ABSTRACT
This chapter examines officially produced transmedia campaigns for television (TV) series and blockbuster franchises, and the way these campaigns address and invite fans to participate. The campaign reached out to fans, invited new viewers, and most of all, and aimed to convince HBO subscribers that a fantasy series fit into the channel's "quality TV" brand. The chapter argues that masculinized affect is thus embraced as "quality fandom" that is desirable to the industry, and feminized affect is rejected or simply ignored in transmedia storytelling. This contradictory process is part of a broader pattern of legitimation that characterizes media and audiences in the convergence era. Transmedia projects thus exist on a spectrum between multi-platform storytelling and promotion. Crucially, transmedia success depends on fans' emotional investment in a text. Even the most cursory engagement with transmedia requires enough interest to click on a link to an online puzzle or a tie-in video.
