From 2011 to 2019, Game of Thrones was the most popular television show in the country and around the world.
People watched as their favorite characters sought love, redemption, and revenge, while others were gruesomely killed in the process.
GOT featured legendary action scenes that set the standard for tv violence.
Though the show is over, there is no doubt that Game of Thrones is still worth the watch.
Is Game Of Thrones Worth Watching? (10 Reasons It Is)
1. Loveable Characters
If a show or movie doesn’t have sympathetic characters, it can be hard to keep viewers.
One of the main reasons Game of Thrones was so successful was that audiences were immediately entranced by the characters who won over their hearts and minds with tragic losses, moral missions, and innocent worldviews.
The Starks
We are first introduced to the Game of Thrones universe in Ned Stark’s kingdom.
The beloved father of four is quickly one of the most loved characters because he resembles the iconic father and moral man.
Then there’s Jon Snow, who is Ned Stark’s son out of wedlock.
He is a talented fighter who unfortunately cannot use the Stark name because he was born out of wedlock.
He is humble, handsome, and talented, so audiences root for him to achieve the same successes that his half-siblings got through their royal birth.
Then, of course, there are the Stark children who each have their own stories.
There’s Sansa, who is our damsel in distress for much of the series but quickly develops bravery and strength as her situation changes.
Her sisterly counterpart, Arya, takes up fighting in a time when it was largely unacceptable for women to do so.
There’s Bran, who suffers a tragic accident in the series pilot, which leaves him handicapped for the rest of his life.
There’s also Rob Stark, a valiant fighter whose main mission is to defend his family and his kingdom.
The Lannisters
Even the “villains” have their own compelling narratives.
Cersei Lannister and her brother, Jamie, want to murder the Starks and take their kingdom.
Their other brother, Tyrion, provides much of the comic relief of the show through his quick-witted remarks and various antics.
Tyrion was voted the most loved character of the show.
The actor, Peter Dinklage, received more award nominations for his acting than any of the other cast members.
Daenerys Targaryen
Then, of course, there’s Daenerys Targaryen who comes from a royal bloodline that once harnessed the power of dragons.
She is seen as the people’s princess, always defending innocent people, and releasing them from their shackles.
Daenerys is forced into a marriage with a man who doesn’t speak her language and comes from a violent kingdom.
However, she swallows her pride to integrate herself with his people.
In season one, Daenerys suffers terrible tragedies in season one, as the audience crosses their fingers that something will go right for her.
She is one of the most beloved characters in the show, and it is fascinating to watch her transformation from a dainty princess to a fierce woman who is no longer victim to her emotions.
Like real-life humans, all the characters in the show have complex narratives that make them simultaneously heroes and anti-heroes.
Even when viewers pick sides, they find themselves constantly at a moral crossroads as their favorite characters make questionable and immoral decisions.
2. Unexpected Plot Twists
No spoilers here, but in one of the early episodes of the series, a protagonist dies a tragic and untimely death.
It is both morbid and gruesome, but unlike other shows, Game of Thrones never shied away from showing it all onscreen.
The show took a risk by killing off one of its most beloved characters at the beginning, but instead of discouraging viewers from watching, it just made them more curious.
If the writers had the nerve to kill off such an integral character at the way beginning of the series, what could possibly happen later?
This was far from the only surprising death in the series.
Game of Thrones killed off many of its main characters and introduced new ones that audience members could attach themselves to.
People you thought were friends or family turn against each other.
Sworn enemies fall in love.
“Good” characters turn evil.
(There’s a lot of this in season eight.)
You’ll see how beloved characters fall victim to family curses, and others overcome their weaknesses.
Game of Thrones is far from predictable and is an exciting watch for everyone.
If you want a story that is going to excite you, thrill you, make you cry, and then do it all over again, you should watch Game of Thrones.
When the show finally ends after eight long seasons and 73 episodes, it feels like a breakup.
It becomes real that you’re not going to hear more about the characters and their lives, even though it feels like you have formed a deep emotional bond with them.
3. Cinematography And Visual Effects
In later seasons, we see Daenerys embrace her family line by raising the dragons that were integral to her ancestry.
