Game of Thrones is an American Fantasy-Drama TV show that was adapted from the fantasy book series “A Song of Ice and Fire” written by the American writer George R.R. Martin. The TV series was created by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss for HBO. The show first premiered in April 2011 and was a massive hit immediately. It ended with 8 seasons and 73 episodes in May 2019.
The average runtime of each episode is around 50 minutes, with the final episodes of the final season having a runtime of almost 80 to 85 minutes. The series was shot in locations like the United Kingdom, Croatia, Iceland, Spain, Canada, and Morocco, with high-budget sets and visual effects. The series is set in the fantasy world of Westeros and Essos, where the story diverges and focuses on various characters.
The first storyline focuses on the political fight for the seat on the Iron Throne between different noble Houses. The King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men sat and ruled over Westeros from the Iron Throne. The second storyline follows the last descendants of one of the greatest Houses in the Seven Kingdoms.
The story moves as they struggle and plot to gain back their lost kingdom. The third and final storyline focuses on The Night’s Watch and the bastard son of the Lord of Winterfell. The Night’s Watch is a military base located on the northern border of the continent of Westeros, where men dedicate their lives to protecting the people from dangerous threats behind the wall.
The series has gained a huge fan base worldwide, and the fandom loves the show for its complex characters and storylines. The show was also highly criticized for its frequent use of nudity, violence, and gore. The show won the Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series for four consecutive years and 55 more Emmys in various other categories. This is the highest number of Emmys a drama show has received.
Additionally, the series was nominated for five Golden Globes for Best television series – drama. The series also has a prequel show House of the Dragon, which was released in 2022. This show follows the civil war between the Targaryen 300 years before the incidents of Game of Thrones.
Game of Thrones Cast and Crew:
The main cast of Game of Thrones consisted of multiple main actors who had equally important roles. It is also rumored that GoT had the biggest ensemble cast in Television History. The series stars Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington, Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Sophie Turner, and Maisie Williams as lead characters who carry the show from the beginning till the end, along with many other actors who play vital roles in the series.
The show was co-created by writers and producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. The music was composed by Ramin Djawadi, who was praised for his perfect background score and opening theme. While HBO got the Production license, Warner Bros have the distributor license. In India, you can watch the full series with a Disney+ Hotstar subscription.
Characters:
There are numerous characters in the series that play an essential role. Let’s look at some of the most notable characters and the four important Houses from the show. Ned Stark (Sean Bean) is the Lord of Winterfell and Head of the House Stark. Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley) is the wife of Ned Stark and Lady of Winterfell.
Both of them have five children: Robb (Richard Madden), Sansa (Sophie Turner), Arya (Maisie Williams), Bran (Isaac Hempstead-Wright), and Rickon (Art Parkinson). The House of Starks holds a seat in Winterfell. Their sigil is a dire grey wolf on a green-white background. The motto of their House is “Winter is coming.”
Ned also has a bastard son named Jon Snow (Kit Harington). Jon leaves for the Night’s watch, where he makes friends with Samwell Tarly (John Bradley). They both serve under Lord Commander Jeor Mormont (James Cosmo). He later falls in love with a Wildling Ygritte (Rose Leslie) from the other side of the wall and chooses duty over love when the choice is presented.
In King’s Landing, Robert I Baratheon (Mark Addy) sits on the Iron Throne and rules over the Seven Kingdoms. He shares a loveless marriage with Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey), who is in an incest relationship with her twin brother Ser Jamie Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau).
Cersei has three children – Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson), Tommen Baratheon (Dean-Charles Chapman), and Myrcella Baratheon (Nell Tiger Free). Cersei and Jamie have a younger dwarf brother named Lord Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), who is humiliated and hated by their father, Lord Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance).
Lord Tywin is the head of House Lannister, and he is said to be the richest man in all of Westeros. The House of Lannisters hold a seat in Casterly Rock, and their sigil is a roaring golden lion in a field of crimson. The motto of their House is “Hear me Roar,” but “A Lannister always pays his debt” became the unofficial motto of the House.
The Small Council is the board of advisors for the King, which includes Master of Coin, Lord Petyr “Littlefinger” Baelish (Aidan Gillen), and spymaster Lord Varys (Conleth Hill). The council also includes other varying members like the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, the Hand of the King, The Queen Regent, The King, and the Grand Master.
In Drangonstone, the King’s brother Stannis (Stephen Dillane), holds a seat and rules with advice from an Essos priestess named Melisandre (Carice van Houten) and his advisor Ser Davos Seaworth (Liam Cunningham). The House Baratheon holds a seat in Dragonstone, which was previously ruled over by the Targaryen until they were overthrown by Robert Baratheon.
The sigil of the House is a black stag on a gold field. Their motto is “Ours is the fury.” Elsewhere, in Essos, the sister continent to Westeros, there is the city of Pentos, where the exiled siblings Viserys Targaryen (Harry Lloyd) and Daenerys “Dany” Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) struggle to stay alive and avenge the downfall of their House and take back the Iron Throne which was rightfully theirs.
