It's difficult to fully encapsulate the appeal of a show as expansive as Game of Thrones. The fantasy series was many different things to many different people, but in the wake of a contentious final season that even many diehard fans spurned and the buildup to spinoffs like House of the Dragon and Tales of Dunk and Egg it is more important than ever to get back to the heart of what made the show resonate with so many. If the Game of Thrones prequel series hope to replicate the original's juggernaut success, they can't do it without understanding why the show was so popular in the first place.

The first step to understanding Game of Thrones' appeal is identifying what made it unique. Since J. R. R. Tolkien first revolutionized and redefined the high fantasy genre with the 1937 publication of The Hobbit, many genre works have drawn some degree of inspiration from the author. By the time George R. R. Martin published A Game of Thrones in 1996 there had been countless riffs on the fantasy genre, but few stories so capably grounded their worlds and characters in such gritty realism.

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Ned Stark Holds His Sword Ice On Game Of Thrones

Martin has said before that part of his inspiration for what became the A Song of Ice and Fire series was asking himself what Lord of the Rings' Aragorn's tax policy was following his triumphant ascension to king in the conclusion of Tolkien's series. Such mundane detail, ranging from finances to provisions to meticulous descriptions of food, imbued Martin's world with texture and realism its readers could feel. Further adding to that realism was the addition of the grittier and sexier realities of human life that Tolkien so often left out. Martin's characters had bowel movements, sexual appetites and complicated moral worldviews that made them all the more interesting.

Such complexity was incorporated into HBO's television adaptation when it first premiered in 2011 and audiences only loved it more and more as those qualities grew. There was a certain thrill in the violence and sex of the show, and because none of the characters in the expansive ensemble stood out as the show's one true protagonist, there became a hero for every viewer and multiple detestable villains, like Joffrey Baratheon and Ramsay Bolton, whose comeuppances were hotly anticipated.

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Game of Thrones finale

This allowed the show to build dramatic tension, provoke discussion and cultivate a growing fan base that took Game of Thrones from niche fantasy to must-watch television. Many viewer found themselves tuning in purely to be in the loop for watercooler talk on Monday. Perhaps just as much fun as the show itself became the discussions about the show as massive moments like the Red Wedding or the Battle of the Bastards became cultural touchstones that made for interesting small talk. The show's momentum built to such a self-sustaining degree that the cultural interest surrounding Game of Thrones continued through its last season even when the tone of the talk about it soured in excitement.

As the franchise presses forward, it would do well to get back to the complexity and realism that made it so popular to begin with. The final season's tendency to play fast and loose with geographic distances, character arcs or plot contrivances grated on audiences so much precisely because of how contrary it was to what made them fall in love with the show in its earlier seasons. The excitement around the spinoffs' wars and weddings will come, but to afford them, the creatives behind these shows will first have to worry about the taxes.

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