Sometimes seemingly silly things are exactly as trivial as they appear.
Take this recent White House petition to force President Obama, who requested and received advance copies of episodes from “Game of Thrones” Season 6, to reveal Jon Snow’s (Kit Harrington) fate before the new season premieres April 24 on HBO.
Some might argue that the petition is a response to what could be perceived as an abuse of executive privilege by our commander in chief. Some would be wrong.
“I’m not really trying to make a partisan political statement with the petition,” Chris Owens, who created the petition, told the Washington Examiner. “It was more of a lighthearted joke than anything else.”
“I guess you could say it’s more of a distraction from the viciousness of this campaign cycle,” Owens said of his effort to force the president to speak about the possible violent death of a character in a show famous for sex and violence.
Owens is a 29-year-old graduate student in Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service regional studies program, focusing on Latin America.
As a diehard “Game of Thrones” fan, Owens had no expectations for what the petition could accomplish.
“When I made the petition, I honestly did not expect it to go anywhere,” he said. “I was very surprised and excited to see it mentioned by several larger news outlets. My girlfriend, however, was not as amused. She’s a fan, but she still thinks that my petition is a bit silly.”
Owens’ “silly” petition made enough of a splash to garner coverage from outlets like The Wrap, Yahoo News and the Washington Examiner. Even so, he said he will not be too crushed if the petition doesn’t reach its goal of 100,000 signatures.
“I won’t be too disappointed if it fails. It has already generated way more interest than I had ever anticipated,” he said. “It got picked up by multiple sites yesterday before I had even tried to get people to sign it. I’m really just pushing it now to see how far it will go.”
As of 2:15 p.m. on Saturday, the petition only has 54 signatures.
At this point, chances are good that the answer to whether Jon Snow is truly dead or not will not come until some time during the sixth season. Owens is a fan of one particular fan theory that would ensure fans will see their favorite Nights Watchman again.
“I think he’s too important to kill off,” he said. “I’m still convinced that he’s a Targaryen.”
