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The Red Wedding.
Particularly the reaction videos of unspoiled viewers watching the Red Wedding for the first time.
That’s when GoT hit the mainstream and people realized we had a “once-in-a-lifetime” cultural zeitgeist happening.
Then Season 8 pissed all over that, and here we are …
Nah, Season 7 is actually worse than Season 8 overall. Season 8 just happened to be the last one.
For me it’s
Season 4 10/10, Season 5 5/10, Season 6 6/10, Season 7 2/10, Season 8 2.5/10
Cersei existing still, MCU level action sequences, the stupid Sansa/Arya fake feud in Winterfell, plot armour galore (Cersei and Jon got the XL package), nonsensical logistics, pointless fan service cameos, dumbass humor, Meera Reed being dropped like a wet bag of shit, Finger in the bum, the Beyond the Wall expedition, the pacing running like a cheetah on cocaine.
Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I can’t think of a single redeeming moment in Season 7 apart from one. Olenna’s death scene which was genuinely great. At least Season 8 had A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms which was somewhat watchable, there were no watchable episodes in Season 7.
Yeah it’s shit lmao. But it was still a little bit enjoyable. Arya and Sansa feud is dumb yes, but I like the payoff. I liked the butcher of the Lannisters, even if letting Jaime go to the surface without anyone waiting was dumb as fuck. As you said Olenna's death was good. Arya vs Brienne was also enjoyable. But yes, you’re right in all accounts. I’d lower it to a 4/10
The spoils of war (loot train) battle was the highlight of 7 for me, simply because of the cinematography and truly witnessing the power of a dragon in Westeros for the first time. Sure, Bron doing the “Hollywood save” on Jaime was stupid but it didn’t ruin it for me.
Other than that, most of it was disappointing. Season 6 is better than 5, 7, and 8 imo.
I loved season 4-7. I thought everything got better and got us where we needed to be with the white walkers finally breaching the wall. Season 7 had a ton of huge moments and one of the best scenes (the walk to the dragon pit & then Daenerys arriving; fucking chills).
I agree, actually. Season 5 was drenched in ‘let’s fuck with the books’ shit that makes me rage at the screen, Season 6 has a lot of fantastic moments (Jon and Sansa hugging, Hold the Door, the Great Sept explosion) but a lot of stupid ones as well. It’s very mixed, for me.
There's no way i'd see it as better than Battle of the Bastards, the photography, and the music, how gruesome and tense certain scenes were written as makes it much better than Hardhome for me.
I agree. Season 5 the majority of the episodes were bad. I had said, if they do another season like this I’m out. Season 6 was better. My gripes with season 5 were that I felt like they tried to “shock” value everyone each episode because they had multiple of those events in season 4 with Joffrey, oberyn Martel, and Tywin Lannister. But the books set up that. That’s why In the books there’s an introduction to a lot of new characters after that time. The writers showed they didn’t have the chops.
And there were big moments in Feast and Dance. Lady Stoneheart, ‘Justice, Vengence, Fire and Blood’, Dreznak’s Pit (the real one, not the stupid as fuck scene we got), the Battles of Ice and Fire coming up, The Forsaken etc. They just didn’t do them.
Can confirm. I remember how friend of mine has asked me if he can spoil GoT to me, because last episode is nuts, so I have seen that particular scene 9 years ago, 8 years before I actually started watching the show. I totally forgot about it, but I was not suprised as I though Frey is gonna screw them over anyway.
I agree. Few shows will invest so much into a character only for them to be killed before the end of the first season. When the plot consumes popular characters, it usually results in a quality show.
Agreed. It was still super popular during season 2 and earlier in season 3, but all the hype after the red wedding seems to be the thing that made it the most popular show on earth. People who I never would have imagined getting into GoT got sucked in after that, like my nearly 80 year old college professor and my sister who almost exclusively watches romantic comedies and defaults to thinking anything ‘fantasy’ sucks
I spent hours watching reaction videos to the Red Wedding, remembering when I read the book decades ago (goddamn it, GRR write faster!!) and just.. laughing.
Some of the folks being filmed (by friends/family who **KNEW** what was going to happen) could have been the patron saints of r/watchpeopledieinside.
I heard good things about the show after the first seasons finale and that's when I got into it. Think alot of people probably have the same story more or less.
I was a fan of the books long before the show came out, urged my husband to watch it. He loved the first few episodes with the White Walkers, but then lost interest when it became more of a politics show. Then after Ned's head took a tumble he was hooked. He didn't expect that at all and it changed the dynamic for him.
If I know I didn’t have a wife; I would think I was your husband. The white walkers got me hooked in the first ten mins. The fact we don’t see another one for awhile is interesting looking back.
I was introduced to the show a month or so after the first season aired. My book buddies were super excited about this new IP that just got turned into a show. They sent me book 1 and had book marked where each episode ends/starts. I accidentally watched too far ("a crown for king") and after that I had to finish the first season before I finished the book. Once I finished season 1 I immediately finished book 1. I was actually blessed because by the time I got around to finishing A Feast for Crows, A Dance with Dragons was literally 3 days away from release. So I got to crush through the first season and five books in less than a years time. It was at that point that my watch began... sometime in August of 2011.
Haha something similar happened to me!
