For seven years, I have refused to watch what could be considered the most popular show on television.
Based on the best-selling book series, “A Song of Ice and Fire”, by George R.R. Martin, Game of Thrones has a large portion of the country tuning in at 9 p.m. every Sunday to watch the drama of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. The show has a 95 percent critical and audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
If I said I wasn't ignoring the widely popular series for the sole purpose of being able to say I was one of the few people who doesn't watch it, I would be lying.
According to an article on Business Insider by John Lynch, the first season of GoT averaged 2.51 million viewers per episode, and by the sixth season, the show had an average of 7.72 million viewers per episode.
Junior Matt Roberts has been a fan of the show since its first few seasons.
“I started watching GoT when the third season of the show was going on," he said. "At first, I did not know what to expect and was not initially hooked. After about 5 episodes, I could not resist.”
The show has gained a serious cult following. Many fans have viewing parties with their friends, but they often implement two rules: there must be silence from the audience and the volume of the television has to be almost deafening.
Roberts said he thinks the show has gained so many followers because of its storyline and characters.
"People fall in love with Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen, two of the main characters, because of how popular their characters are, how good they are at fighting and their looks.”
But the show is not for everyone. Junior Ally Langhans said the medieval themes don't spark her interest.
"I like more comedy-based shows that are also modern and relatable," she said.
So, after seven seasons, I decided to give the show a try, and watched the first episode with my roommates.
The first episode entitled, "Winter Is Coming," threw me for a loop. I had seen this saying plastered all over social media, but did not know that it came from the first episode. I pressed play, eager to enter the medieval world of beheadings, sword fights and arranged marriages.
Within the first five minutes, frozen and mutilated heads and body parts were shown onscreen. I was convinced this show was not for me, but I kept watching.
The accents and medieval language made it hard to understand what the characters were saying, so it makes sense why viewing parties with friends require complete silence.
During the episode, the prominent Stark family adopts wolves as pets. This is something I can get behind, because the wolves really just look like cute Husky puppies.
Fast-forward 30 minutes, and there was a lot more nudity than I was expecting. Also, there was incest? No one on Twitter ever mentioned the fact that the first characters to engage in sexual relations, Cersei and Jaimie Lannister, are brother and sister!
Another strange sibling relationship is that of Viserys and Daenerys Targaryen. Viserys is clearly obsessed with power and taking back his family’s throne.
He has arranged for his sister to marry a long-haired, “Dothraki” warrior, in exchange for 40,000 soldiers, which is apparently enough man-power to reclaim the Iron Throne, whatever that is. Clearly, the arrangement is one-sided, as Daenerys has made it clear she is not ok with this marriage.
Putting my judgments aside, I finished the episode and was pleasantly surprised. I would not say I am hooked by any means, but will definitely be watching the rest of the series to find out what happens to the Starks and Daenerys's new husband, who knows how to rock a smoky-eye.
The next time a friend tells you how good Game of Thrones is, believe the hype.
