This is a recap of season one to seven of HBO's hit show, Game of Thrones. The new season scheduled to premiere on April 14, 2019!
Written by Jananey R.
Contrary to what lecturers might think, GoT is not ‘Graduate on Time’. It is the Game of Thrones, the fantasy franchise that took over the world by storm (or shall I say, dragons).
Originally based on George RR Martin’s Song of Fire and Ice series about the warring Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, DB Weiss and David Benioff’s HBO adaptation has become a worldwide phenomenon, growing with every successive instalment and shocking audiences with its unexpected narrative twists and groundbreakingly grisly acts of barbarism, since first airing in 2011.
Now the eighth and final season of Game of Thrones will begin airing on the 14th of April 2019, and whether you have been with the show since its early days or joined the thirst for the Iron Throne in the years since the show premiered, everyone could likely use a refresher before everything begins to end.
Also, getting through 67 Game of Thrones episodes and 7 seasons may seem like a daunting task, but I am here to make your binge-watching journey as smooth as possible. Here is a rough recap of each season:
Season 1
The show begins with the promise of an imminent threat as in the opening scene, we see mysterious inhuman figures, called White Walkers, attack members of the Night’s Watch, an ancient order guarding the Wall to the north of Westeros. They left behind a pattern of body parts, indicating a greater purpose behind the violence.
Ned Stark, Warden of the North, is visited in Winterfell by Robert Baratheon and is invited to serve at his side following the sudden death of Jon Arryn, the previous Hand of the King.
Ned’s son, Bran, witnesses Baratheon’s wife, Cersei Lannister, in bed with her twin brother, Jaime, who shoves him from a tower window, leaving Bran paralysed.
Tyrion Lannister, a dwarf, accompanies Ned’s illegitimate son, Jon Snow, to investigate the White Walker incident reported by the Night’s Watch. Snow stays on with the Night’s Watch.
When Baratheon is fatally wounded in a suspicious hunting accident, Ned is named Protector of the Realm until Cersei’s sadistic son, Joffrey, comes of age. Ned, however, is betrayed by councillor Lord Petyr Baelish (Littlefinger) and is decapitated on Joffrey’s orders.
Ned's daughters, Sansa and Arya, are left clueless as the first got arrested by the Lannisters and the latter manages to escape. In response, Stark’s son Robb is named King of Winterfell and rallies the armies of the North against the Lannisters.
Across the Narrow Sea, Dothraki warlord, Khal Drogo, marries Daenerys Targaryen. She believes herself the true heir to the Iron Throne and plots an assault on Westeros. Drogo dies after being hexed by a witch and Daenerys avenges him as well as hatching three dragon eggs presented to her as a wedding gift.
Season 2
Tyrion takes up the post of the Hand of the King in hopes of reining in Joffrey. Robert's brother, Stannis, falls under the spell of the witch, Melisandre, and publicly lays claim to the throne on the basis of Joffrey’s illegitimacy.
Robb’s armies progress south with Jaime as their prisoner of war. Robb sends Theon Greyjoy to seek an alliance with his father, Balon Greyjoy. Instead, Theon reunites with his family on the Iron Islands and together they capture Winterfell. Bran is forced to escape to the wilderness.
Robb also send Catelyn out to meet with Renly Baratheon, the younger sibling of Stannis, who also has a claim to the Iron Throne. But Renly is then murdered by an evil spirit dispatched by Melisandre.
Catelyn and Renly’s bodyguard, Brienne of Tarth, are accused of the assassination and forced to flee. Uniting with Robb once more, the women conspire to have Jaime returned to King’s Landing in the hope of swapping him for Sansa.
Arya is captured by Lannister soldiers, imprisoned at the castle of Harrenhal and taken on as a servant by Tywin Lannister who believes her to be a boy. She escapes with the aid of Jaqen H’ghar, one of the Faceless Men of Essos.
Meanwhile, across the Narrow Sea, Daenerys arrives at Qarth, hoping to gain support for her invasion of Westeros. She ends up imprisoned in the House of the Undying, along with her dragons. She eventually escapes and pillages the city.
Season 3
Tyrion is demoted from his position as the Hand of the King by Tywin, who blames Tyrion for causing his wife’s death in childbirth, and forces him to marry Sansa. Joffrey is meanwhile engaged to Margaery Tyrell, Renly’s widow, in the hopes of establishing a Lannister-Tyrell alliance.
Beyond the Wall, Jon Snow encounters Wildling leader, Mance Rayder. Jon finds himself in a complex relationship with a Wildling, Ygritte.
Robb decides not to marry Roslin Frey after falling in love with Talisa, a healer. Nevertheless, the Starks are invited to her wedding, which turns out to be a trap sprung by Roslin's resentful father Lord Walder Frey. Robb, Catelyn, the pregnant Talisa and their bannermen are all butchered at the reception, with the blessing of the Lannisters.