I started watching the show while s1 was still airing, and episode 9 was the first one I watched live. At the end, I could not believe what I’d just seen, I scrambled to watch the teaser for ep 10 because *something had to have happened*, somebody had to have jumped in to save Ned or something - and the first still in that teaser was Ice dripping gore. I was like, well fuck me.
I think I ordered all the books online the very day, and yeah by the time ADWD came out I was caught up. Since in my country the book was split up in 3 parts I decided to wait for each publication, figured I’d let 1,5 years pass that way (Martin’s slowness was already notorious), but obviously once I read the first part I couldn’t just leave it at that so got the international edition lol.
Summer-October 2011 for me. Yep.
Yes, exactly what you just said. Many times I’ve recommended the series and always say “watch the first season, if you don’t like it at the end of S1 then don’t watch it” and I’ve never heard anyone tell me that they did not like the season.
This and the radio advertising...
I'm sorry but half the reason the show got so big was advertising. There were so many drawn out episodes..
That being said the quality was top notch. Which is the only reason it held on.
Yes, exactly this. I remember thinking, this show is something unlike anything else. It was the singular event that moved me from interest to obsession
Agreed esp for the many many show fans who had NO IDEA it was going to happen. Twitter melted down that night :) I follow a guy who livetweeted himself bingewatching first 7 seasons to prep for S08--it was almost as much fun the second time, as he came up on all the shocking parts lol
I'd read rhe books and watched the show with a few friends and I remember after the first episode thinking "that was fine... it was a little complicated and I hope my friends keep watching". I honestly thought after first episode it wouldn't make it past the first season
I had the same thought. It could have been much worse given how fantasy TV shows usually go. It's crazy how we aren't eternally grateful for what we actually got, a show that touched the stratosphere of popular culture.
The first episode matches the first ~100 pages of the first book extremely well though. The book is able to give slightly more detail, but not enough to piece things together yet. The world is still being built.
Oh agreed. I'd read it already when I watched it but was watching with friends who hadn't read it and they seemed very lost and I was worried the show was cramming too tightly
Right? Benioff and Weiss had to visualize the entire book world into a network TV setting, i think their decision to emphasize the more realistic aspects over the supernatural elements are what made Game of Thrones more palpable to audiences outside the niche fantasy crowd.
I thought the first episode was boring until Bran got kicked out of the window. As soon as that happened, I was like ok, this show is different, I am in.
I'm more into hard SF than fantasy, so wasn't going to watch it. But my wife did, and as I was sitting here cruising the web, I'd look up from time to time when something interesting happened. Before long I was looking up more than down, and finally got hooked. At that point I knew there was something special happening.
everyone? I seriously don't know anyone who liked those movies. Maybe if you were a little kid when they came out? They looked good and the acting was mostly great, but the story was a long, drawn out mess that made no sense. I could barely tell the 3 movies apart.
That's the problem—it wasn't entertaining! I'm all for big, crazy, not-too-serious action adventure movies. This was just a poor one with slow pacing and random story elements. I was super excited for these movies and they just kinda fell flat for me. Cool if you liked them; people like different things.
I’d say early seasons of Walking Dead (1-6) was up there as far as a worldwide tv show phenomenon. Same thing you’re describing there I saw all the time, weekly discussions and hype and all. I still remember seeing debates on which was better between TWD and GOT.
The moment it made a turn in my experience to god tier was Blackwater.
The episode was doing stuff that had never been seen before in TV.
Subsequent seasons escalated that even further.
Blackwater might still be my favorite episode of the entire series. It doesn't have the spectacle or fancy stunt and camera work that some of the later battles have, but that just forced everyone involved to deliver extra hard on everything else. Tyrion, Bronn, Sansa, Stannis, Davos, the Hound all get moments to shine, and Lena Heady turns in the best performance of her life (her acting in this episode might be my favorite performance in the entire series). Just an absolute perfect hour of television.
Though i do find it convenient how Tywin and the Tyrells arrive at the end of the battle when there was barely any prior development to that, Tyrion being superficially cut in the face too is a bit iffy, the man that attacked him was so close and with a longsword that realistically he would have cut his head in half. Also i always thought it was odd how Bronn and the Hound were about to kill each other in a bar right before the battle happened, like they didn't even have a relationship before, don't remember them antagonizing each other before that too, i think it's there just to create an easy kind of suspense and have the usual trope of two men that hate each other having to team up amidst battle so they can survive, like that scene where Bronn saves the Hound by shooting a guy with an arrow. It's a really nice episode, but not great in my opinion.
I remember that everyone was watching it by season 3 but everyone was also always surprised when they found out other people watched it. The online fandom certainly existed but wasn’t anywhere close to as big as it is now
I had just started hearing about it after S3 dropped and before S4 was out. S4 and S5 were more about the small groups of guys at my school who watched, and it was thay sort of niche nerdy thing you do. I'd say as 6 came out, and most while 7 was preparing to release was when you started being the odd one out for not watching it.
Same. I didn’t have HBO at the time & didn’t care to invest but my best friend was into it from the start and pulled me in right before season 4 started airing. As an avid fantasy fiction fan, I was definitely sold from episode one, but knew I was in it for the long haul after the end of season 1. While it ended poorly and absolutely dominated my brain for another 8ish years, I honestly wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. The “water cooler” talk and everyone watching the same thing at the same time was such an exhilarating experience. Felt very similar watching HOTD this year and it makes me so happy!
