“Game of Thrones”: is it reasonable to live the end of the show as mourning?

TRAUMA – “Game of Thrones” is over. Fans from around the world attended the epilogue of the series the time of a final episode, marking a high moment of collective mourning. A psychologist fan of GOT explains this seemingly irrational, yet authentic, mechanism.

It s a painful time for any show fan to watch the last episode of the final season. So much so that the one of the Game of Thrones, which the most adventurous fans waited in the night from Sunday to Monday, could be likened for some to the accompaniment of a loved one in the Death Race.

This is for example what the aficionados of Six Feet Under had also experienced, this series created in 2001 by Alan Ball on a family of dead croquet, mourned from the very first episode by the death of the patriarch, progressively understanding, in contact with the others, to what extent they remained, them, alive. A sublime idea of a final episode was to “kill the show” and assemble all the deaths of each member of this family and their loved ones. Paradoxically, the effect at that time encouraged each spectator to “live his life” in turn (to leave the small screen to look at others, to love them, to follow his desires, etc.) and there emerged an emotion so strong that it remains today-some talk about it with tremolos in their voice. Filmmaker Xavier Dolan first: he never got over it, so much so that he picked up many ideas from this series for his Mommy films and until the end of the world.

Recently, The Leftovers series, from the fertile brain of Damon Lindelof, the co-creator of Lost, has reproduced a similar phenomenon; and, obviously, given the passions, positive or negative, that it takes on, the diffusion of the latest episode of Game of Thrones produces a similar emotional impact. It is neither more nor less than the twilight of a federative and robust saga, with twists and turns punches, having kept its spectators in suspense for years since the broadcast of the very first episode in 2011. A climate such that some may not recover: according to a Harris study, 11 million Americans would have planned not to go to work on Monday for this reason.

Mourning a time and its memories

So, is it reasonable to react this way, or are we walking on our heads? Perhaps the first thing to consider is all the events correlated to a series. An extreme attachment that, according to the psychologist Samuel Dock, contacted by LCI, is explained by the duration of existence: “series like Six Feet Under out the Leftovers have taken the time to develop complex situations, by inscribing them in initiatory narratives, by investing certain psychology of the characters. When they come to an end, the spectator must mourn the loss. Of course, we can watch the old episodes. Of course, we can go back. But for all that, this feeling of expectation is forever lost.”

Game of Thrones does not escape the rule: “many intimate memories are linked to this series, such as some theme weddings, evenings with friends from the beginning, this series proposes extremely varied characters to which everyone can identify – even if some, very appreciated by the spectators, are dead and buried for a long time. In this last episode, it is the death knell of an era that the fans will have to give up. The characters will then carry with them the identification of the spectator. “And the mourning of this series of being” impossible “if its conclusion is not up to the expectations as well as the stakes:” The Spectator will have turned around the desire without ever reaching it,” he continues. “In other words, if the end does not meet the spectator’s expectations, there is a feeling of betrayal, powerlessness, or even depression.”

Another important point on which the psychologist insists is the notion of trauma: “I have the impression that, on this last episode, the violation of the founding codes of the narrative, that is the way we decide the fate of the characters, will leave traces persisting in the spectator. Of course, we were used to violent deaths in the show from the beginning, but they had their share of coherence, they were able to fit into the narrative. At this point, as this is a last straight line, these deaths will no longer have time to unfold in time. The fan can’t think about it, can’t put words to it. A psychic content he can’t imagine, he can’t think. Because it’s too sudden, too brutal, this firework is so difficult for anyone. However, one can only detach oneself from what one can imagine.”

A very simple question then arises to help the hardcore fans who are afraid of being forcibly interned this Monday: “how can one calmly recover from such a cathode mourning? “First of all, it is necessary to question the over-investment of oneself in a cultural product,” notes the psychologist. “And then, I think, we have to go back to the books, to approach the series differently, by making it live in its spirit, by cultivating it… so many ways to make the narration endure, to handle the narrative and even to reinvent it. It is necessary to assimilate, to remember that these characters do not exist, that it is a fantasy configuration, visions of artists and that we can invent more pleasant destinies for them. There is now nothing to stop us from rewriting history. “Or a way to avert the dreadful fate by the transcendent force of our imagination.