When my friend and personal trainer, Missy told that she is finally watching Game of Thrones ( you know, after the rest of the world has moved on), I really wanted to understand her experience. And she was kind enough to do a guest post about it!
—————————————————————————————————————————-
I really thought I was the only person on the planet who had never watched Game of Thrones, until I posted on Facebook. Apparently there are a good 100 of us in the same boat 🙂
I have no good reason why I had never watched it. I used to hear people at my prior job having serious debriefs Mondays morning and yet, it did not intrigue me enough.
Part of why though MAY have something to do with that GOT always was in the same categories for award nominations as my beloved, Outlander. GOT always dominated so I think I felt loyal to Sam and the amazing cast and crew of Outlander.
Recently, I had subscribed to HBO Now to watch the second season of Big Little Lies (which was worth every penny!) At that point, I realized oh it is nice to have TV again. And I found my mouse hovering over GOT.
So I watched the first episode and OH MY GOD. I got it. I completely got the hype. The show, the storylines… all of it are unlike anything ever created for television before.
Challenges Of Staying Spoiler Free When The Whole World Has Seen The Show!
The beauty and the curse of watching Game of Thrones after the series finale is that I was able to binge watch. However, I feel like I watched in solitude. I really could not talk about it with anyone as they all were fearful of giving away spoilers.
So I found I relied a lot on articles I found with recaps of the episode. Because let’s be honest, a lot goes down in one episode and watching it solo meant I likely missed a lot of what happened.
The problem though with Google, as I often had to search for character references that I could not remember who they were, is that spoilers happened. A lot. Within the first few sentences of anything I found, it would reference such and such a character with the season and episode they died in. Which I suppose, does not really make much a difference as we all know there’s a 75% chance any character is going to die. So many did. Which is another reason GOT is so unique. No character is safe.
Binge-watching GOT in 4 Weeks Makes Season 8 Much Less Awful
One of the disadvantages possibly though of binge watching, which I should mention, I watched all episodes of every season over the course of about 4 weeks, is that I had very little down time between episodes. So, unlike most people who watched over the span of a few years, a week in between episodes and a year in between seasons, the events of any episode did not percolate for long for me. I probably did not really process all that happened and emotions were so short lived.
Like, my absolute favorite episode was the one following the Battle of the Dead where everyone for a few brief moments were on the same side. Everyone seemed humane and I loved the banter and camaraderie between them. But that lasted all of 20 minutes until I went to the next episode. I really wanted to live in those euphoric moments a bit longer.
The last season started off epically but by the end, with Daenerys just going all Mad Queen, I started to lose interest in her storyline. When she was killed, I had no emotional response. It was far more pragmatic, like ok, great, she’s out of the way. Now what comes next?
With the ending, I know for those who watched it real time, there were a lot of theories floating around and discussion about them. I think most people subscribed to one of those theories, or a combination. I on the other hand, did not really give myself time to think about or find any plausible theories. For me, that meant it was almost an impatience to know how it would end. Who would rule the Seven Kingdoms?
How I Wish It Had Ended Though…
As for the ending itself, I cannot say I liked it or hated it. Truthfully, that’s a really difficult task the writers had to find an appropriate conclusion to such an ambitious series. Personally, I am in Team Jon Snow and would have preferred he ruled. I know there’s a lot of controversy over him as a leader with so many finding him to be weak or indecisive. Compared to the other so-called leaders of the series, who may have been more steadfast in their decisions, they often, in my opinion, took advantage of their power to the detriment of others. Jon on the other hand really tried to do what was best for others.
So sure, anyone could argue I’m naïve or have rose-colored glasses on. I think though, I always at some point, want humanity to win. There is so much evil and bloodshed that happened in the series, I wanted it all to be for something that made the sacrifice I suppose equitable for the outcome. Bran as the King, ok, sure he’s the Third Eye Raven and all. He’s also extremely stoic and detached so how is he going to rule any differently than tyrants who look at things in black and white? Jon Snow looked for the gray areas which I appreciate.
Ok so that’s enough for Team Snow.
And Am Ready For A Game of Thrones Re-watch!
At some point, I want to watch GOT a second time with a different lens and far less rushed. I know I missed a lot of important details and foreshadowing that happened. I recommend if you have not watched to definitely do it. Just don’t do it solo.
About Missy
Missy is an LA based Certified Personal Trainer (and Writing Aficionado). You can find about what she does at https://www.