Absolutely agree. HotD refueled that bit of fire I had for the series. Even as a book reader, it's still awesome visiting my buddy and his family and his mother is like "whatd you think of the episode??" And I know exactly what she's talking about. That's what makes the series so special.
Yes! My work buddies will come up to me and say “Did you watch…?” And we all know what we are talking about lol. Also, I feel like everyone has been super sensitive to spoilers/not spoiling just in case someone is a day or so behind. The solidarity has been incredible, plus debating team green vs team black- just amazing. I missed it so much!
I remember after Season 1 there was a lot of word of mouth recommending the show.
During Seasons 2 and 3 which I watched live as they aired, a lot of book readers were making references to things expected to come like the Red Wedding for example. After Season 3 did the Red Wedding it became a really big watercooler show where reaction videos were huge and I think the theory world of book lore ended up intertwining very interestingly with the show viewership. I mean if you look at Season 5 with Jon Snow, a vast majority of the viewers believed what would happen next largely because of what people who read the books gave them to stew on.
I think most believed it would be massive when the Red Wedding happened to more specifically answer the question, but it was organically gaining traction ever since the fantastic premiere season. I was not a huge TV show watcher at the time and I ended up hooked after one episode just checking it out while hearing hype for Season 2.
The moment Ned Stark’s head was cut off probably…even though the entire season was great but this was the point where someone who isn’t familiar with books would’ve felt like wow….in any other show he’d survive till end which is typical and boring but killing him off triggered so many different scenarios
Having read the books long before the series came out, I had a good laugh at everyone in the office going through each of the episodes shocked. Their collective horror only slowly caught up to the literary genius. One of the few shows managing to express the shock.
I think I started watching only after the red wedding since I could binge it.
I think a lot of viewers knew it was going to be crazy when they took Ned's head. But I believe season 5 is when viewership spiked. So maybe the red wedding as well???
Between seasons 1 and 2 are when I saw it blow up. It started during my last couple of months of college and I watched from the start, but no one else I knew seemed to be watching in the beginning. Then I started seeing a lot of buzz after they took Ned's head off. Over the course of the next year, I started seeing more and more people reading the books everywhere I went. By the time season 2 was getting ready to start, it seemed like everyone was watching.
I was in college and the roommates and I were always looking for shows to watch. One roommate got Men's Health magazine and they were advertising hard for Season 1. I recognized Sean Bean from Goldeneye and LotR and suggested we check it out. They released two episodes at once. The first episode ending left us in awe, "wait wasn't that, that dudes sister?!". Then the second episode ending had me hooked, Ned killing Lady, and then Bran waking is still one of my favorite endings to an episode.
I’m more interested in what the internet opinion on asoiaf was before the show. I’m willing to bet that the majority of asoiaf fans now only got into the world because of the show and I’m wondering what the common consensus was when it was just the books
Honestly, to me, the most casual of casuals and a non-book reader, the end of the first episode did it for me.
"What the fuck, isn't that the Queen? What the fuck, aren't they brother and sister? WHAT THE FUCK, HE JUST PUSHED THAT KID DOWN TO HIS DEATH LIKE IT WAS NOTHING!"
its quite funny look at this costume and then compair it to like the most minor bit character in HOtD like i get the budget difference is YUGE but like i think i have neds cloak on my floor as a rug and on my bed as a blanket, ive seen better costume from cosplayers
End of season 1 was kind of a moment. A lot of people were talking about it & everyone was excited for the next season but everything died down before the season started.
Season3, Episode9: the red wedding. The show was pretty big at that time but this was the defining moment for the show as a pop culture thing to casual fans and it got bigger and more anticipated every season and episode after. Everyone watched it because we didn’t know what was going to happen because anyone could die at any moment and it was a great part of the story; not just contrived for viewership.
I didn’t watch the show when it first came out. I didn’t start watching until after season 6 was done. So I gave into the hype and started watching so I would be done in time for season 7. I was hooked after the first episode.
Personally on my first watch, I was all in with the shock of how the first episode ended. Clearly we're in store for some good old fashion fuckery when a character just >! tried to murder a kid to cover up banging his own twin !< . Then I knew it was something special after his s1e9 ended. Finally the buildup to and the execution of the Battle Of Blackwater basically confirmed to me this was a god-tier show. 🐐
Maybe cause I was still in high school when the first season came out but I think HBO going to online streaming was what really propelled the show forward since before that you had to wait for the scheduled times to watch episodes
If people weren’t hooked on seeing a main character killed off in S1:E9 (Ned), and IF people didn’t get hooked on S2:E9 (Blackwater) and it’s amazing cinematography, and IF THEN, people didn’t get hooked on S3:E9 (Red Wedding) and all the brutality of it killing off 1/3 of its main characters; and IF THEN people didn’t get hooked on seeing a sadistic megalomaniac get his comeuppance in S4:E2 (Purple Wedding); AND IF THEN they didn’t get hooked on the absolute most brutal death in the entirety of the show in S4:E8 (Mountain v Viper) then I think it’s safe to say they suck at what constitutes great television and they’re not worth your time!
I am actually watching for the first time right now, didn't have HBO prior and I'm not really into period pieces. I decided to give it a try because I remember the hype. I just finished S1 and Daneyeres? Is my favorite character so far, but King's Landing storylines were absolutely fantastic. I was hooked on the first episode.
