just because some feelings got hurt. But the city of Dublin might be convinced to build a tribute to Miles O'Brien, the Enterprise transporter chief who wasn't Scottish. Instead of crapping on something that's already been done, let's build something new. That is, a statue of the greatest Star Trek character who also happened to be from Ireland.
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For more, check out FYI: The Game Of Thrones Guys Are Making The Next Star Wars and The Time Travel In Avengers: Endgame Just Got More Confusing.
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