Game of Thrones' errant Starbucks cup has become a metaphor for its final season flaws

Vox

Game of Thrones fans have been having a laugh celebrating the Starbucks coffee cup gaffe in Sunday's episode, but it's also allowed them to "venti" their frustrations with this final season. "As amusing as all this is, it’s also an opportunity for fans to vent their frustrations with Game of Thrones in general, using the Starbucks cup as a sort of synecdoche for their overarching problems with this season of the show thus far," says Aja Romano. As Twitter user Fred Fujiwara noted on Twitter: "I think the Starbucks cup is really a metaphor for how sloppy the plotting of this season has been. You hate to see it but it's staring you in the face." Another Twitter user, Jen D'Angelo, pointed out the irony of a Starbucks cup appearing one week after complaints that the Battle of Winterfell was too dark to see. "The fact that there was a Starbucks cup in tonight’s Game of Thrones that no producers or editors noticed throughout multiple cuts merely 1 week after the DP yelled that the show’s not too dark to see is truly *chef’s kiss*," she tweeted last night. Romano adds: "Viewers have increasingly called out the show this season for its sexist and racist treatment of various characters and what seem like the characters’ inexplicable motivations. The Starbucks cup, at least for now, may be the perfect representative of all of these complaints — ironically giving the fandom something to unite around in the series’ final weeks."

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• UPDATE: HBO responds with a tongue-in-cheek reply noting it wasn't Starbucks: “In response to inquiries from those who saw a craft services coffee cup in Sunday night’s episode of Game of Thrones, HBO states, ‘The latte that appeared in the episode was a mistake. Daenerys had ordered an herbal tea.'”
• Game of Thrones art director Hauke Richter hadn't seen Sunday's episode, but said the coffee cup gaffe had been blown out of proportion: "Things can get forgotten on set"
• A Starbucks spokesperson declined to say if the company has any relationship with Game of Thrones
• Starbucks tweets response to cameo: "TBH we're surprised she didn't order a Dragon Drink"
• Starbucks doesn't seem likely  to reap a concrete business boost from its unexpected cameo
• Starbucks cup inspires many questions, like: Is it actually a Starbucks cup?
• Did the Starbucks cup belong to Sansa Stark?
• Starbucks cup inspires Game of Thrones fan fiction
• What it's like to run the Westerosi Starbucks