Adam-Troy Castro

Writer of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, and Stories About Yams.

 

This Community We Love is Infested With Toxic Spoiled Brats

Posted on July 19th, 2017 by Adam-Troy Castro
  • I am not a fan of singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran.

By this I do not mean that I disapprove of him, or rule out ever becoming a fan of his.  I only mean that I only barely know who he is.

When 60 Minutes profiled him, it was I think the first time I had encountered his name, and I took note that he had achieved superstar status and that his music was evidently gentle and lovely, and when he appeared on Game of Thrones, I noted only that the scene was a quiet one that served as a break from all the horror and bloodshed and gave us a bittersweet taste of the price all the show’s constant warfare has on those who get drafted to serve the egos of the show’s royalty.

 It is possible that his character has been introduced, as a decent guy who makes friends with Arya, not intending to take advantage of a lone woman on the road, but merely to alleviate the crushing boredom and loneliness of the road, only to die horribly in next week’s episode. I hope not. But if you never see him again, he and the other actors with him have fulfilled their story purpose, already.
 
I am not a fan of Sheeran’s in the sense that I could name any of his songs at gunpoint. But that doesn’t mean I am, by default, against him. I bear him no ill will. I wish him success and have no problem with the prospect of investigating his work, someday.

Ed Sheeran, who is a fan of Game of Thrones, who got cast because he openly begged the producers to give him a bit part and had a nice little scene written for him, a scene that added texture to the story and even if you hated it took up only three minutes of your life, 
has had to shut down his twitter feed because Game of Thrones fans have invaded in force, showering him with abuse because they are irate that the focus of another fandom has invaded theirs. They accuse him of ruining the show and stress that they don’t give a shit about his music, which sucks anyway.
 
This is why we can’t have nice things.
 
This community we love is infested with toxic, spoiled brats.

44 Responses to "This Community We Love is Infested With Toxic Spoiled Brats"

  1. Stories like this are why I’ve never gotten a Twitter account.

  2. I’ve liked the few songs of his I’ve heard, but like you, I don’t have much of an opinion of him either way. This is terrible that people could be so petty. I also think it’s possible this is partly due to the fact that his fandom is primarily younger women — I hate to think that, but I wonder. :/

  3. That’s a huge part of it – any musician that appeals to young women is automatically deemed crap and therefore deserving of scorn, regardless of its merits. It’s been going on for decades.

  4. true. >:(

  5. It’s why people have such scorn for the romance genre, without ever reading any.

  6. Hubby and I are 50-something and love his music. I see nothing to scorn. Long before I’d heard of his potential appearance in GOT I said to hubby “he’s really a modern troubadour when you think about it” so it makes sense to me that he’d fit the GOT worldview.

  7. Yes, I think the fact that his fandom is largely younger women IS a factor; these GAME OF THRONES fans reacted as if their favorite western was just invaded by some crooner (as happened without harm about a hundred times, singers like Ricky Nelson and Fabian and Glen Campbell a staple, for the kids, in John Wayne movies — and usually acquitting themselves quite well). Ewww, the true immature male believers exclaim, that’s girly!

    The fact of the matter is that the makers of GAME OF THRONES, faced with this opportunity and thinking intelligently on how a cameo by Sheeran could serve their story, chose well. They cast him as a pretty decent bloke who sings nice songs about pretty women, and then didn’t allow the story to grind to a halt for five minutes while the story was sung. He served the whole, whether or not his character gets killed horribly next week.

    He has nothing to apologize for.

    We do.

  8. well said, Adam

  9. Mike Glyer, by God, I want you to see this entry.

  10. I’d noticed who Ed Sheeran was last year. Talented singer, extremely talented songwriter (jaw-droppingly good lines of poetry to the point where I had to look up the writer when hearing one of his songs covered by a different artist), evidently nice bloke with a ridiculously huge following in Britain, and as a big bonus, looks more round-faced red-haired teddy bear than matinee idol, making him perfect casting for an average soldier with an unusually good singing voice.

    George is happy. Maisie is happy. I’m happy with the scene too, for all the reasons you stated.

    The fans who are weirdly possessive of George and HBO’s art need to lay off. It’s not like they broke the fourth wall and had a pop idol play himself.

  11. If he’d simply been an actor with a good singing voice, nobody would have said boo. This is so very different how?

  12. As I understand it, part of the reason behind putting him in the show is because Maisie Williams is a big fan.

    I frankly don’t think much of his music, but y’know what? None of that has to do with the show. It was a good scene, I liked seeing Arya have an encounter with people that didn’t go horribly wrong, and its ultimate effect on my enjoyment of the episode was positive.

