• Coca_Cola_but_Commie [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    So I watched a like two hour YouTube video of some guy who fucking hates Benioff and Weiss presenting his long, bizarre theory that the show is bad because Benioff in particular is a sociopath whose father didn't love him. I know it sound crazy to watch that, but it's a bit like when the Chapos complain about Rod Dreher except instead of four to five deranged people it's just one guy, and unlike the chapos he clearly takes his subject matter very seriously. Now the guy who made that video clearly has a massive axe to grind (guy's name on YouTube is Dragon Demands), he always mentions how he's one of the admins for the Game of Thrones wiki, and makes some specious arguments throughout.

    Best part of those videos is when he reads from Benioff's shitty novels (which, other than a writing credit on two major movies, were Benioff's only significant creative works before HBO made him the showrunner of their massively expensive soon-to-be flagship) where the main character is a misogynistic creep.

    But I kinda agree with all his big points: Benioff's dad, an insanely rich investment banker, does not love his son (Dragon Demands couldn't prove this, I can't either, but look up Stephen Friedman and tell me if you think a man with his resumé is capable of loving anything other than money); all of Benioff's success in life is based on the fact that his father is a powerful man; HBO only gave Benioff the role of showrunner (something he was completely unqualified for) because of his father; Benioff only pursued GOT because he thought if it was successful he might finally win his father's approval; it didn't work.

    Most significantly, Benioff and Weiss shot a pilot for GOT, which cost HBO 10 million dollars and failed because Benioff and Weiss had no idea how to run a show. But for some reason HBO didn't scrap a show that nobody believed in and had already been proven a failure and a black hole for money. Instead the CEO made Benioff and Weiss rework the scripts for the first season, and then let them go ahead and reshoot their first episode.

    Either Benioff had some serious blackmail material, his father was secretly bankrolling the production, or Richard Plepper (the CEO of HBO at the time) was some sort of genius who had peered through time and knew that, against all odds, Game of Thrones would go on to be one of the biggest cultural phenomenons since Harry Potter.