I really didn’t want to write this, but my hand was forced. One, I’m a slave to procrastination, and I’m under deadline. And two, I have a rule:if you fuck up one of my fandoms, you’re allowed a pass. But if you’re going to fuck up two, then I have to say something.

History is not going to be kind to David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. These two have been running the biggest genre show in history, Game of Thrones. And they’ve managed to screw it up by taking a fairly unpolitical show and indulging in Donald Trump’s three favorite things:xenophobia, racism, and sexism.

I’m sure George R.R. Martin didn’t intend for his story to be used this way, but he’s checked out and cashing his checks. While I’m sure the books will have a more nuanced and interesting ending, the showrunners, in putting thier own interests forward, have forgone character development for shock and violence. I’ll let others tackle the pacing, lighting and other issues. Let’s bring up the three I discussed.

First up is the xenophobia. Game of Thrones starts off taking intelligent, well reasoned approaches to issues like borders, showing us the human side of the Wildings, that desperate people are still people. Then we get to season eight. And all that disappears, especially in episode five, where the Unsullied and Dothraki follow Danaerys into a blind fury of killing and rape(more on that later). Foreign invaders coming from the south to destroy our way of life and rape our women, then kill our kids. Was this HBO or Fox News?

This leads us into Game of Thrones next problem: skin color. Every single brown person on this show is either weak or an asshole. Dorne is shown to be full of conniving sluts who only want to screw and poison us. The Unsullied are only fit to be slaves, and the Dothraki murder and rape. The first five seasons gave us people in these lands with character,flaws and hopes. By the eight season, they’re sterotypes. Again, I don’t blame Martin for this, I blame the two showrunners. These are the same two who wanted a show where the South had a stalemate with the North. Wonder who’d they’d get to write that, Steve Bannon or David Duke? Also, these fierce warrior have all been kept at bay for centuries, but are all liberated by a white woman.

Which brings me to GoT biggest problem since they left the Martin plot. This show is as sexist as the day is long. I really didn’t want to think it, but there’s way too many signifiers. A show where the producers added extra rape scenes was bad enough, but the idea that being raped builds character? Really? I’ve worked in domestic shelters and on crisis lines, and that is some straight up bullshit there. Also, why develop the love story of Brianne and Jamie, only to have her get left when Cersei comes calling. Guess if you’re not classically beautiful, you can be horrible and still get some.

And then there’s Danaerys. A woman who was orignally trying to free people after they’d been enslaved. A woman literally called the Breaker of Chains? And what does she do? She snaps, and starts incinerating innocent people. And they showed it repeatedly, over and over. Even in that part fo the story, strong women like Arya and unknown mothers are shown to be failing while the men get away.

I was going to be slient about all of this. But this is my wife’s favorite show. And they’ve completely shit the bed on the ending. I knew my wife was going to be sad when the show ended, but not before. People have been following these characters for years. I’m generally against owing something to your audience, but also, don’t take those characters and destroy them just to get it over with.

I hope D.B. and David can pull it off and give us a decent ending next week, but I’m not hopeful. This show used to be about the best ideas of humanity, fighting for existence. That ideas like freedom, equality and treating people decently, regardless of wealth or skin could be rewarding. Now, all we are left is with the idea that people are ugly and never change for the better. That no one is redeemable and that people from foreign lands are only here to hurt us. This show used to represent the America we hope to be. Now it’s representing the America that Trump thinks we ought to be. And I don’t want to be that.

Finally, one of the factors that went into me writing this was the news that GoT’s showrunners are doing a Star Wars trilogy. I don’t know if I want to see it. I don’t think Star Wars needs less female heroes or less brown ones. I don’t think we need the first Jedi being sexually assaulted on screen. Yeah, that’s harsh. But I’ve given these two chances for the last two years, to diminishing rewards. If I want a Game of Trumps, I just need to check my Twitter feed.