Game of Thrones club hopes to spread its love of the popular TV series. Photo courtesy of Tippa Chan
Early this fall, on the bus returning from the annual Camp Hazen prefect retreat, Will Brown ’19 and Matt Cuomo ’19 decided to start a club dedicated to Game of Thrones. The popular HBO fantasy drama is based on George R. R. Martin’s bestselling series A Song of Ice and Fire. The franchise follows three storylines — a war between several families(the Starks, the Lannisters, and the Baratheons); the exiled Daenerys Targaryen’s attempts to return and reclaim her family’s power; and Jon Snow’s hopes to protect the land from an incoming siege. At each biweekly meeting, Brown and Cuomo promise pizza and a chance to view Game of Thrones and discuss its conspiracy theories. “If you watch Game of Thrones, come to the meetings,” said Brown.
They didn’t start their Game of Thrones journey too long ago. Cuomo began watching the seven-season series as a sophomore. Brown says he binge-watched the entire series over the summer. Cuomo’s favorite character is Daenerys Targaryen. Brown, on the other hand, favors Tyrion Lannister. This year, Brown began reading A Game of Thrones, the series’ first novel. However, he has had trouble finding time to finish it. Although each episode runs between 50 and 80 minutes in length, the books are each about a thousand pages long. Since the TV show is reasonably accessible online, the Game of Thrones Club chose to focus on the show rather than the books.
Before this year, neither was especially involved with clubs. Brown was a member of UNICEF, and Cuomo had joined Make-A-Wish. After the conversation on the bus, they recruited Mr. Ned Gallagher as their faculty adviser. On their cabinet is Cameron Polemeni-Hegarty ’20 and Ryan Kim ’20. Although there is no shortage of Game of Thrones fans on campus, it wasn’t particularly easy to get the club approved. This raises the question: If a Game of Thrones Club was allowed, what other clubs would have to be allowed? However, the club leaders believe that Game of Thrones is different. “There’s just so much going on — so many conspiracy theories and so much to talk about,” said Cuomo. “You can’t have The Office Club, because there’s nothing really going on.”
Game of Thrones Club’s first meeting was held two weeks ago in Elman Auditorium. There were about 30 attendees, all from a wide spectrum of grades and experience with the series. Cuomo and Brown, both prefects, encouraged their prefectees to come. “I thought it was a great introduction to people who know about the series and people who don’t know about the series,” said Monty Singer ’22, a Memorial House resident. Singer himself has watched the entire series twice, and is making progress through A Game of Thrones. During the meeting, the club played a Game of Thrones trivia game; Brown and Cuomo were surprised at the expertise of the attendees.
Game of Thrones Club plans on sponsoring a SAC dance and designing T-shirts at some point. When the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones is released this spring, the club will gather to watch these episodes. Until then, Game of Thrones Club will continue to meet every two weeks — come join them for Game of Thrones revelry and, of course, the pizza.
