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SYFY WIRE The Week in Geek

The Week in Geek: Dany goes to Starbucks, Pikachu gets fresh, and Spidey swings in

By Dany Roth
Detective Pikachu

The week is over. Long live the week! It was a wild one, full of love being gained then lost, trailers by the seeming dozens, and a limitless number of multiverses.

But only some of those multiverses can win the coveted prize of being mentioned in a SYFY WIRE news round-up, kids. No participation trophies!

Here they are, the five biggest stories from... The Week in Geek!

GAME OF THRONES PLAYS A GAME OF FRAK, MARRY, KILL

Another news round-up, another week where Game of Thrones makes the top five. It's the last season, what do you want? We're now more than halfway through and, gosh, the old Song of Ice and Fire is really belting it out now, isn't it?

There were a lot of things that came out of the latest episode, most of them pretty controversial. For one, Jaime Lannister and Ser Brienne of Tarth finally did (insert your own crass euphemism for "had sex" here). I'm going to say they made love because I'm respectful. Also, I'm sure Gwendoline Christie could easily step on me. Fans have been waiting many years to see a romantic culmination for this duo, and they got it this week.

Then Jaime leaves to go be with Cersei while Brienne cries in her housecoat, creating yet another meme that can be described as "a 2019 mood."

On the flip side, Gendry proposed to Arya, but she turned him down because a girl does not have an interest in being a lady.

Jon Snow, meanwhile, who still knows nothing, apparently, defies Daenerys' wish to keep their whole "being related" thing a secret by telling his sisters all about it. Then Sansa, the big gossip, tells Tyrion. Then Tyrion, the even bigger gossip, tell Varys. Then they tell two friends, then they tell two friends... okay, that part hasn't happened yet. But it will. Also, Varys says Jon will be a better fit on the Iron Throne because "he's a war hero" and also "he has a wang." Not an actual quote, but that's basically what he said. Please read the following sentence with a Super Mario Italian accent: The fandom, she a no a like a dis!

But, obviously, the biggest controversy was over the Starbucks coffee cup that managed to sneak its way into one shot for half a second this week. Who left that cup? Was it Emilia Clarke? Was it Liam Cunningham? I bet it was Lena Headey and it's through gaffs that Cersei is going to remain on the Iron Throne, just like real life incumbency!

I kid, I kid. The big controversy is that Missandei, the one black woman character on the show, got beheaded this week. But not before they put her in literal chains! Please read the following sentence with a Super DUPER Mario Italian accent: The fandom, she a no a like a dis! Even Jessica Chastain called out the death! There's a lot of debate over how Missandei went out: like a hero or like a punk. But the cool thing is that there was a huge outpouring of love and respect for the actress who plays Missandei, Nathalie Emmanuel.

WE'RE GOING INTO THE LIVE-ACTION SPIDER-VERSE

A lot of trailers dropped this week. We saw a teeny glimpse of the Watchmen. Some old lady got REAL naked for It: Chapter Two. But nothing says loving quite like the feels coming off the latest trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home.

But other than romantic man feelings people were getting off of Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Holland up in this piece, the other big story is that the MCU is officially headed to the multiverse. Yes, Mysterio, played by Gyllenhaal, isn't from our Earth, he's from someplace else. Someplace... parallel. And that, fans are speculating, is why this latest phase of the MCU isn't ending until after Spider-Man: Far From Home. The next phase is looking like it's going to be all about the multiverse. Which is probably how we'll get the Fantastic Four. And X-Men. And who knows who else.

But no more Chris Evans because the Russos say he's done for real this time.

POKÉMON: DETECTIVE PIKACHU LEAKS ONLINE (NOT REALLY)

This week sees a live-action Pokémon movie released into theaters starring Ryan Reynolds as a Pikachu who solves crimes. It's hovering at around a 66 percent Rotten Tomatoes score as of this writing, barely clinging to that coveted "fresh" rating. And if it manages to stay there, it's safe to say that Pokémon: Detective Pikachu will be the most critically-respected video game adaptation of all time.

And you know what: that's earned. If for no other reason than because the film succeeds at making it seem totally possible that humans can coexist with Pokémon. There are also some scenes that'll hit you right in the dad feels, and that's pretty sweet, too.

Also, if you want to watch Pikachu dance for an hour and forty minutes, that is also available, thanks to the power of viral marketing!

FINAL FANTASY VII: REMAKE IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING

The original plan for this round-up was one trailer and one trailer only. But then, at Sony's second State of Play livestream, they had to go and drop a trailer for the Final Fantasy VII remake. And they had to show that nice lady with the flowers who we all know is gonna die. And the dude with a gun hand was also there!

No Cloud in drag yet, though.

The big headline, though, other than the sweet graphics and the classic Final Fantasy feels is that the trailer ended on "More to come in June," which hopefully means we'll actually get a release date for this game that people have been waiting for for 60 billion years. Look, it feels that long and feelings count. It's been 60 billion years since Final Fantasy VII originally came out.

THE STAR TREK UNIVERSE IS STILL GROWING

This is a real "who decides what's a big story" situation, but the answer is "me," so... here we go.

This week, CBS announced a new division called Star Trek Global Franchise Management. Sounds terrifying, doesn't it? It's actually really interesting for a couple of reasons.

Veronica Hart has been hired as the EVP for the new division. If you look Hart up on the ol' Linkedin, you'll see that she spent most of the 2000s being the director of licensing for places like the Jim Henson Company and the Sesame Workshop before diving headlong into CBS consumer products in general.

The reason Hart and this division are relevant for Star Trek isn't just because they'll be in charge of expanding the franchise's digital footprint, updating Star Trek dot com, and creating new podcasts, but because of the impact this division might have on fan work. Because that's also what we're talking about here, if we read between the lines a little.

Star Trek, as an entity, is tied completely to its fan works. Some of the first fanzines exist because of Trek fans. The first published slash fiction exists because of Trek fans. And, in the 21st century, fans make their own Trek shorts and films. Pretty infamously at this point, CBS and Paramount got huffy about a fan film called Axanar that was being produced by pros and starring actors who had appeared in actual, licensed Trek. The resulting lawsuits caused the creation of some extremely stringent rules over what fans could do with transformative work within Star Trek.

Hart's new digital division could go one of two ways here. It's possible that the restrictive rules might stay in play as they are, or, it's also possible that this digital franchise management could allow for fan works to flourish under the umbrella of this new division. And that's potentially very exciting.

Look, with all the new Star Trek shows coming out, there's a lot to celebrate. But there's this big question mark still out there over where fandom fits into all of this. Here's hoping that question starts getting answered soon.

And that's it. Another wild week in the books. Next week we're all going to be brutally murdered by John Wick and most of us will probably love it. See you then!

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of SYFY WIRE, SYFY, or NBCUniversal.