Dany is forcefully married off to the wild Dothraki leader Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa). Later she makes acquaintances with an exiled knight Ser Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen), a former slave and her aide Missandei (Nathalie Emmanuel), the sellsword Daario Naharis (Michiel Huisman), and the soldier Grey Worm (Jacob Anderson).
The House of Targaryen has ruled Westeros for over 300 years, and they were considered one of the most powerful people in all of the seven kingdoms because of their association with Dragons. Their sigil is a three-headed dragon in a red and black tone, breathing fire. The motto of their House is “Fire and Blood.”
Game Of Thrones Plot
Set in the fantasy land of Westeros, the series follows many plotlines. The show starts in the north of Westeros in a place called Winterfell, where the House Starks rule. The King and the royal family visit the Lord commander of Winterfell – Ned Stark, and his family and ask Lord Stark to come to King’s Landing at the Hand of the King.
Ned reluctantly accepts the offer to protect his friend from the plotting of viscous royalties though his family is not happy about this offer. Ned’s illegitimate son, Jon Snow, decides to become a member of the Night’s Watch. The Night’s Watch is a military base that is located in the northern part of Westeros, where a very tall block of wall separates the Seven Kingdoms from the dangers behind the wall.
The members of the Night’s Watch are sworn to protect the people of the Seven Kingdoms and never to father a child. Elsewhere, the last descendants of the fallen House of Targaryen plot to regain the Iron Throne. At the end of the first episode, we can see the story diverge into three different plot lines. One follows Ned Stark into the political fight over the Iron Throne in the conspiring city of King’s Landing.
Another follows Jon Snow into the unknown dangers behind the wall. And finally, the struggles of Daenerys Targaryen to rise to power. In short, The fight between noble families of Westeros to rule over the Seven Kingdoms while an ancient enemy returns with destructive intentions is the plotline of the epic series.
Game Of Thrones Review
Game of Thrones was and is still one of the most acclaimed series of all time. The first six seasons were a massive hit among the general audience and the critics. The series was praised and celebrated all over the world, and it was no longer just a series but an emotion in everyone’s life by the time the finale of the series premiered. The series was also criticized for its excessive use of nudity and violence.
The show also had sensitive content like rape, and the language was also not child friendly. The creators and the writer of the novel from which the series was adapted said that, without showing violence, gore, and rape, the series would not have felt real since that was how it was during the war. After the premiere of the first season, the show was welcomed by people at unexpected levels.
The following seasons were also well-received worldwide, and the critics praised the series and compared it to other great shows like Breaking Bad and Mad Men. Game of Thrones is one of the few series that has all kinds of the audience watching it, even though the fantasy genre was a gamble.
In truth, the large audience made it even more critical for the showrunners as they had to create each season better than the previous ones. There are so many things to appreciate, but I’d like to start with the characters. At the beginning of the show, many characters seemed shallow and weightless, and the way the writers developed them was brilliant.
Each one of them held so much life in them, and the actors are totally underrated. For example, characters like Daenerys (Dany) Targaryen have grown so much throughout the show. We can see how soft and innocent her character was at the beginning of the series and how tough and powerful she has grown in later seasons.
Her character development can be seen not only in the acting and story but also in her costumes and her hairstyle. The stylists put so much thought and effort into customizing everything to align with the character’s growth. In Dany’s case, we can see her braids becoming complex over the course of the series, indicating how complex her character has grown to be.
If making a character lovable is difficult, it is harder to make people forget the actor and make them hate the character with all their hearts. That’s what happened with Iwan Rheon, who played Ramsay Bolton. People forgot that he was an actor who played a character and started hating him. He was the face of disgust and hatred when season six premiered.
Such extraordinary acting was appreciated by the critics. Other actors like Peter Dinklage, Lena Headey, and Maisie Williams were praised for their riveting performances as Tyrion Lannister, Cersei Lannister, and Arya Stark, respectively.
The showrunners also gave stunning and sensational episodes like “The Rains of Castamere,” which was claimed to be one of the best episodes in television history. Other episodes like “The Battle of Bastards” got praised for being one of the best episodes ever made in Game of Thrones.
At the beginning of the series, we can see women being humiliated and mistreated a lot, but as the series moves forward, women characters are given more importance, and they play important parts in the show’s twists. In fact, the majority of the main cast was women in the later episodes. Cersei, Daenerys, Arya, Sansa, and many others were the face of the show.
The show’s final seasons were considered to be disappointing and a failure. Season seven was criticized for a circular plot line without much development for the characters or the plot but was praised for its action sequences and fast-paced writing.
Season Eight was a complete disgrace to the whole show and is considered one the worst endings a show will ever have. The final season failed to do justice to the characters and the audience as the plot was rushed, and there were so many unexplained holes in the storyline. The finale of the series was trashed for executing an ending for a great show like this with zero foresight on how it would reflect.
Fans all over the world even raised a petition asking to replace the writers of the show and give an alternate ending, but the petition was not taken into consideration. The creators of the show were also criticized and shown hostility and dislike. Overall, the show is considered to be one of the greatest series of all time!
Our Rating: ⭐ (4.6/5).
Also read: 50 Quotes From Game Of Thrones