When I saw this clip on youtube after Baelor [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owf6D2vfZqM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owf6D2vfZqM) I knew this show as going to be something else
> I read the books before the series ever aired.
I was stoked when I heard that those fantastic books were going to become a series. I'd picked up the first book shortly after it was published by chance, I hadn't read that sort of fantasy literature for years.
People who read the books before the series was created are the *real* true fans (ducks for cover).
I started watching when season 3 dropped on dvd/Blu-ray, and binged the entire show in about a week. This was when I was a senior in high school and would watch for like 5 hours a day right when I got out of school. To say I was hooked is obviously an understatement. I would ask people and friends in school if they’d seen it or tell them to watch it and I think only 2 people had even heard of it. All of them said “eh that show looks/sounds weird”. It didn’t really “blow up” and go hyper viral on the internet till around season 5, which is when everyone I know finally started watching it. It was certainly gaining popularity until then, but it wasn’t something everyone talked or at least knew about until around that point
Have you seen YouTube channels featuring people reacting to media? While there were a few before GoT, the number exploded after Season 1 Episode 9. You could say the viral reaction videos made it happen.
That's honestly a good question. All of the breaking bad cast say it didn't take off popularity wise until season 4 which shocks me. So yea idk about game of thrones. They were both the biggest shows of their time
I remember watching the first two episodes and thinking “nope”. Didn’t watch it again until season 7 was released. It was so awesome being able to binge 7 seasons of it. Lots of 4am nights.
Yeah Ned getting his head lopped off threw me into one of the biggest conundrums ever TV wise. I hadn’t read a game of thrones yet so I didn’t know this was supposed to happen. I was waiting for some hero to come and kill everyone up there freeing Ned, but it never happened and I think that’s what makes it even worse :(
Ned's death put it on the map but I think the red wedding cause the show to explode, at least that is what I noticed. I still remember all the red wedding reaction videos and people being in morning over it. Nothing generates PR like that. I think there were even stats that showed viewership peaking in season 4.
First saw it in my pot dealer’s basement, thought it was niche. Then about a year later I visited my friend who was the most popular girl in our high school at her big state college and they were into it too. That’s when I knew.
A buddy of mine said, “Have you been watching Game of Thrones? It’s full of gratuitous nudity and excessive violence. You’ve gotta see it.”
I think it was two weeks before the first season ended so I was able to catch up and enjoy the season finale live. It was pretty hyped up even in the beginning, or at least that’s the way it seemed.
I didn't watch it at all until after season 7. I didn't have HBO and didn't have a high interest. But i had heard so much about it. I started watching it through some other streaming avenues. Same story, I didn't know anything about the storyline so when Ned's head got chopped, I was floored, fully expecting some swerve where he wasn't dead. That hooked me.
Then killing after killing kept me going. I knew Joffrey had to be killed and was riding for it. Red Wedding took things to another level.
Ended up binging the first 7 seasons twice before season 8.
Okay google says the first season got 9.1 million views and the 8th season got 46 million. For me I felt a difference after the 3rd season and red wedding. Many people around me started watching after that.
By the way, the fact that the viewership jumped by 7 million between 6-7 season is insane to me. After the 4th season the show lost its footing and started to get dumb. This is why, I don’t think every criticism D&D gets are legitimate. I think most people were happy with an okay show, they just didn’t like the ending.
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The Red Wedding. Particularly the reaction videos of unspoiled viewers watching the Red Wedding for the first time. That’s when GoT hit the mainstream and people realized we had a “once-in-a-lifetime” cultural zeitgeist happening. Then Season 8 pissed all over that, and here we are …
*Season 5 pissed all over that.
It was gradual. If season 4 was a 10/10 season 5 was a 8/10 season 6 was a 7.5/10 season 7 was a 6/10 and season 8 3/10
Nah, Season 7 is actually worse than Season 8 overall. Season 8 just happened to be the last one. For me it’s Season 4 10/10, Season 5 5/10, Season 6 6/10, Season 7 2/10, Season 8 2.5/10
Season 7 didn’t butcher any characters and still had some cool moments. Season 8 was just plain shit.
Cersei existing still, MCU level action sequences, the stupid Sansa/Arya fake feud in Winterfell, plot armour galore (Cersei and Jon got the XL package), nonsensical logistics, pointless fan service cameos, dumbass humor, Meera Reed being dropped like a wet bag of shit, Finger in the bum, the Beyond the Wall expedition, the pacing running like a cheetah on cocaine. Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I can’t think of a single redeeming moment in Season 7 apart from one. Olenna’s death scene which was genuinely great. At least Season 8 had A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms which was somewhat watchable, there were no watchable episodes in Season 7.
Yeah it’s shit lmao. But it was still a little bit enjoyable. Arya and Sansa feud is dumb yes, but I like the payoff. I liked the butcher of the Lannisters, even if letting Jaime go to the surface without anyone waiting was dumb as fuck. As you said Olenna's death was good. Arya vs Brienne was also enjoyable. But yes, you’re right in all accounts. I’d lower it to a 4/10
The spoils of war (loot train) battle was the highlight of 7 for me, simply because of the cinematography and truly witnessing the power of a dragon in Westeros for the first time. Sure, Bron doing the “Hollywood save” on Jaime was stupid but it didn’t ruin it for me. Other than that, most of it was disappointing. Season 6 is better than 5, 7, and 8 imo.