As we know, dragons don’t really exist, so the show relies on CGI.
Then there’s the Night King, an icy, zombie-like figure with electric blue eyes.
VFX supervisor Joe Bauer and visual effects producer Steve Kullback were tasked with shocking viewers any time a fictional being, large battle, or gory death appeared on the screen.
Kullback and Bauer sometimes read the script and wondered how they were going to pull off such a daring effect, but they always managed to make it work.
With such a large budget from HBO, Game of Thrones exhibits the top-of-the-line visual effects of the time.
The visual effects department pulled this off by relying primarily on photography and then adding in any necessary CGI to fill in the gaps.
A lot of the stunts in the show look so real because they were.
In one episode in season five, “The Dance of Dragons,” a dragon set fire to twenty people.
In keeping with the high standards of Game of Thrones cinematography, Bauer decided to do it for real.
He attached a flamethrower to a motion-controlled camera crane.
They matched it to the movement of the dragon and then set fire to twenty stuntmen.
They set a record of twenty-two people on fire at one time during filming.
Luckily, no one got hurt.
Since so many people died in the show, the visual effects supervisors also had to carefully study the rate of human decay, so they could properly incorporate the digital effects into the show.
Not to mention, it was filmed in the beautiful locations of Northern Ireland, Croatia, Spain, Scotland, Morocco, Malta, and Iceland.
Game of Thrones will continue to be one of the most impressive shows of all time.
The astonishing visuals will never be obsolete because a lot of them were executed for real.
4. Action And Fighting
What draws a lot of people to Game of Thrones is the intense fighting and action between the characters.
The characters pull off captivating stunts.
Sometimes it looks like the fight will go one way, but then the result is the total opposite.
You never know what is going to happen, which is why it is so exciting.
The show had a huge production budget, so a lot of the action and battle scenes hardly used any CGI.
Hundreds of extras were hired to play soldiers in battle, and real fires were set to mimic a true war.
Game of Thrones never cut corners when it came to legendary battle scenes, which made it more fun to watch.
Some of the best fight scenes are between the Night King and Viserion, Brienne and The Hound, Jamie Lannister and Euron Greyjoy, The Waif and Arya Stark, and The Mountain and The Viper.
If you look up these legendary scenes on YouTube, you won’t get the full effect.
You need to know the characters’ backstories and histories of conflict.
Then, the intense fight scenes will be even more fascinating.
5. Incredible Screenwriting
Game of Thrones is based on the series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin.
The primary writers were D. B. Weiss and David Benioff.
Unfortunately, the series progressed faster than Martin’s books, so Weiss and Benioff had to take the rest of the story into their own hands.
They won awards from the Golden Globes, Producers Guild of America, Directors Guild of America, and the Art Directors Guild in addition to the Saturn Award, Satellite Award, and Peabody Award.
That’s not to mention the countless Emmy nominations including eight in a row for Outstanding Drama Series.
Weiss and Benioff had to keep track of complex family trees and drama going back centuries while giving each character proper screen time.
They wrote and developed the various fight scenes and organized when to incorporate the soundtrack.
They wrote all of Tyrion Lannister’s quick-witted remarks and developed each character with intense thought and precision.
Though some viewers complain about the final season, there is no doubt that Benioff and Weiss are talented writers who wrote one of the best television shows of all time.
6. A Big Part Of Pop Culture
For nearly a decade, Game of Thrones dominated the rankings as one of the best shows of all time.
While the age of streaming sites was building, Game of Thrones managed to retain the cultural excitement of waiting anxiously for next week’s episode.
People were so drawn to the show that they would Tweet about it constantly—before, during, and after each episode.
They waited patiently for the episode to air on HBO, and watch it again when it was uploaded to HBO Max.
It turned several of the actors into big stars.
Sophie Turner, who played Sansa, went on to appear in several other films and television shows.
Many people talk about how seasons one to six were the best, seven was okay, and eight was bad.
The finale is quite divisive—to the point where people are still talking about it to this day.
It’s never too late to join the conversation.
7. Scandal And Redemption
Of course, one of the best aspects of Game of Thrones is the complexity and brilliance of the plot.
