A Good-Enough Fan Within the Online Fan Community of Game of Thrones:

v List of figures . viii Chapter 1: Introduction . 9 1.1 Focus and aim . 10 1.2 Research questions . 10 1.3 Thesis Outline . 11 Chapter 2: Conceptual framework . 13 2.1 Identity on Web 2.0 . 13 2.2 Identity and Fandom . 15 2.3 Fan engagement regarding enoughness . 17 2.4 Towards a conceptual model of the ideal fan . 19 2.5 An ‘ideal’ fan . 20 Chapter 3: Research design . 22 3.1 Justifying online research . 22 3.2 Criteria for selection of (fan) websites and Tumblr-pages . 23 3.3 Methodology . 24 3.3.1 Lurking . 24 3.3.2 Email-interviews . 25 3.3.3 Coding . 28 3.3.4 Computer Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis with NVivo . 30 3.4 Respondents . 32 Chapter 4: The online fan community of Game of Thrones . 33 4.1 Science fiction/ fantasy genre . 33 4.1.1 History of A Song of Ice and Fire . 34 4.1.2 History of Game of Thrones . 35 4.2 Fan communities and the Internet . 36 4.3 Community of Practice . 37 4.4 Community of Practice in GoT-fandom . 37 Chapter 5: Results . 39 5.1 Fans about online and offline . 40 5.1.1 The role of the Internet . 40 5.2.2 GoT-friends inand outside the fandom . 41 A GOOD-ENOUGH FAN WITHIN THE ONLINE FAN COMMUNITY OF GAME OF THRONES vii 5.2 Self for Self in relation to fandom . 42 5.2.1 Respondents’ own identification . 43 5.2.2 Fan dynamics of identification and their fan engagement . 46 5.3 Self about Others . 49 5.4 Others about self . 50 5.4.1 Reposting and reblogging . 50 5.4.2 No spoilers please . 51 5.4.3 Spreading the word . 52 5.4.4 Fluent in the GoT-language . 53 5.5 The good-enough fan . 53 Chapter 6: Overview and discussion . 57 6.1 Overview . 57 6.1.1 Fans about online and offline fandom . 58 6.1.2 Fans about Self and Others . 59 6.1.3 Level of enoughness regarding fan-being . 61 6.2 Discussion . 62 6.2.1 Theoretical contribution to fan studies . 62 6.2.2 Fan identity of ideal fan. 63 6.3 Recommendations for future research . 67 References . 69 Appendices . 75 A GOOD-ENOUGH FAN WITHIN THE ONLINE FAN COMMUNITY OF GAME OF THRONES viii List of figures Figure 1: Honeycomb of social media (Kietzman et al. 2010, p. 243) Figure 2: Geek hierarchy by Löre Sjöberg (2002). Figure 3: Theoretical model of normative behavior in fan communities Figure 4: Interview guide meaning of being a fan regarding enoughness Figure 5: Code book for lurking regarding enoughness A GOOD-ENOUGH FAN WITHIN THE ONLINE FAN COMMUNITY OF GAME OF THRONES 9 Chapter 1: Introduction We all are fans of something (Sullivan, 2012) and we all have our opinions about those favorite cultural objects. Bourdieu (2008, first published in 1986) suggested that ‘cultural object[s]’ are living social institutions which are, at the same time, a materialistic object such as a novel and a work of art. Members are active within the social institution to protect the appearance of the cultural object. An example of this phenomenon is a fan quote of a Star Wars fan after The Walt Disney Company announced they were planning to make new Star Wars movies: “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! ” I don’t want a new movie. Star Wars has had enough movies. And they can’t cast new people to be Han, Leia and Luke. The original cast members are too old for this stuff, unless.this will be like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. No. Dear God. No. George Lucas, you are now officially the biggest sell-out in the universe. ” – James Earl Jones, played the role of Darth Vader (Proctor, 2013, p. 201). According to Proctor (2013), this utterance originates from fan ownership of the cultural object (e.g. Star Wars): the fan disagrees with the intention of The Walt Disney Company to make new Star Wars movies and he blames the original creator (George Lucas) for it. This study looks at Game of Thrones as a cultural object. Game of Thrones is a high-fantasy television series produced by HBO. It is an adaptive version of the A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF), a novel series of George R.R. Martin. This study briefly examined the online events within the online GoT fan community regarding George R.R. Martin’s first three books of the ASOIAF novel series and the first three season of HBO’s Game of Thrones (20112013). The series follows the plot of the novels series. The main story of ASOIAF revolves around the quest of being/becoming the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms and being/becoming the King or Queen of the Iron Throne of the who fictional continent Westeros. There are several competing families to claim this title. There are also some parallel stories. The secondary story is about the danger represented by a Northern people called the Others; a third story focuses Daenerys Targaryen’s adventures in Essos, the other continent. Daenerys Targaryen is still a young girl when she is married to a Dorthraki warrior by her older brother. Later her husband kills her brother and dies; Daenerys ‘gives birth’ to three dragons by walking out of a big fire, which made her ‘Mother of Dragons’ and ‘Bride of Fire’. 1 First, book one A Game of Thrones (first published in 1996), second, book two A Clash of Kings (1999), and three, book three A Storm of Swords (2000). A GOOD-ENOUGH FAN WITHIN THE ONLINE FAN COMMUNITY OF GAME OF THRONES 10 In this the Game of Thrones-fandom, henceforth the GoT-fandom, covers all fan activities around ASOIAF and HBO’s Game of Thrones. GoT, as an abbreviation, is used with other words such GoT-fan