‘Like a 10-year drunk party’: Game of Thrones showrunners slammed for tone-deaf Q&A

After the show’s disastrous final season, the writers of Game of Thrones have given a bizarre Q&A so tone-deaf many initially believed it was satire.

After largely keeping their heads down following the disastrous final season of Game of Thrones, showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss have popped up for a bizarre Q&A so tone-deaf many initially believed it was satire.

The pair pulled out of a Game of Thrones panel at the San Diego Comic-Con in the wake of the backlash to season eight of the show, which was widely panned by fans and critics and saw more than 1.75 million people sign a petition calling for a remake “with competent writers”.

While they controversially scored big at last month’s Emmy Awards, Benioff and Weiss have largely avoided addressing the fan reaction or answering questions; before the finale, they vowed to spend it “very drunk and far away from the internet”.

That is, until now. They were awarded 2019 Outstanding Television Writer at the Austin Film Festival on Saturday — and afterwards sat down with AFF executive director Barbara Morgan to take questions from the audience.

pic.twitter.com/i6CKDf3Oi4

— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019

Twitter user and writer @ForArya live-tweeted the Q&A, which was also attended by a number of local publications, in a thread that quickly went viral.

Benioff and Weiss reportedly described the production of the show as like a “10-year drunk party” and complained about “giving up” 10 years of their life. The pair expressed surprise that they were entrusted with the show with so little experience and described it as like an “expensive film school”.

Benioff reportedly spoke about their meeting with series author George RR Martin where he questioned their “bona fides”, saying “we didn’t really have any” and “we don’t know why he trusted us with his life’s work”.

Weiss joked how the in the early days, with no background in fantasy, they found writing dialogue awkward. “In every scene, we were three lines away from Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” he said.

Benioff reportedly said they wanted to remove as many fantasy elements from the show as possible because “we didn’t just want to appeal to that type of fan” but wanted to expand the fan base to “mothers, NFL players”.

Asked whether they tried to “boil down” the major elements of the books they said they didn’t as “the scope was too big”, saying it was “about the scenes we were trying to depict and the show was about power”.

At one point, discussing how they were very granular in details of individual shots but often lose sight of the big picture, they recalled how the mother of a baby featured in season one “was not happy because Dan just kept talking about a close-up of the baby’s penis”.

They talking about the pilot and their friends who they let watch their first attempt at a pilot. One of the people was Craig Mazin (wrote Chernobyl) Scott Frank and Ted Griffin. He acknowledged that the first pilot was basic writing mistakes.

— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019

Dan wanted to remove as many fantasy elements as possible bc “we didn’t just want to appeal to that type of fan.” They wanted to expand the fan base to people beyond the fantasy fan base to “mothers, NFL players”...

— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019

Dan is saying that #GameofThrones was basically an expensive film school for he and Dave. For example, they had no idea how to work with costume designers, and it was a huge learning experience.

— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019

Were you listening to the feedback to your fans as things went along?

Dan: “We really did not.”

Dan doesn’t see the value of considering other people’s reactions.

Dave acknowledged that he googled the show and it upset him. Dan, no. @dndgoogling

— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019

What was your process?

We just started writing. But as things went on we had to outline. Divvied up scripts. They didn’t work together in the same room. One took first half, the other the last half, then they would swap. They gave episodes to Bryan Cogman and David Hill.

— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019

Dan: “it was like a ten year drunk party.”

— Needle & Pen (@ForArya) October 26, 2019

Users on Twitter were, understandably, not happy.

Literally every time you’re feeling like you’re not qualified to do something just reread this thread bc I promise you you are not qualified to do anything than these two dudes were to run one of the biggest shows in the history of television oh my god https://t.co/4nTq4QA3BK

— I'm PREETI scary (@runwithskizzers) October 27, 2019

Good morning to @ForArya only for getting every writer on Twitter to hate D&D's guts pic.twitter.com/r3b9IOKEQ3

— Geralt Targaryen (@giornoofrivia) October 28, 2019

between that Game of Thrones thread and the current political climate, I remain more secure than ever in my belief that all the wrong people have imposter syndrome

— Paul Krueger (@NotLikeFreddy) October 27, 2019

I would like to pitch a Lord Of The Rings series.

No, I have not read the books. No, I have not watched the films. No, I am not too familiar with the lore.

And I’d probably downplay the whole “ring” thing to appeal to people who are partial to watches.

Anyway, hire me!

— ShAAAH!!!!nnon Miller 💗💜💙 (@Phunky_Brewster) October 27, 2019