There are many reasons to dislike Game of Thrones – the endless hype, the gratuitous sex and violence in lieu of a meaningful plot, the experience of having to listen to fans of the show blather on long after you’ve told them you don’t watch the show and aren’t interested. The CIA have just added another reason to the list – this week a former Deputy Director of the CIA made a cameo appearance on the show.
The final season of Game of Thrones is a massive anti-climax, with the writers/producers having run out of ideas at least two seasons ago. The sense that the show is simply recycling what it’s does before in the name of highly profitable fan service is fairly widespread. Like Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith a lot of people are just watching to get it over and done with.
Medieval rape and dragon fantasies simply don’t interest me. On top of that I’ve always (and I do mean always) found that anything that is hyped to the extent Game of Thrones is never lives up to the relentless barrage of promotional noise. I never imagined I would be writing about Game of Thrones, but then this happened:
A perk of working for CIA is world travel. Apparently that sometimes extends to other realms…
“Little birds,” be on the lookout for a former deputy director of ours wandering through #Westeros in tonight’s episode of #GameOfThrones. pic.twitter.com/DBIzIFKoju
— CIA (@CIA) April 22, 2019
Picked up by virtually every news outlet in the Western world, on this week’s episode of Game of Thrones there was a cameo by a former Deputy Director of the CIA – David S. Cohen. However, this wasn’t arranged through the CIA’s entertainment liaison office – it appears Cohen’s brother in law is one of the co-creators of the show.
Naturally, the CIA seized on this piece of luck to tie themselves in with a hugely popular TV brand and try to look cool. It seems a world where women are frequently raped, the poor are brutalised and exploited by a wealthy elite, and there is a never-ending struggle for power is right up the CIA’s alley. Or, as one sharp-tongued twitter observer put it:
CIA ran out of real countries to overthrow so now they're after fictional ones
— thrash (@samsclubhotdog) April 22, 2019
Other responses to the CIA’s tweet are in a similar vein:
Is he overthrowing the Starks in Winterfell to install The Night King who has more interests in line with the United States?
— Pwager UwU *notices bulge* (@Lobo_Calrissian) April 22, 2019
And:
https://twitter.com/la_sopa/status/1120124751958224896
And:
Very fitting. CIA agents would feel right at home in an environment built on betrayal, torture, hatred, blood, violence and pure evil.
— Francisco Almeida Fo (@falmeida78) April 23, 2019
And my personal favourite:
Attempting to stage a military coup in an otherwise peaceful, democratic nation? Can your lust for inserting neo-colonial American influence ever be satisfied? Was there oil found off the coast? What the fuck is wrong with you people?
— 1984 is the PRESENT (@bobflagfan) April 22, 2019