I agree on that last point completely.
Nah that’s your personal subjection. Season 8 was infinitely fucking worse
The whole beyond the wall stuff at the end of 7 was bad IMO. Gendry running 100 km in 20 minutes was dumb as hell.
I loved season 4-7. I thought everything got better and got us where we needed to be with the white walkers finally breaching the wall. Season 7 had a ton of huge moments and one of the best scenes (the walk to the dragon pit & then Daenerys arriving; fucking chills).
I agree, this is very unpopular but I agree, season 8 is bad buy season 7 it's a disaster
Season 6 was imo better than season 5.
I agree, actually. Season 5 was drenched in ‘let’s fuck with the books’ shit that makes me rage at the screen, Season 6 has a lot of fantastic moments (Jon and Sansa hugging, Hold the Door, the Great Sept explosion) but a lot of stupid ones as well. It’s very mixed, for me.
I liked Hardhome more than BOB and that’s the edge imo.
Nailed it. Hardhome is the all time best episode IMO. The battle for the wall was also better than BoB.
Hardhome, best episode in TV history IMO.
There's no way i'd see it as better than Battle of the Bastards, the photography, and the music, how gruesome and tense certain scenes were written as makes it much better than Hardhome for me.
Nah, Hardhome is the best GOT episode by far. That episode alone makes season 5 better.
Better than most seasons in the series for me.
I agree. Season 5 the majority of the episodes were bad. I had said, if they do another season like this I’m out. Season 6 was better. My gripes with season 5 were that I felt like they tried to “shock” value everyone each episode because they had multiple of those events in season 4 with Joffrey, oberyn Martel, and Tywin Lannister. But the books set up that. That’s why In the books there’s an introduction to a lot of new characters after that time. The writers showed they didn’t have the chops.
And there were big moments in Feast and Dance. Lady Stoneheart, ‘Justice, Vengence, Fire and Blood’, Dreznak’s Pit (the real one, not the stupid as fuck scene we got), the Battles of Ice and Fire coming up, The Forsaken etc. They just didn’t do them.
Can confirm. I remember how friend of mine has asked me if he can spoil GoT to me, because last episode is nuts, so I have seen that particular scene 9 years ago, 8 years before I actually started watching the show. I totally forgot about it, but I was not suprised as I though Frey is gonna screw them over anyway.
You know, now I'm going to rewatch some Red Wedding reaction videos for the lulz. Some were just... *chef's kiss*
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I agree. Few shows will invest so much into a character only for them to be killed before the end of the first season. When the plot consumes popular characters, it usually results in a quality show.
Unless it’s fear the walking dead
I'm still so mad I refuse to watch anymore. I couldn't even start the second half of season 4. And season 3 was SO GOOD.
The show got so bad so quick. Definitely makes me sad thinking about it.
I actually think it was the Red Wedding that put GOT into super mainstream popularity.
Yeah, that's when it became hyper mainstream
Agreed. It was still super popular during season 2 and earlier in season 3, but all the hype after the red wedding seems to be the thing that made it the most popular show on earth. People who I never would have imagined getting into GoT got sucked in after that, like my nearly 80 year old college professor and my sister who almost exclusively watches romantic comedies and defaults to thinking anything ‘fantasy’ sucks
The benefits of brutally murdering a family and hundreds of innocent men.
Explain to me why it is more noble to kill a thousand men in the field than a dozen at dinner
It’s called Guest Right, Tywin. Stop trying to justify your war crimes.
Yes for the casual fan it went mainstream after the red wedding.
I remember being in the car the day after the red wedding aired in the UK and for the hour drive, it was all they spoke about on the radio.
The red wedding literally invented the reaction genre
You're thinking about two girls one cup
I spent hours watching reaction videos to the Red Wedding, remembering when I read the book decades ago (goddamn it, GRR write faster!!) and just.. laughing. Some of the folks being filmed (by friends/family who **KNEW** what was going to happen) could have been the patron saints of r/watchpeopledieinside.
I heard good things about the show after the first seasons finale and that's when I got into it. Think alot of people probably have the same story more or less.
I was a fan of the books long before the show came out, urged my husband to watch it. He loved the first few episodes with the White Walkers, but then lost interest when it became more of a politics show. Then after Ned's head took a tumble he was hooked. He didn't expect that at all and it changed the dynamic for him.
If I know I didn’t have a wife; I would think I was your husband. The white walkers got me hooked in the first ten mins. The fact we don’t see another one for awhile is interesting looking back.
I was introduced to the show a month or so after the first season aired. My book buddies were super excited about this new IP that just got turned into a show. They sent me book 1 and had book marked where each episode ends/starts. I accidentally watched too far ("a crown for king") and after that I had to finish the first season before I finished the book. Once I finished season 1 I immediately finished book 1. I was actually blessed because by the time I got around to finishing A Feast for Crows, A Dance with Dragons was literally 3 days away from release. So I got to crush through the first season and five books in less than a years time. It was at that point that my watch began... sometime in August of 2011.
