Finally finished watching Game of Thrones

Game of Thrones must be one of the biggest things in TV in the last twenty years. There have been plenty of fantasy shows before, but this spanned multiple locations across Europe to give different climates. It had battles on a massive scale, and dragons.

In the UK it was broadcast on Sky, which I do not subscribe to. It finished in 2019, but it has taken me until now to catch up. My daughter was into the books and bought season 1 from a charity shop. I watched that and later picked up season 2. The later ones can be harder to find second hand, so I went for the big set of 1 to 7 when it came up on the Oxfam online shop. Season 8 came from my friend @todayslight who has a huge DVD collection.

I wonder how many people have not yet seen it? In any case I will not give away too much of the plot so that they can still enjoy it. The story concerns various families competing for the Iron Throne of Westeros. As in the history of Europe there can be different claims based on hereditary links and that tends to lead to war.

There is another force involved in the frozen north that is protected against by a massive wall of ice. The legendary White Walkers have the power to bring the dead to life to fight for them.

It is all very much about destiny with certain key people obviously likely to be in it to the end. That said, you cannot rely on anyone surviving. The body count is high and not just among the masses. Each season has at least one spectacular battle or other massacre and the fake blood flows freely. It is known for the graphic violence and also for the nudity. The latter is more prominent than in a lot of shows, but if you watch for that then you may actually be disappointed as there is not that much really. It is definitely an adult show though.

As it was filmed over eight years you really see how the younger cast grow up in a similar way to the Harry Potter movies, but this is about darker magic. There are moments of humour, but the violence and despair can be relentless.

A lot of prominent actors take part and also some musicians such as Wilko Johnson of Doctor Feelgood and Ed Shearon who actually sings. He is not that great in this to be honest.

George R.R. Martin wrote the books it is based on, but could not deliver the later volumes in time for the show schedule Apparently they did base the last couple of seasons on some of his writings and had his blessing, but the show-runners came up with some plots. I was warned that these were not so good, but I did not think they were that bad and I was not put out by the ending.

The DVDs have a nice selection of special features about the production. I like to see how shows are made. The production was based in Belfast with some location in Northern Ireland. A fair bit was
done in Croatia with Dubrovnik acting as the capital Kings Landing. Some was also filmed in Split and Hivefest last year was partly in the cellars of the Roman palace that they used.

They also have a tiny museum with some props and costumes from the show. I could not avoid some spoilers for the show, but one of the descriptions I saw there dropped a big one on me. I can live with that.

I think the show is well worth a watch if you like something epic and can handle the gore. I may well read the books some time, but I have a lot of others to get through. There is also the prequel series House of the Dragon. I have not seen that for sale as of yet, but I will look out for it.

Winter is coming (well not really as it is spring here).