As George R. R. Martin’s brainchild, it requires a family tree diagram to explain each character’s relationship with one another.
There is something in Game of Thrones for everyone.
From Cersei and Jamie’s incestual relationship, Daenerys’s betrayal of her brother, and the budding hatred between Joffrey and Sansa, each character has a complex storyline that the audience can’t help but be drawn to.
Then, there’s the catharsis that comes with getting justice for Ned Stark, who never made it to season two.
His daughter Arya learns to be a talented fighter, and the audience watches her develop from a young innocent girl to a powerful young woman.
Bran also has the opportunity for redemption as he realizes that, though he is handicapped, he has the potential to make great contributions to the Stark family.
The ultimate redemption takes place in the final episode of the series, but you’ll have to decide whether it is more redemption or betrayal.
8. Woman-Centered Plot
Even today, it’s not common for women to be the stars of the show.
Game of Thrones changed that.
Women were sometimes the focus of entire episodes and became symbols of power and bravery rather than the stereotypes of fragility and fertility.
Most Game of Thrones episodes pass the Bechdel Test.
The Bechdel Test measures fictional works to evaluate if there is a proper presence of woman-identified characters.
The three rules are that at least two women are featured, the women talk to each other, and they discuss something other than men.
Game of Thrones pushed the boundaries on women characters by showing Daenerys Targaryen and Sansa Stark becoming some of the most powerful characters in the show.
They ruled entire kingdoms without men by their sides.
Then, there’s Arya, who pushed the boundaries of femininity by learning to fight, which was a predominantly male undertaking.
Game of Thrones showed that the new millennium is and will continue to be about women overcoming hardship and achieving more representation inside and outside of the fictional realm.
9. Some Aspects Based On History
You might be wondering if there is any truth behind Game of Thrones.
Several events in the series are based on real events.
If you’re a history buff and are curious about seeing how some of history’s most iconic and gruesome events played out, give Game of Thrones a watch and see how Martin, Weiss, and Benioff incorporated these events into their mostly fictional plotline.
Some examples of Game of Thrones events based on history include the War of the Roses which was a series of battles between five royal families in competition for the British throne.
Then there’s The Wall, which keeps wildlings out of the kingdom in the TV show.
In real life, it is called Hadrian’s wall and was built to guard the Roman Empire.
Then there’s the infamous Red Wedding episode, which is based on something called the Black Dinner in 1440.
The 16-year-old Earl of Douglas and his younger brother were invited to share a meal with 10-year-old King James II who then ordered them both to be beheaded.
The Dothraki were somewhat based on the Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries.
The show’s Battle of Blackwater Bay has striking similarities to the siege of Constantinople in 717–718.
George R. R. Martin is a big history buff, and a lot of this is evident throughout the show.
If you’re fascinated by some of history’s most gruesome and scandalous events, Game of Thrones is a must-watch.
10. Spinoffs!
So many fans were devoted to Game of Thrones that millions of people are patiently awaiting the new spinoff series called House of the Dragon.
It will be a prequel to Game of Thrones and will be an origin story for the dragons, who come from house Targaryen.
It has already been greenlit for season two.
But that’s not all.
There are two other spinoff series in the works.
One is called Ten Thousand Ships about a Dornish warrior queen.
The other, called The Sea Snake, is about a young Aegon V Targaryen.
When House of the Dragon premieres in August 2022, the Game of Thrones conversation will become popular all over again.
If you don’t want to miss out, start watching Game of Thrones now! You have a lot of catching up to do!
Conclusion
When you watch Game of Thrones, it’s important to bear in mind that you never know what might happen next.
Don’t get too attached to the characters or you might get your heart broken.
Also, try not to read too many fan theories or series reviews before you watch the series yourself.
Otherwise, you will poison your viewpoint and be influenced by others’ thoughts.
If you’re an action movie or history buff, then there’s even more reason to watch the show.
After each episode, you can research which aspects are based on real life, which makes the show even more fun to watch.
Game of Thrones is one of the best shows of all time.
If you’re not sure, give the series pilot episode a watch and see how you like it.
We’re sure you’ll be hooked!
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