Fast forward to this year. Once I knew that GOT was actually going to end, I got excited about glomming it. And the week after the series finale aired, I dived in. I wasn’t sure that I would get obsessed—high fantasy isn’t my thing—but GOT isn’t really high fantasy (at least not as I define it). Instead, it was about people. Their fears, their relationships, their betrayals and challenges. Holy freak, I LOVED IT. The series finale aired May 19. I started watching two weeks later. I finished the series on the plane back from Disney World on June 16 (and somewhere in there I wrote a novella). Yeah, I was obsessed.
Honestly, I didn’t expect to be. Mostly, I wanted to be “pop culture aware” – after all, I bought an “I drink and I know things” t-shirt years ago without even knowing why folks thought it was cool. When I learned it was GOT, that was just one more reason I wanted to get to know the show.
And I really did/do love it. Even the last two seasons were okay in my book (not great, but I’d heard such rumblings I was expecting it to be utter dreck. And, imho, it wasn’t). I loved the characters. I loved their arcs. I loved how they screwed up, their challenges, their ambitions, their plots, their growth. And the dragons, especially as babies, were just too cute. I mean, seriously: I want a baby dragon!
As a romance writer, what I found particularly fascinating was that there was really no romance story line in the series other than Sam and Gilly. Maybe Jaime and Cersei, though talk about doomed. Lots of sex; very little romance.
I could go on and on, but I’m so glad I glommed the show rather than watching as it aired. For me, it was way more fun. And it has primed my current obsession: reading the books. This time, however, I’m going slooooowwwwwly. Maybe GRRM will catch up to me …