Resisting to Game of Thrones: a fannish agonism

Abstract

PurposeFans have been characterized as specialized consumers who often express disagreements with the entertainment industry's decisions, especially when it comes to the original content of the works that serve as the basis for the development of media products, evidencing a kind of consumer resistance. Under a Foucauldian perspective aligned with the consumer culture theory (CCT), power relations are established in a dynamic of power exercise and resistance to power. Based on this, the authors pose the following research question: how do fans of media products resist the changes made by the entertainment industry in relation to their canons?Design/methodology/approachThe authors adopted the Foucault's genealogy of power as a method, analyzing the comments posted on the Westeros.Org website, the main discussion forum of fans of A Song of Ice and Fire (ASoIaF) book series and Game of Thrones (GoT) TV series.FindingsThe findings reveal ways of resistance in relation to the adaptation of the media text permeated by an entertainment dispositif, which considers the adaptation legitimate, and a fannish dispositif, which criticizes the way this adaptation was made. However, their empirical categories reveal that they are forged not only from singularities but also from overlaps. The authors conclude, therefore, that this process occurs in an agonist way, in which conflicts are fought as a reciprocal incitement revealing a productive and ethical relationship.Originality/valueThe agonism shows how consumers can simultaneously be led to incorporate and resist to discourses and market practices. This demonstrates how resistance is not necessarily a force opposed to another, but a dynamic of reciprocal negotiation.

Favela venceu! - Resistência veiculada em videoclipes de bregafunk

“…O poder, portanto, só existe quando exercido sobre alguém, definindo condutas. Aqueles que são sujeitados a atos de poder produzem então transmutações capazes de influenciar a configuração das condutas existentes ao performarem atos de resistência (Camargo, Souza-Leão, & Moura, 2021). Dessa maneira, para Foucault (1988), a resistência aparece em uma relação de simbiose com o poder atuante, coexistindo de maneira intrínseca a ele, como uma contrapartida ao poder, seja ele explícito (e.g.…”

“…Esses aparatos regulam conhecimentos estabelecidos na sociedade como verídicos ou não verídicos, estabelecendo o que se entende como verdades (Cavalcanti et al, 2021a(Cavalcanti et al, , 2021bThompson, 2017). Por outro lado, os dispositivos são estabelecidos e fundamentados nos saberes instituídos e validados em uma sociedade (Camargo et al, 2021;Costa & Souza-Leão, 2017;Johnsen, Lacoste, & Meehan, 2020), que têm o propósito de firmar e fundamentar as relações de poder (Dreyfus & Rabinow, 1995, pp. 127;Souza-Leão, Ferreira, Camargo, & Moura, 2019).…”

Favela won! - Resistance conveyed in bregafunk music videos

“…Therefore, power only exists when it is exercised over someone, in order to set behaviors. Those subjected to the action of power produce transmutations capable of influencing the configuration of established behaviors by performing acts of resistance (Camargo, Souza-Leão, & Moura, 2021). Thus, based on Foucault (1988), resistance appears in a symbiotic relationship with active power by coexisting with it in an intrinsic way, as counterpart to power, be it explicit (e.g., institutional regularities or society's practices) or implicit (e.g., in internalized concepts) (Demangeot et al, 2019).…”