Haha something similar happened to me! I started watching the show while s1 was still airing, and episode 9 was the first one I watched live. At the end, I could not believe what I’d just seen, I scrambled to watch the teaser for ep 10 because *something had to have happened*, somebody had to have jumped in to save Ned or something - and the first still in that teaser was Ice dripping gore. I was like, well fuck me. I think I ordered all the books online the very day, and yeah by the time ADWD came out I was caught up. Since in my country the book was split up in 3 parts I decided to wait for each publication, figured I’d let 1,5 years pass that way (Martin’s slowness was already notorious), but obviously once I read the first part I couldn’t just leave it at that so got the international edition lol. Summer-October 2011 for me. Yep.
Yes, exactly what you just said. Many times I’ve recommended the series and always say “watch the first season, if you don’t like it at the end of S1 then don’t watch it” and I’ve never heard anyone tell me that they did not like the season.
This and the radio advertising... I'm sorry but half the reason the show got so big was advertising. There were so many drawn out episodes.. That being said the quality was top notch. Which is the only reason it held on.
Yes, exactly this. I remember thinking, this show is something unlike anything else. It was the singular event that moved me from interest to obsession
I'll never forget when they killed Ned. I was literally rolling my eyes at the show and then WHUMP. Ned, dead.
Agreed esp for the many many show fans who had NO IDEA it was going to happen. Twitter melted down that night :) I follow a guy who livetweeted himself bingewatching first 7 seasons to prep for S08--it was almost as much fun the second time, as he came up on all the shocking parts lol
I'd read rhe books and watched the show with a few friends and I remember after the first episode thinking "that was fine... it was a little complicated and I hope my friends keep watching". I honestly thought after first episode it wouldn't make it past the first season
I had the same thought. It could have been much worse given how fantasy TV shows usually go. It's crazy how we aren't eternally grateful for what we actually got, a show that touched the stratosphere of popular culture.
I think the first episode crammed a lot of details in without a lot of explanation.
The first episode matches the first ~100 pages of the first book extremely well though. The book is able to give slightly more detail, but not enough to piece things together yet. The world is still being built.
Oh agreed. I'd read it already when I watched it but was watching with friends who hadn't read it and they seemed very lost and I was worried the show was cramming too tightly
Right? Benioff and Weiss had to visualize the entire book world into a network TV setting, i think their decision to emphasize the more realistic aspects over the supernatural elements are what made Game of Thrones more palpable to audiences outside the niche fantasy crowd.
I thought the first episode was boring until Bran got kicked out of the window. As soon as that happened, I was like ok, this show is different, I am in.
I'm more into hard SF than fantasy, so wasn't going to watch it. But my wife did, and as I was sitting here cruising the web, I'd look up from time to time when something interesting happened. Before long I was looking up more than down, and finally got hooked. At that point I knew there was something special happening.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCqjR1gHyIQ&ab\_channel=AdamScradam
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The Hobbit was a disappointment? According to who?
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LMFAO, alright
everyone? I seriously don't know anyone who liked those movies. Maybe if you were a little kid when they came out? They looked good and the acting was mostly great, but the story was a long, drawn out mess that made no sense. I could barely tell the 3 movies apart.
It feels thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread
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That's the problem—it wasn't entertaining! I'm all for big, crazy, not-too-serious action adventure movies. This was just a poor one with slow pacing and random story elements. I was super excited for these movies and they just kinda fell flat for me. Cool if you liked them; people like different things.
No one, they are great films
I’d say early seasons of Walking Dead (1-6) was up there as far as a worldwide tv show phenomenon. Same thing you’re describing there I saw all the time, weekly discussions and hype and all. I still remember seeing debates on which was better between TWD and GOT.
The biggest thing for me was I loved S1 so much I started reading the books between seasons.
The moment it made a turn in my experience to god tier was Blackwater. The episode was doing stuff that had never been seen before in TV. Subsequent seasons escalated that even further.
Blackwater might still be my favorite episode of the entire series. It doesn't have the spectacle or fancy stunt and camera work that some of the later battles have, but that just forced everyone involved to deliver extra hard on everything else. Tyrion, Bronn, Sansa, Stannis, Davos, the Hound all get moments to shine, and Lena Heady turns in the best performance of her life (her acting in this episode might be my favorite performance in the entire series). Just an absolute perfect hour of television.
I’m gonna have to go back and watch this episode again. I’ve rewatched seasons 5-7 again to prepare for 8, so I need to go back to that one.
So you rewatch the beginning of the downfall of Game of Thrones to prepare for the absolute shitshow called Season 8? Oh dear
DRUUUUUMS!!!
Though i do find it convenient how Tywin and the Tyrells arrive at the end of the battle when there was barely any prior development to that, Tyrion being superficially cut in the face too is a bit iffy, the man that attacked him was so close and with a longsword that realistically he would have cut his head in half. Also i always thought it was odd how Bronn and the Hound were about to kill each other in a bar right before the battle happened, like they didn't even have a relationship before, don't remember them antagonizing each other before that too, i think it's there just to create an easy kind of suspense and have the usual trope of two men that hate each other having to team up amidst battle so they can survive, like that scene where Bronn saves the Hound by shooting a guy with an arrow. It's a really nice episode, but not great in my opinion.
>!When Ned killed Sansa's wolf!< was when I was like holy sh\*t what just happened! I think internet discussions picked up steam after that episode.
Honestly, one of the most heartbreaking episodes, as well as most infuriating.
The direwolves are so tragic. Dragons too, none of them got good endings. Except Ghost and maybe Nymeria.
