Con of Thrones, Day 3: Of Spinoffs and Spoilers

Today was the final day of Con of Thrones, and while I had to get on a plane home before the Closing Ceremonies, I managed to fit in lots more fun before I left the Gaylord Opryland Convention and Resort in Nashville.

Today, I hit up a panel on a subject I think about a lot: Spoiling Game of Thrones. The spoiler culture surrounding the show is pretty unique in the history of TV. For the first several seasons, book-readers had one up on show-watchers, but since the show overtook the books in season 5, everyone’s been in the same boat, torn between choosing to remain ignorant of production spoilers or giving into temptation and finding them on any number of places around the internet. How much sensitive information should sites give away? How should they present it? To what extent do Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss really understand what spoilers mean to the community? The panelists — including Sue the Fury from Watchers on the Wall, Joanna Robinson from Vanity Fair, Laura Stone from Hey, Don’t Judge Me and comedian Steve Love — addressed these questions thoughtfully and thoroughly.

Game of Thrones still has another season to go, so we’re in for at least one more year of the spoiler frenzy. After that, does the world lie in wait for the next show to stir this kind of interest? Or has Game of Thrones awakened a many-headed hydra that will continue to delight and disgust for decades to come? Questions for the next Con of Thrones.

Also, Steve Love is pretty damn amazing at impressions.

Next, I attended Queering Westeros, a panel about the representation of gay characters in the story, particularly on the show. This is a touchy subject. On the one hand, it’s great that Game of Thrones features LGBT characters, but on the other hand, you often get the idea the writers are relying on stereotypes. Take Loras Tyrell. After season 2, pretty much everything he does revolves around the fact that he’s gay, from revealing secret info to Olyvar to talking about his dreams for Sansa’s wedding gown to getting imprisoned and tortured because of his homosexuality in seasons 5 and 6. That’s not to say that Loras is a robustly developed character in the novels, but at least there’s more to his character than who he sleeps with.

Is it positive to have gay characters represented if that representation is superficial? What about asexuality? Again, the panelists were thoughtful and thorough, highlighting what the show does well and what it could work on. Panels like these are catnip to criticism junkies like me.

And now for something far less academic: what’s the Best Idea for a Game of Thrones Spinoff? This was one of the con’s Great Debates series, which were all reliably fun. Each of the four panelists threw out an idea for a spinoff show, took suggestions from the audience, and then pitted the ideas against each other. The winners were chosen by applause. The spinoff ideas included:

• A series all about Princess Nymeria’s journey to Dorne, presented in well-researched detail by panelist Ashaya.
• A show exploring the Blackfyre Rebellions.
• Where Whores Go, about four prostitutes who retire from one of Petyr Baelish’s brothels, move into a house together, and get up to Golden Girls-like shenanigans.
• R’hllor With the Punches, a show about the past 400 years of history as seen through the eyes of Melisandre.
• The Secret Life of Pounce, about what the pets of Westeros get up to when their owners are busy making war.

When the votes were in, Ashaya’s Nymeria series won the day. Get on it, HBO.

Finally, I attended the Dunk and Egg Appreciation Panel. George R.R. Martin has confirmed that his series of Dunk and Egg novellas is not under consideration to be made into a spinoff, but discussions like this make me hopeful that this will change one day.

From where I’m sitting, Con of Thrones was a rousing success. George R.R. Martin’s story has galvanized people in a way no piece of pop culture since Star Wars Harry Potter has managed, and the many panels, discussions, and passionate fans at this convention proved it’s robust enough to continue to do so for years to come.

Plus, it’s just fun to be surrounded by people who are as obsessed with this story as I am. I’ll give you a for instance: During the Dunk and Egg panel, an alarm went off in the building — there were some flash floods in the area. Happy to see the bright side, the stranger sitting in front of me turned around and said, “I could die happy here.” I saw her point.

Next: Con of Thrones, Day 1: Beginnings, Endings, and the Apocalypse