Everyone has a theory for how Game of Thrones became one of the biggest shows on TV—and they're all wrong. "Tits and dragons" may seem like a winning combination in retrospect, but it's not like fantasy-based television series had a long and storied history of success. Nor was Game of Thrones an immediate hit: The show's early ratings were solid, sure, but have since quadrupled, making it a massive hit.
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Game of Thrones didn't arrive out of nowhere to take its place in our hearts—it built itself up, scene by scene. In the process of writing my book 100 Things Game of Thrones Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, I found that I was repeatedly referencing the same scenes that tell the story of how Game of Thrones became the unavoidable sensation Game of motherfucking Thrones. Some of them are big, famous, explosive scenes—but most aren't. Here are the scenes that made Game of Thrones the massive, expensive, controversial, unavoidable hit that it's become.When Game of Thrones debuted, it faced the monumental task of presenting a fully fleshed-out fantasy world with a dense history and almost 20 characters right from the start. How would the show go about transcending that confusion? It did so in two ways, both of which are demonstrated effectively in this scene from the show's pilot: First, it showed off the highest possible production values. Sure, the green screen behind Bran is notable, but also—look at those sets and costumes! And the music is arguably composer Ramin Djawadi's best work from the first season, capturing the immediate bombast and the subtle threat of the king's visit to Winterfell.But those elements are useless without a direct emotional connection to the characters, and Game of Thrones promoted the books' fan favorites in such a way that viewers immediately latched onto the same characters that readers did. This particular scene is centered on Arya Stark (Maisie Williams), whose big, curious eyes, and deception while watching the king's arrival make her more compelling in this scene than Bran Stark. New viewers might not have instantly understood the full impact of Robert demanding to see Lyanna's grave, but they wanted to see what kind of trouble the girl in the ill-fitting helmet would get up to.
1. The Arrival of King Robert (and Arya Stark)
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2. Robert, Barristan, and Jaime Recount Their First Kills
3. Osha Predicts Robb Stark's Fate
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But Robb doesn't know—he can't know. His tragedy is that his concept of doing the right thing—trying to free his father and defeat the Lannisters—is totally bound up in the feudal, patriarchal, stupid world of Westeros that he can't break out of. If he listened to Osha and stayed in the North, he and his army (and, likely, the world) would've been better off for it. But he couldn't, and that's why one of Game of Thrones' central themes is embodied in this scene: The best people make the worst decisions because they can't conceive the options beyond what's possible within their terrible societies.Every season finale of Game of Thrones has scored higher ratings than its premiere, and almost every premiere has higher ratings than the previous finale (the show's sixth season being the exception). It's a show that has built excitement as it's progressed—an element that was by no means guaranteed following the first season's shocking death of Ned Stark (Sean Bean), which stood to slow the word-of-mouth momentum heading into the show's second season.So in the trailer previewing what was next, HBO used music from frequent trailer soundtrackers Florence and the Machine to back one of the most famous monologues from the books: Varys telling Tyrion a riddle about power. The trailer established Tyrion played by the freshly Emmy-winning Peter Dinklage as the show's new central character, as well as affirming that the adaptation of the novels was continuing apace.
4. Varys Tells Tyrion a Riddle About Power
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5. Davos Calls for the Drums
6. Jaime Loses His Hand
Game of Thrones is pulpy and sordid, a story of increasingly absurd events happening to larger-than-life characters. The show (and to some extent, the books) doesn't always understand this, veering between stately period drama stylings and the revelry of misery. This particular scene—in which Jaime Lannister seemingly convinces Bolton henchman Locke not to rape Brienne, only to lose his hand to Locke's poor impulse control—isn't quite a compromise.