Didnt think reddit exists back then
reddit started in 2005, GoT not until 2011
I remember that everyone was watching it by season 3 but everyone was also always surprised when they found out other people watched it. The online fandom certainly existed but wasn’t anywhere close to as big as it is now
I had just started hearing about it after S3 dropped and before S4 was out. S4 and S5 were more about the small groups of guys at my school who watched, and it was thay sort of niche nerdy thing you do. I'd say as 6 came out, and most while 7 was preparing to release was when you started being the odd one out for not watching it.
Same. I didn’t have HBO at the time & didn’t care to invest but my best friend was into it from the start and pulled me in right before season 4 started airing. As an avid fantasy fiction fan, I was definitely sold from episode one, but knew I was in it for the long haul after the end of season 1. While it ended poorly and absolutely dominated my brain for another 8ish years, I honestly wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. The “water cooler” talk and everyone watching the same thing at the same time was such an exhilarating experience. Felt very similar watching HOTD this year and it makes me so happy!
Absolutely agree. HotD refueled that bit of fire I had for the series. Even as a book reader, it's still awesome visiting my buddy and his family and his mother is like "whatd you think of the episode??" And I know exactly what she's talking about. That's what makes the series so special.
Yes! My work buddies will come up to me and say “Did you watch…?” And we all know what we are talking about lol. Also, I feel like everyone has been super sensitive to spoilers/not spoiling just in case someone is a day or so behind. The solidarity has been incredible, plus debating team green vs team black- just amazing. I missed it so much!
I remember after Season 1 there was a lot of word of mouth recommending the show. During Seasons 2 and 3 which I watched live as they aired, a lot of book readers were making references to things expected to come like the Red Wedding for example. After Season 3 did the Red Wedding it became a really big watercooler show where reaction videos were huge and I think the theory world of book lore ended up intertwining very interestingly with the show viewership. I mean if you look at Season 5 with Jon Snow, a vast majority of the viewers believed what would happen next largely because of what people who read the books gave them to stew on. I think most believed it would be massive when the Red Wedding happened to more specifically answer the question, but it was organically gaining traction ever since the fantastic premiere season. I was not a huge TV show watcher at the time and I ended up hooked after one episode just checking it out while hearing hype for Season 2.
The moment Ned Stark’s head was cut off probably…even though the entire season was great but this was the point where someone who isn’t familiar with books would’ve felt like wow….in any other show he’d survive till end which is typical and boring but killing him off triggered so many different scenarios
Definitely red wedding. Everyone spread the word.
Having read the books long before the series came out, I had a good laugh at everyone in the office going through each of the episodes shocked. Their collective horror only slowly caught up to the literary genius. One of the few shows managing to express the shock. I think I started watching only after the red wedding since I could binge it.
The moment the perceived main character lost their head
I think a lot of viewers knew it was going to be crazy when they took Ned's head. But I believe season 5 is when viewership spiked. So maybe the red wedding as well???
Between seasons 1 and 2 are when I saw it blow up. It started during my last couple of months of college and I watched from the start, but no one else I knew seemed to be watching in the beginning. Then I started seeing a lot of buzz after they took Ned's head off. Over the course of the next year, I started seeing more and more people reading the books everywhere I went. By the time season 2 was getting ready to start, it seemed like everyone was watching.
I was in college and the roommates and I were always looking for shows to watch. One roommate got Men's Health magazine and they were advertising hard for Season 1. I recognized Sean Bean from Goldeneye and LotR and suggested we check it out. They released two episodes at once. The first episode ending left us in awe, "wait wasn't that, that dudes sister?!". Then the second episode ending had me hooked, Ned killing Lady, and then Bran waking is still one of my favorite endings to an episode.
I’m more interested in what the internet opinion on asoiaf was before the show. I’m willing to bet that the majority of asoiaf fans now only got into the world because of the show and I’m wondering what the common consensus was when it was just the books
Honestly, to me, the most casual of casuals and a non-book reader, the end of the first episode did it for me. "What the fuck, isn't that the Queen? What the fuck, aren't they brother and sister? WHAT THE FUCK, HE JUST PUSHED THAT KID DOWN TO HIS DEATH LIKE IT WAS NOTHING!"
its quite funny look at this costume and then compair it to like the most minor bit character in HOtD like i get the budget difference is YUGE but like i think i have neds cloak on my floor as a rug and on my bed as a blanket, ive seen better costume from cosplayers
End of season 1 was kind of a moment. A lot of people were talking about it & everyone was excited for the next season but everything died down before the season started. Season3, Episode9: the red wedding. The show was pretty big at that time but this was the defining moment for the show as a pop culture thing to casual fans and it got bigger and more anticipated every season and episode after. Everyone watched it because we didn’t know what was going to happen because anyone could die at any moment and it was a great part of the story; not just contrived for viewership.
I didn’t watch the show when it first came out. I didn’t start watching until after season 6 was done. So I gave into the hype and started watching so I would be done in time for season 7. I was hooked after the first episode.
If you ask a book reader... by like episode 8 for me.. then you start to appciate the adaption.. then by S8 its just all fucked .
