Why Nigerians are crazy about Game of Thrones

Abdulkareem Baba Aminu A season of the hit HBO series ‘Game of Thrones’ typically has a budget of at least $10 million, and the best part is that the money shows. From exotic, fantastic locales, to jaw-dropping special effects and epic battle scenes, it would be easy to see why it has become the cultural […]

Abdulkareem Baba Aminu

A season of the hit HBO series ‘Game of Thrones’ typically has a budget of at least $10 million, and the best part is that the money shows. From exotic, fantastic locales, to jaw-dropping special effects and epic battle scenes, it would be easy to see why it has become the cultural phenomenon it is today. It’s also good to point out that it was spawned by a book, published in 1996, by George R.R. Martin. It was the first, initially intended to be a trilogy. However, that grew to seven, with five already published. The books became a massive hit, and the TV series even more so. 

‘Game of Thrones’ sits on a throne of firsts. An average of more than 23 million Americans watched each episode last season, even as attempts to get Nigerian stats failed. Notable, also, is the fact that a good chunk of viewers here watch pirated video files of the series, almost as soon as it is shared online on file-sharing/torrent sites, helping to make it the most pirated show ever. Yet another source for many Nigerians, is via pirated DVDs sold on the cheap by vendors in front of many supermarkets, or regular markets. Aired in more than 170 countries (DSTV, in Nigeria), it also holds the record for most Emmy awards ever won by a prime-time series. 

In the fantasy world of ‘Game of Thrones’, there are houses, to which viewers – or indeed readers – often find themselves aligned. The houses are all vying for the titular throne, with varying degrees of intensity. And therein lies the charm for most of the series’ loyal following: The horse-trading, the brutal politicking, the steep, dangerous stakes and how it all ties into every character’s individual quest for power. It comes as no surprise that such a world is now closely followed by ardent viewers the world over. 

At the height of its popularity, somewhere between the third and fourth seasons, D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, creators of the TV series, would dish to Vanity Fair magazine that then-president Barack Obama was such a huge fan that he would request for advance screenings of new episodes. “Who could refuse the president?” laughed Benioff at the time. Obama’s impatience will be perfectly understood by fans who wait for their latest fix.

Carmen McCain, an American professor, had been hearing so much about it, and decided to check the books out first, in 2015. “I bought all 5 on my Kindle and read for about 2 months straight. It was like one long, massive book. It took over my life. I would get home from work and start reading right away. Once I finished reading the books, I ordered the series on DVD, and it would be the same pattern. Get home from work, watch 2-4 episodes. On weekends I would binge-watch and finish up. I can’t wait for Season 7, which premieres next week.”

McCain says when she first started watching, she reckoned she would not like the TV series as much as the books, “But it has its own charms, and I like how they’ve made it into its own thing, especially since they’ve had to move past the books now and forge ahead with a new storyline.” It certainly helps that ‘Game of Thrones’ shoots around the globe, with a juicy budget which even some feature films can only dream of.

Nigerians, no strangers to high drama themselves, have embraced HBO’s series wholeheartedly. To find out why they have become hooked to the stories of the Starks, the Lannisters, the Targaryens, and many others who all seem to equally – and righteously – have a claim to the throne, we asked some of them.  

Othman Abdulrasheed, 33, said he caught the bug during the ‘Occupy Nigeria’ protests of 2012, while he was trying to curb boredom. “A friend shared a few episodes with me and I became hooked. I watched everything during that period, only taking pauses to pray, even eating meals glued to the screen,” he said. 

Abdulrasheed also said while he’s not a typical TV series-watcher (“I easily get bored, watched only two seasons of ‘Prison Break’, got lost after the first season of ‘Lost’…”), ‘Game of Thrones’ was able to keep his attention. “I have an odd way of watching it, though; I allow the episodes to pile up and I binge-watch,” he said, expressing his excitement at the impending season premiere next week.

Michaela Moye, 34, said ‘Game of Thrones’ hasn’t really changed her TV-viewing habits, as she has always been a secret TV junkie. “What do I enjoy most about ‘Game of Thrones’? Besides Jaime Lannister in all his gorgeousness? I would say the monsters, both human and non-human,” she said, adding: “Particularly the human.”

Most, if not all, respondents said what endeared the show to them, ironically, is the willingness of the story to brutally sacrifice major characters. Beloved characters, even, like staunch decent guy Ned Stark, who got his head lopped off by the tail-end of the very first season. That’s when audiences began to suspect that ‘Game of Thrones’ will not be the average TV drama. The shock and gore did not stop there, as every season had its fair share of it. Mention ‘The Red Wedding’ and fans would shudder, being a most shocking, major-character-death-filled moment. The lesson? If you’re looking for a happy ending, ‘Game of Thrones’ isn’t where to find one. 

Complex and accessible at the same time, Thrones’ vast roster of characters is probably its biggest strength. The morally-ambiguous main characters ensure the intricacy of the conflicts, family feuds and all-out wars play out like a blood-soaked tapestry. Abubakar Tafawa-Balewa, 42, said he became a fan only last season, and ended up binging all the way from the very first season. “It teaches lessons on life, with the aid of superbly-written characters. They evolve with every episode, showing how masterful the writing is. The twists are nerve-wracking, too, making it definitely one of TVs greatest shows,” he said.

Tafawa-Balewa also said his favourite character is Jon Snow, which rings true for the character globally.

But the show’s massive popularity has affected how Dapo Olasiyan, 50, watches it. “The fact that it is almost impossible to avoid discussions on it after it has aired. Therefore, I now watch it as soon as it airs, which means in the UK I’ve sometimes been up at 2:00am. This became more important to do once the show started diverging from the books,” he said.

As the show’s popularity soars in Nigeria, so does the ‘spoil-ability’, so to speak. Abolaji Alausa, 37, once wrote on Facebook ‘For the Internet is dark and full of spoilers’, and the post got liked and shared repeatedly. A while back, only a few would get the Night’s Watch reference, but now almost everyone gets the inevitable related trivia. “The popularity ensures that I watch it as quickly as possible, else memes, posts and reports would spoil the story for me,” he said. 

For the showrunners, the stakes are higher now that the series is reaching its end, with a season 8 finale billed for 2018. They spoke in a recent cover story for Time Magazine, with Benioff groaning: “Look at how difficult it is to protect information in this age. The CIA can’t do it. The NSA can’t do it. What chance do we have?” 

But perhaps, most telling of how deep the interest in ‘Game of Thrones’ goes in Nigeria, and of course globally, is the comment of Lulufa Vongtau, 50, who said: “I cannot recall being so pumped about a TV show. ‘Game of Thrones isn’t an addiction, it is life.”