  13. His music has been in the Rings (Tolkien) movies, so why not in GoT too? :0)

  14. I thought that scene was the perfect counterpoint to what had just preceded it.

    Arya had her Badass Murder Moments, said her ominous lines to the survivor, and walked out like a boss… and then ran into the ordinary people who had been sent out to find out wtf she just did and deal with the unseen fallout of her actions. And you could see the conflict on her face over encountering Lannisters who did not fit the mold of her vendetta or even deserve to personally deal with the clusterfuck she had just left behind. It was a wonderful humanization of the opposing faction of her crusade.

  15. It’s further proof that people just like to bitch about things for the sole purpose of bitching. They are sullying the good name of Trolls.

  16. Sorry / Not Sorry

  17. He was cast as a surprise for Maisie Williams, is what I heard. His ability to attract young female eyeballs would certainly have been a consideration, I imagine.

  18. I knew who Ed Sheeran is. Like him. Heard he was doing a scene, thought he was a fine match for the show. I’ll probably like the scene when I see it.

  19. Ugh. Poor guy. I had no idea who he is either, wondered a little why the camera was lingering on him, but thought his scene was fine. He’s got a lovely voice.

  20. Oh my god! The audacity of casting a singer in an acting role that’s not a musical!

    Frank Sinatra would be mad From Here To Eternity. Jon Bon Jovi would rather sink in the U-571 boat. Harry Connick Jr. wouldn’t be able to enjoy his Independence Day. Bjork would be as confused as a Dancer in the Dark. (And so on…)

  21. You mean a singer who has some experience working a stage and playing to an audience could never ever ever have some basic acting chops?

  22. I know, right? It’s inconceivable!

  23. I don’t think that word means what you think it means … 😉

  24. Absolutely true, Adam. Along with all the other moronic and offensive types of “fan” there is also the one that says of everything, “If I don’t personally care about it, it has no right to exist whatsoever.” People who think like that need to be slapped upside the head until they wake up.

  25. I’ve never seen Game of Thrones. A lot of people might assume that I’m trying to make some kind of statement ABOUT Game of Thrones by saying that I’ve never seen it. Really, it just means that I can’t afford premium channels. I have seen snippets of Ed Sheeran playing music. He was a guest on SNL last weekend. I thought his music was kind of pleasant but bland. Halfway through the song, I hit fast forward. I will not buy the album, but if other people choose to do so, I hope they enjoy it. I like the movies of David Lynch. Some people don’t. I don’t know why other people spend so much time trying to convince me why I shouldn’t like his movies. I despise movies by Michael Bay and his ilk. Transformers is literal torture to me. The urging of others that it is a “Good old popcorn movie” oddly doesn’t seem to persuade me.

    All this is to say, I guess, that people should like what they like, ignore what they don’t like, and not get so fanatically wrapped up in it.

  26. Thank you, it had to be said. Social media is a prolific bullying platform these days.

  27. Margaret: I don’t really consider this a form of bullying. I think it’s more that they are so self-absorbed that when they run into people talking about something they have no interest in, they’re offended because either they feel like they’re somehow missing out or they’re offended because they can’t take part in the conversation and must therefore either change the subject or walk away.

  28. Possibly on a related note, I also follow the actor Ron Perlman’s page. Yesterday, I saw a post wherein he commented on Trump’s unfitness to be President. He was instantly besieged by dozens of posts and comments demanding that he “Stay in his lane.” and “Just shtu up abot things you don’t know abut” (misspellings are deliberate, to convey the level of the dialogue) and “I don’t come here for your ignorant opinions.” (Then why DO you come here? You liked the movie Hellboy, so now you think he’s your property or something?) Post after post demanding that he basically shut up and be their little dancing monkey boy.

    Today, a search for Ron Perlman on FB turns up no results. I wonder if he just decided to say fuck it and leave.

  29. I just found another link to Ron’s page. I don’t know why it wasn’t showing up before, but he’s still there and left a scathing reply to the people bossing him around like he owes them something for watching him in a movie. Apparently, they saw him in Sons of Anarchy, so they own him or something. Weird.

  30. A few years back, Stephen Colbert, who is well-known to be a huge, chapter-and-verse-quoting fan of J.R.R. Tolkien, had a cameo in one of the Hobbit movies. As far as I can recall, it didn’t provoke anything resembling this level of outrage. Is that just because fandom considers Colbert “cool” and Sheeran not? I hope not.

