Overreacting Much? My take on some of the angry responses to episode 2 of HBO’s “Game of Thrones”

Possible SPOILER ALERT: If you haven’t watched yesterday’s episode of GoT yet but are still planning on it, come back after you’ve seen it (or risk having the end ruined for you)!


I don’t think I’ve mentioned it in this blog (since I usually talk about my writing and/or school work), but I am a huge animal lover, and an animal activist. I believe that animals have rights, and that people that commit cruel acts towards animals deserve to be punished. I get upset when I watch a tv show or movie that shows animals dying (being killed or just dying by natural causes – both really bum me out). And I was upset for a good 5 min Sunday night after I watched the scene where Ned Stark kills his daughter’s direwolf, Lady. But when I heard how many viewers of the show were seriously outraged by the wolf’s death, I was blown away.

(If you haven’t heard about the comments people have made regarding the episode, check out this article from EW online.) First off, IT’S JUST A STORY. A novel, hence FICTION. Not real. Made up. It came from someone’s imagination. How can something that isn’t even real make people so angry? Sure, you might not like it. It might bother you a little. But to freak out to the point of saying you’ll no longer watch the show? Because a fictional animal was killed? I just don’t get it.

Maybe that's because every day REAL live wolves are brutally murdered. Do these commenters know or care about this fact? I don’t know. I hope so. I hope that the kind of person who’d get so upset about a fictional animal’s death would also care about the actual wolves out there in the wilderness. If you happen to be a person who cares about the wolves, I urge you to check out this site or this site. There are many things you can do to help save these endangered creatures. I myself just adopted a wolf family for $45, and am waiting for my plush wolf and other goodies to arrive in the mail any day now!  :)

Then there are the other commenters (group B), the ones who bash the “how dare you have killed the direwolf!” commenters (group A). Group B is enraged. They want to know why group A is making such a big deal over the death of an animal, instead of being upset over the rape(?) of an under-aged girl, or the attempted murder of a ten year old boy. To group B, I say – why does it have to be either or?!?

I see this a lot on animal activism sites. People want to know why the activists don’t care about the abuse of humans. Why people are so vocal about saving the animals when natural disasters (such as the one in Japan a few weeks back) occur. What about the people? they want to know. My first answer is why do you automatically think I "don't care" about the humans because I am trying to raise awareness for the animals? Can't I do both? Can't I want to help the people and the animals?!?

Then there's the fact that the majority of animals (especially house pets) are defenseless against humans. And most of them depend on us, on human beings, to take care of them. To feed them, to shelter them, to protect them. They depend on us to survive.

Humans CHOOSE where they live, what jobs they work, etc. When a human family moves away and leaves their dog tied to a tree in the backyard, the dog does not have a choice! The dog is left there to slowly and painfully starve to death, while it’s “family” moves on with their lives in another town or state. When a lunatic person is sitting around bored and suddenly decides it would be amusing to light a cat on fire, the 10 pound cat is not able to fight back! Someone must stand up for these animals, and I have chosen to be one of the people who do.

*steps off soapbox*

Rant over. Feel free to leave me a comment telling me how you feel - about the show, the responses the episode got, animal rights, whatever. I'm all ears  :)