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It's one of the strangest scenes in all of Game of Thrones, because immediately after the violent mutilation, the credits roll with a raucous version of the in-world song "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" performed by real-world rock band the Hold Steady. Electric guitars weren't previously featured in Thrones, but here they are wailing. It's not a coincidence that in Game of Thrones' third season—which features the Red Wedding, arguably the darkest and most shocking event in the show's entire story—the show leans toward being, well, fun.That great third season demonstrated that it learned the lessons from "Blackwater" masterfully. The show consistently and confidently deployed a wide range of tonal shifts, utilizing a solid baseline of writing, acting, and production value to tell its increasingly intense story. The show's confidence would eventually backfire on itself in future, but the highlights from the third season demonstrated that, for a time, it worked.It's funny to remember that the big battle scene in the first season was cut, given how famous the show became for huge, bombastic set pieces. My favorite of these is the sack of Astapor, in which Daenerys Targaryen unleashes her plan to betray the slavers of the city and gain an army at no cost. Emilia Clarke has never been better, unleashing an imperious sneer at all who doubted her. The violence that follows is not the grim, dark sort the the show's since become famous for—but rather, the cathartic release of revolution. In this moment, the constant plot twists of the show convey an "anything is possible" feeling that actually includes hope.
7. The Sack of Astapor
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8. Jamie and Brienne in the Baths
The previous two scenes are fun, but they don't tell the full story of how well Game of Thrones worked at its peak. The explosive scenes and shocking moments require a solid foundation of character work, another area in which the third season shines brightly. In adapting the relatively uneventful half of A Storm of Swords, the season actually has room to slow down and breathe. (Consider how slowly the Tullys are introduced, compared to the dizzying survey of Westeros given in the next few seasons.) The absolute best of these character-centered scenes is in "Kissed By Fire," my sneaky favorite episode of the series. Brienne and Jaime pretty much just sit in the baths and talk. There's a bit of nudity, but it's largely desexualized during a long, quiet monologue where Jaime discusses how he acquired the moniker "Kingslayer."Everything about this scene enhances the weight of history in Game of Thrones by complicating what we thought we already knew about Jaime; even the scene's location, Harrenhal's baths, help add to our understanding of what the baths and Westerosi society in general are like. Scenes like this are the true source of the show's popularity, regardless of how many Red Weddings or Battles of the Bastard steal all the attention.
9. The Jaime-Cersei Sexual Assault Scene
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10. The Mountain and the Viper
Even as it became more controversial, Game of Thrones only got better at providing grand spectacle. The fourth season's back end features the show's greatest duel scene, between the Mountain that Rides and the Red Viper. On a technical and storytelling level, it's one of the greatest duels I've ever seen committed to screen: Oberyn, using his showmanship to gain reactions, fights symmetrically and elegantly; Gregor, only interested in winning, breaks up the beauty as much as possible.The fourth season as a whole is filled with these massive, beautiful spectacles, to the point where it seemed that the show existed just to create big moments. This moment in particular raised the issue that, after the massive tragedy of the Red Wedding, Oberyn's death seemed to be little more than building up hope to squash it again. While I personally disagree (Oberyn's death leads to a more direct comeuppance for Tywin, the show's biggest villain), Game of Thrones was established as a show that, while technically top-tier, existed primarily to inflict cruelties upon its characters and viewers alike, even if those cruelties have never looked better.
11. Arya Kills Meryn
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It's the opposite of Dany's sacking of Astapor, an act of just violence treated as the start of a new age of heroism. The brothel in Braavos is nothing but brutality, built on revenge, child prostitution, and abuse. It isn't cathartic, nor is it an impressive action sequence—it's purely unpleasant to watch. Perhaps the show's producers wanted viewers to believe it's darkest before the dawn; perhaps they wanted to punish viewers for finding other pieces of Arya's revenge so entertaining. Regardless, alongside Stannis's downfall, Jon's betrayal, Myrcella's deeply ill-timed murder, and so much more, Arya's vengeance against Meryn Trant defines Game of Thrones' fifth season.Game of Thrones' sixth season was dramatically different from the previous seasons in two critical ways. It was the first season that wasn't based primarily on the existing books, and second, after the increased criticism from the past few seasons, showrunners Benioff and Weiss claimed they'd listened to criticism and adjusted accordingly. These changes were apparent less than 20 minutes into the season, with Sansa and Theon's rescue at the hands of Brienne and Podrick setting a tone of pure heroism that the rest of the season followed (save for a few detours, of course). Charting this path was a risky move for Game of Thrones, which built its success on subverting fantasy tropes. But even if a straightforward good-versus-evil battle isn't the most intelligent and satisfying conclusion for the show to reach, Brienne swearing her oath to Sansa (as she had to Catelyn) was still amazing.
12. Brienne Swears Her Oath to Sansa
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