![the flayed man banner the flayed man banner](https://i.imgur.com/n0OHc4j.jpg)
With early GoT there’s a sense it’s there because it spoke to “prestige” television’s adolescent instinct to tick the box marked “edgy”. In 2021, there would have to be a persuasive reason for such a scene. Game Of Thrones’ first episode concluded with Daenerys weeping, unclothed and being forced into non-consensual sex. “I’m floating through this first season and I have no idea what I’m doing, I have no idea what any of this is,” she told Dax Shepherd’s Armchair Expert podcast. “I’ve never been on a film set like this before, I’d been on a film set twice before then, and I’m now on a film set completely naked with all of these people, and I don’t know what I’m meant to do and I don’t know what’s expected.” Emilia Clarke, who portrayed Daenerys Targaryen, is one of those to speak out about feeling “pressured” into appearing naked in the show. What, moreover, of the casual use of sexual violence as a plot device? Here we arrive at the awkward truth that much of what made Thrones Thrones is now regarded as problematic. Several Game of Thrones prequels are planned, and a Broadway musical is in the works.īut whatever about HBO, how do the rest of us feel about Game of Thrones turning 10? Is our nostalgia tempered, for instance, by the fact the final seasons are now agreed to have been pretty dreadful? It is obviously in HBO’s interest to keep the Throne fires burning. “A Path To Fire and Blood”, for example, focuses on Mother of Dragons Daenerys Targaryen, and a “Collection Has No Name” follows Arya Stark’s journey from apple-cheeked cherub to face-stealing super assassin. Highlights include the release of a limited-edition 7 per cent proof Game of Thrones IPA beer (make your own joke about sitting uncomfortably on the Iron Throne) and a new range of Game of Thrones toys.Ī revamped Thrones website, meanwhile, offers six playlisted “routes” back into Westeros. And so it can be forgiven for raising quite a hue and cry over the Thrones birthday.Īn “Iron Anniversary” was announced in the countdown to April 17th. HBO in 2011 put its reputation on the line in entrusting two rookie show-runners to bring to the screen an unfashionable fantasy novel (all fantasy novels being at the time unfashionable). April 17th marks a decade since King Robert paid his fateful visit to Ned Stark at Winterfell and we were introduced to the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros via that iconic “clockwork map” and Ramin Djawadi’s cello-fuelled score. And now Game Of Thrones, adapted from George RR Martin’s A Song Of Fire and Ice, has reached its 10th anniversary. Game of Thrones was no longer gatecrashing the mainstream. There were, of course, socks bearing the dragon sigil of the Targaryens, returning from across the Narrow Sea (the Targaryens, not the socks). Pyjamas adorned with the dire wolf of House Stark jostled for prominence. T-shirts depicting the “flayed man” banner of House Bolton were arranged in a riotous panorama. It was as though the Great Tourney of Harrenhal had relocated to south Dublin. In April 2019, a week before the final season arrived, I was walking through Dublin’s Dundrum Town Centre and happened to pass a Penney’s window display. The moment Game of Thrones eclipsed the sun and reached peak cultural saturation is engraved in my mind.