  31. I am a mild Ed Sheeran fan (he’s been a guest on Graham Norton a few times and he’s always amusing). He was fine in the small scene in the woods with likely Lannister soldiers meeting up with Arya. Sheeran is a GOT fan, Williams is a Sheeran fan, she’s had challenging and mostly unpleasant scenes since early in the show so if she just wanted the chance to flirt in the woods with some cute guys, it’s not the end of the show as we know it. Kind of like earlier in the day when some of the snowflakes melted over a Doctor Who without a dick.

  32. My opinion is that our community is infested with a lot of toxic spoiled brats who begrudge talented people their successes and enjoy ripping people down.

  33. What the actual fuck?

  34. I have never understood why things like casting someone in a role is enough to send people over the edge. I look at television for entertainment. The only thing that matters to me is if I am interested and find it time well spent. If I don’t like it, don’t like the story direction or even the actor, I move on. No need to heap abuse on someone. I was surprised to see Ed in the show. More surprised that I recognized him but his appearance did not take away my enjoyment. Just think, if you had the chance to be in one of your favorite shoes, wouldn’t you leap at the chance?

  35. I don’t get the outrage. I just don’t. I’m an old K/S fan, and I’m not a huge fan of the reboot with Chris Pine–does that mean I’m going to go out of my way to trash him as Kirk (or Zach Quinto as Spock) just because “canon” now has Spock banging Uhura or Kirk banging a green Orion? No, because they are “fictional” and *someone* is enjoying them and my old Trek is still there, still intact, and I can rewatch it (and read good fanfic, even revisit my old fanfic) until I die.

    So they gave Ed Sheeran a role. Big deal. Good for Sheeran. Why does this matter so much to people? Just don’t look at it if you don’t like it. Plenty of folks will like it.

  36. I missed when this sort of thing happened to Whoopi Goldberg when Guinan first appeared on STtNG.

  37. And Guinan is still a favorite character for me from NG.

  38. Some of us Mom types also like Ed Sheeran. Scene was sweet. People really need to get over themselves.

  39. […] WHY WE CAN’T HAVE NICE THINGS. Adam-Troy Castro links to his post “This Community We Love is Infested With Toxic Spoiled Brats” with this comment: “The object of a fandom you don’t care about is not a deadly infection […]

  40. I vaguely know who Sheeran is and if I hadn’t been told, would not have noticed it at all, just thinking him an actor doing a scene. My perspective is that it boils down to the incredible insecurity felt by men who do the sort of complaining/trolling/attacking mentioned in the column. How dare the the producers parade a desirable male across the screen? It dares to remind women that they have choices beyond the unwashed and grotesque gargoyles, fingers oily from snack foods, who are parked in front of their TVs. Won’t somebody think of those men who are even uglier on the inside than the outside?

  41. As others have said, it’s a lot pouty man babies upset that someone got girl cooties all over their show. (Combined with the shock of a lady Doctor, and well!)

    Pop stars that appeal to a largely young and largely female audience have a harder time getting taken seriously (because stupid GURLS like them, how good can they be?) It was a very good scene in the episode – Arya not sure how to react to people just being nice to her, when she’s surely expecting them to rape and/or murder her. The soldiers just tired of the endless war and wanting to go home – and he was well cast in the part.

  42. I always find the amount of energy people can put into such things fascinating.

    I don’t think the criticism has anything to do with what he actually does or is there for, though. It seems to be mainly that people find it immersion-breaking – a 4th-wall problem, basically. Now I’m not entirely sure why a singer would be much different than an actor there, but I guess I could see it if you actually know the bloke. If Justin Bieber popped-up in an episode it’d probably be rather incredulous about that as well, no matter how talented an actor or not he is.

    But of course that’s no excuse for any type of abuse, and if there’s anyone to criticize then surely it’s the producers for picking him, not the guy. He’d have been insane to turn the role down.

  43. Well Twitter, as you and I both know, is not for the gentle-hearted. I have been threatened with doxxing (that was one morning before 10 AM. I guess my work was done that day because I had gotten someone’s goat, but good, that day), I have been called most bad words, I have been told that my IQ hovers around that of a cabbage, and so on. One can laugh these things off while scratching one’s head about how people can seriously get so irate for something that is but little to them, OR one can promptly delete said account and live one’s life merrily after that.

    I cannot condone those fanatics that are asses about their “precious”. All we can say is they have always existed and just seem more prominent now.

  44. *shrug* I had two whole friends who apparently had a love-to-hate thing going on, and I let them have their fun with it. On the subject of whether there are spoiled brats in my house, though, I’d need to move a river to clean out these stables.

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