Game of Thrones is an 8-season HBO series based on George R. R. Martin's epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire, which Martin began publishing in 1996. It premiered in April 2011 and concluded in May 2019; it was also aired as a Sunday Evening Drama Series during its run.
Set in a medieval fantasy world, on the continents of Westeros and Essos, the series tells a story of the various political and supernatural threats to the peace of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros: a vast monarchy that is still recovering from a recent civil war which overthrew the ruling Targaryen dynasty. When the right-hand to the king dies under suspicious circumstances, House Stark — a noble, honor-bound house that rules the frigid and sparsely-populated Kingdom of the North — is drawn to the capital city of King's Landing, where a web of rival nobles scheme and maneuver to seize and retain power over the realm.
As the nobles of the Seven Kingdoms busy themselves with political games, far to the north, beyond a Wall sparsely guarded by an ignored and underfunded order of pariahs-turned-soldiers, a supernatural threat is building that — left unchecked — threatens to burst forth and destroy all life upon the Seven Kingdoms entirely.
Meanwhile, in exile across the ocean, the last remaining Targaryen scion slowly rebuilds her military and political strength from nothing, with an ultimate goal of reclaiming her homeland through fire and blood.
The series was adapted for television by screenwriters David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, who jokingly described it as "The Sopranos meets Middle-earth". Each season's arc was meant to line up with its corresponding book. However, this ultimately only worked for the first two seasons, as A Storm of Swords (which in pagecount equals the entirety of the Lord of the Rings trilogy) was eventually split into two seasons, with A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons bleeding into both Seasons 4 and 5. Martin himself wrote an episode in each of the show's first four seasons. Starting with the sixth season, the show overtook the books, as Martin has yet to publish the sixth novel, The Winds of Winter. Benioff & Weiss were informed by Martin of the basic plotline of how the saga ends when writing the remaining seasons.
HBO's official site, featuring behind-the-scenes teasers, can be found here
, whilst the main fan nexus is Winter Is Coming.
Following the conclusion of the series, HBO greenlit spin-off shows based on materials in the A Song of Ice and Fire franchise:
- The first, House of the Dragon, is a partial adaptation of Fire & Blood, focusing on the Dance of the Dragons succession war/civil war, which occurs a century and a half before the events of Game of Thrones. It was given a straight-to-series order in 2019, and premiered in 2022.
- The second, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, is an adaptation of Tales of Dunk and Egg, which focuses on the titular Hedge Knight, Ser Duncan "Dunk" the Tall, and his squire, "Egg". It premiered in 2026. HBO is considering a wealth of other potential spin-offs, both live action and animated.
When you play the game of tropes, you win or you die:
- Tropes A
- Aborted Arc
- Adaptational Attractiveness
- Adaptational Badass
- Adaptational Heroism
- Adaptational Modesty
- Adaptational Villainy
- Adaptational Wimp
- Adaptation Distillation
- Adaptation Dye-Job
- Adaptation Expansion
- Adaptation Explanation Extrication
- Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole
- Adaptation Name Change
- Adaptation Personality Change
- Adaptation Relationship Overhaul
- Adapted Out
- Age Lift
- Ascended Extra
- Asshole Victim
- As You Know
- Tropes B
- Tropes C to D
- Tropes E to F
- Tropes G to K
- Tropes L to O
- Tropes P to S
- Tropes T to Z
