‘Game Of Thrones’ Showrunners Show Up On Google Under ‘Bad Writers’ After Fans Get Annoyed With Episode 5
What happens when you write a bad episode of Game of Thrones? The fans get together on Reddit and make your picture to show up under the “bad writers” image search term on Google.
SPOILER ALERT: This article discusses Episode 5, titled “The Bells,” of HBO’s Game of Thrones Season 8. Please proceed with caution if you have not yet viewed this episode and wish to avoid spoilers.
Episode 5 of HBO’s Game of Thrones Season 8 has pretty much been panned by viewers and critics alike. While many believe it is visually stunning, they also had criticism for the writing of the episode after some character’s story arcs appeared to have been set on fire by one of Daenerys’ dragons.
Mainly, fans felt that Daenerys Targaryen’s (Emilia Clarke) descent into madness occurred too quickly, even though it had been foreshadowed throughout the series. Additionally, they felt that the character of Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) was done a major disservice after he ditched Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) and returned to King’s Landing to be with his sister, Cersei (Lena Headey), for no other reason than he believed himself to be a bad person.
Ever since Episode 5 aired, viewers have been complaining about it. However, some fans on Reddit have found a way to get back at the creators of Game of Thrones, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.
Angry 'Game of Thrones' fans 'Google bombed' the show's creators so that their photo now shows up when you search for 'bad writers' https://t.co/vg8Ek31rqC
— Insider Business (@BusinessInsider) May 13, 2019
According to Metro, the trick is to post to Reddit and then get people to upvote it. If it gets enough votes, it will then show up in Google searches. It is referred to as “Google bombing” and has been used successfully in the past to get Reddit posts to show up on Google. And that’s how a bunch of disgruntled Game of Thrones fans managed to get an image of David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to show up in an image search for “bad writers.”
On Reddit, the post is titled, “Bad Writers. Upvote this post so its the first result when you google ‘Bad writers,'” and shows an image of Benioff and Weiss at an AFI event. At the time of posting, the image has been upvoted more than 43,000 times.
The post has been published to the r/Freefolk subreddit which regularly posts spoilers and potential leaks about the hit epic fantasy series. This subreddit is an offshoot from the main Game of Thrones subreddit where spoilers and the such are usually frowned upon. However, for Benioff and Weiss, it is a reminder that they are only as good as their last Game of Thrones episode, according to the fanbase who populate the subreddit.
Season 8 of Game of Thrones returns to HBO with Episode 6, the series finale, on Sunday, May 19, at 9 p.m. ET.