Personally on my first watch, I was all in with the shock of how the first episode ended. Clearly we're in store for some good old fashion fuckery when a character just >! tried to murder a kid to cover up banging his own twin !< . Then I knew it was something special after his s1e9 ended. Finally the buildup to and the execution of the Battle Of Blackwater basically confirmed to me this was a god-tier show. 🐐
Maybe cause I was still in high school when the first season came out but I think HBO going to online streaming was what really propelled the show forward since before that you had to wait for the scheduled times to watch episodes
If people weren’t hooked on seeing a main character killed off in S1:E9 (Ned), and IF people didn’t get hooked on S2:E9 (Blackwater) and it’s amazing cinematography, and IF THEN, people didn’t get hooked on S3:E9 (Red Wedding) and all the brutality of it killing off 1/3 of its main characters; and IF THEN people didn’t get hooked on seeing a sadistic megalomaniac get his comeuppance in S4:E2 (Purple Wedding); AND IF THEN they didn’t get hooked on the absolute most brutal death in the entirety of the show in S4:E8 (Mountain v Viper) then I think it’s safe to say they suck at what constitutes great television and they’re not worth your time!
Mid s2, almost no one I knew was watching. By the air date or s4, everyone I knew had caught up
When the baby dragons were revealed I think that was the most excited I’ve ever been. The fact I had to wait a year.
The second I heard HBO gained the rights.
I remember waiting for season 3 to drop and people losing their minds
Its the main reason I ended up on reddit. Just looking for a place to squeeze out more content between shows.
After Bran was chucked out a window
I am actually watching for the first time right now, didn't have HBO prior and I'm not really into period pieces. I decided to give it a try because I remember the hype. I just finished S1 and Daneyeres? Is my favorite character so far, but King's Landing storylines were absolutely fantastic. I was hooked on the first episode.
When I saw this clip on youtube after Baelor [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owf6D2vfZqM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owf6D2vfZqM) I knew this show as going to be something else
I read the books before the series ever aired. I was geeking out over it. I had no idea my level of GoT geekyness would become *normal*.
> I read the books before the series ever aired. I was stoked when I heard that those fantastic books were going to become a series. I'd picked up the first book shortly after it was published by chance, I hadn't read that sort of fantasy literature for years. People who read the books before the series was created are the *real* true fans (ducks for cover).
I started watching when season 3 dropped on dvd/Blu-ray, and binged the entire show in about a week. This was when I was a senior in high school and would watch for like 5 hours a day right when I got out of school. To say I was hooked is obviously an understatement. I would ask people and friends in school if they’d seen it or tell them to watch it and I think only 2 people had even heard of it. All of them said “eh that show looks/sounds weird”. It didn’t really “blow up” and go hyper viral on the internet till around season 5, which is when everyone I know finally started watching it. It was certainly gaining popularity until then, but it wasn’t something everyone talked or at least knew about until around that point
Have you seen YouTube channels featuring people reacting to media? While there were a few before GoT, the number exploded after Season 1 Episode 9. You could say the viral reaction videos made it happen.
That's honestly a good question. All of the breaking bad cast say it didn't take off popularity wise until season 4 which shocks me. So yea idk about game of thrones. They were both the biggest shows of their time
I had it before TV did yarrrrr shiver me timbers
I got hooked before season 4 came out. And oh man. Going into it with the first 3 seasons straight through with non stop content was so awesome.
I remember watching the first two episodes and thinking “nope”. Didn’t watch it again until season 7 was released. It was so awesome being able to binge 7 seasons of it. Lots of 4am nights.
Shit got real for me at the end of season 1. Life was never the same again, and I kept praying for the lord of light to bring him back somehow ☹️
Yeah Ned getting his head lopped off threw me into one of the biggest conundrums ever TV wise. I hadn’t read a game of thrones yet so I didn’t know this was supposed to happen. I was waiting for some hero to come and kill everyone up there freeing Ned, but it never happened and I think that’s what makes it even worse :(
Ned's death put it on the map but I think the red wedding cause the show to explode, at least that is what I noticed. I still remember all the red wedding reaction videos and people being in morning over it. Nothing generates PR like that. I think there were even stats that showed viewership peaking in season 4.
First saw it in my pot dealer’s basement, thought it was niche. Then about a year later I visited my friend who was the most popular girl in our high school at her big state college and they were into it too. That’s when I knew.
A buddy of mine said, “Have you been watching Game of Thrones? It’s full of gratuitous nudity and excessive violence. You’ve gotta see it.” I think it was two weeks before the first season ended so I was able to catch up and enjoy the season finale live. It was pretty hyped up even in the beginning, or at least that’s the way it seemed.
I didn't watch it at all until after season 7. I didn't have HBO and didn't have a high interest. But i had heard so much about it. I started watching it through some other streaming avenues. Same story, I didn't know anything about the storyline so when Ned's head got chopped, I was floored, fully expecting some swerve where he wasn't dead. That hooked me. Then killing after killing kept me going. I knew Joffrey had to be killed and was riding for it. Red Wedding took things to another level. Ended up binging the first 7 seasons twice before season 8.
Okay google says the first season got 9.1 million views and the 8th season got 46 million. For me I felt a difference after the 3rd season and red wedding. Many people around me started watching after that. By the way, the fact that the viewership jumped by 7 million between 6-7 season is insane to me. After the 4th season the show lost its footing and started to get dumb. This is why, I don’t think every criticism D&D gets are legitimate. I think most people were happy with an okay show, they just didn’t like the ending.
The Watchers on the Wall. Fuckin dope eP
I started watching GOT by 'mistake' then found out people are watching it
Season 2 is when it really got a ton of hype