[AS PUBLISHED IN MALAY MAIL]
I WISH I had watched Game of Thrones just once so I’ll know what everyone is raving about.
Out with friends, they’re all talking about this morning’s season seven premiere and you can’t help but think: “Where is Westeros and what are these godforsaken White Walkers folk mention?”
Your friends are speaking in codes with memes “Winter is coming” and the sort. You log on to Twitter #WinterIsHere trending. All this talk of winter and you’re left out in the cold.
Never watched Thrones? You’re not alone.
It’s not a bad place to start, according to one of its stars John Bradley, who plays unassuming Samwell Tarly.
“A show set in contemporary America may alienate audiences in Asia or Africa because they don’t visually recognise the story and can’t place themselves in it.
“With fantasy, everyone is alienated because it’s nothing anybody recognises,” he said.
“It unifies people because audiences take that intellectual leap (into the show) together,” Bradley told Malay Mail.
He puts such a theory down to the show’s gargantuan global success.
The transformation of George R. R. Martin’s 1996 book series A Song of Ice and Fire is a global phenomenon, screened in more than 170 countries.
HBO has confirmed season eight will be the last of the saga.
“It’s expansive. So many characters with so many scenes. It can’t be summed up in a soundbite,” said Bradley.
“Fundamentally, it’s about family relationships and rivalry, and how your upbringing spurs you to achieve or not achieve whatever you pursue in life.
“Combine the fantasy visuals with a deep, psychologically valid family drama about ambition and you get a very rich product.”
It’s a thriller. So gripped are millions of viewers that fan theories and rumours never subside.
Interest is heightened to a point a number of the show’s stars and Martin himself have politely requested fans to stop pestering for clues and spoilers.
Bradley remained tight-lipped, fittingly drawing parallels with the same loyalty his character portrays.
“We haven’t seen the scripts from season eight so we don’t know how everything is going to end,” he said.
“Along with the audience, we’re going to find out how it finishes as well. That’s exciting.”
The impact of Thrones on pop culture is immeasurable.
Seven years on, it has conquered TV ratings and reinvented epic fantasy to become a juggernaut of the small screen.
Viewership rides into the tens of millions, not including unattainable numbers from its five-year long record as the world’s most pirated TV show.
The reality, Bradley said, Thrones “doesn’t obey the rules of TV structure”.
“We have a British and Irish crew, and everything feels kind of local; that’s a good thing,” said Bradley of the Belfast shooting location, a 40-minute flight from his Manchester home.
Bradley said the crew and cast have a healthy attitude in managing the scale of the show.
“If we take into account how big the show is while we’re filming we will go crazy. We can’t allow ourselves to think if the British royal family will be watching or different heads of state all over the world.
“Only when we go to Comic-Con in San Diego we realise the phenomenon.”
Comic-Con holds several Guinness World Records including the largest annual comic and pop culture festival in the world.
“That’s when we realise the effect Game of Thrones have on people’s lives and popular culture. The love is generously expressed.”
Game of Thrones season seven premiere will be shown exclusively on HBO Asia (Astro channel 411/431) today at 9am, same time as the US and an encore at 9pm. The series will also be available on Astro On Demand and Astro GO.
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