The killings are witnessed by Arya, who finds a reluctant protector in Sandor Clegane (The Hound). For his part in the massacre, the treacherous Roose Bolton is offered Winterfell and made Warden of the North.
Season 4
Joffrey meets his end after being served poisoned wine at his wedding to Margaery. Sansa is smuggled to freedom with the assistance of Littlefinger, who takes her to Lysa Arryn at The Vale.
Arryn is killed by Littlefinger, whom she expects to marry, after she lost her mind and attempts to push Sansa to her death through the Moon Door.
Jaime, who has since lost his hand, and Brienne arrive at King’s Landing to find Sansa has escaped.
Brienne, now is tasked with tracking down the missing Stark girls.
A distraught Cersei blames Tyrion for Joffrey’s assassination. Tyrion is imprisoned once more but is freed by Jaime. Tyrion then discovers his father in bed with his mistress, Shae, and kills him before departing King’s Landing to meet Daenerys, whom he believes can defeat Cersei.
In the north, Mance and the Wildlings lay siege to Castle Black. Stannis’s remaining men ride to the rescue.
Arya and The Hound are found by Brienne, who defeats The Hound in battle. Arya runs away to study under the mysterious Jaqan H’ghar at the House of Black and White in Braavos.
Season 5
Stannis has the defeated Mance, who is burnt at the stake as Jon is elected leader of the Night’s Watch. Stannis is later convinced by Melisandre to sacrifice his own daughter to appease the “Lord of Light” so he burns her alive, losing the respect of his own troops.
Littlefinger leads Sansa to Ramsay with the intention of marrying them, an event that would mean the return of the Starks to Winterfell.
Stannis arrives to fight the Boltons but lost and is slain by Brienne, who has followed Sansa to Winterfell, as Melisandre runs away to Castle Black. Sansa manages to escape Ramsey’s clutches.
At King’s Landing, Cersei is conspiring against her daughter-in-law, Margaery, who has subsequently married Joffrey’s naive younger brother, Tommen, now king. However, Cersei’s sexual hypocrisy is soon exposed and she is forced to enact a humiliating naked walk of penance through the streets of the capital.
Daenerys takes over the city of Mereen with her army. However, a battle ensues between her guards and an anonymous collective, Sons of the Harpies. Tyrion meets Daenerys, quickly wins her trust.
In the north, Jon takes a group of Night’s Watchmen to meet with the Wildlings in the hope of forming an alliance. As negotiations are ongoing, the Night King breaks up their meeting and scores a devastating victory.
Season 6
After Jon is raised from the dead by Melisandre, he takes back control of the Night’s Watch and plans to reclaim Winterfell from Ramsay, who has since slain his family. He is reunited with Sansa at the Wall.
In the ensuing ‘Battle of the Bastards’, Ramsay is finally overcome when Littlefinger and the Knights of the Vale unexpectedly joined the battle. Ramsay is fed to his own dogs.
In King’s Landing, Cersei faces trial for her misdemeanours. She finally takes matters into her own hands, blowing up the Great Sept of Baelor with the last of the wildfire, killing Margaery and everyone else in there. In his grief, Tommen commits suicide.
Theon, free of his ordeal at the hands of Ramsay, returns to the Iron Islands, where he conspires with his sister Yara Greyjoy to steal the royal fleet from their uncle, Euron. They sail for Essos and join Daenerys’s cause.
Leaving the House of Black and White as an elite assassin, Arya avenges her brother and mother by slitting the throat of Walder Frey.
Bran, who has been training with the ‘Three-Eyed Raven’, encounters the Night King, who slays the master, enabling the Bran to succeed him.
Season 7
Daenerys heads to Dragonstone, once the home of Stannis, taking her massive army aboard the Frey ships. Melisandre encourages her to court Jon as an ally in the battle for the Iron Throne.
After receiving an invitation from Daenerys, Jon goes to meet her at Dragonstone. The pair grow close as they plan how best to defeat the Lannisters and White Walkers.
Meanwhile, battles erupt between the Dothraki army and the Lannister battalions, led by Jaime.
Daenerys’s dragon Drogon is injured during the battle.
Having seen the dragon, Jaime warns Cersei of Daenerys’s power. Jon and Daenerys decide to call a truce with Cersei and head north of the Wall to capture a White Walker. They manage to capture a Walker but in the process, lose the dragon Viserion, who falls under the Night King’s spell.
Jon and Daenerys bring the captured White Walker to King’s Landing to convince Cersei and discuss teaming up to defeat the Walker army.
Arya and Sansa are reunited with Bran at Winterfell. He exposes Littlefinger's duplicity by revealing that Littlefinger killed Jon Arryn, the murder that instigated the entire game of thrones. Sansa has him executed. Bran also learns of Jon’s true heritage, he is not in fact Ned Stark’s illegitimate son but a Targaryen with a legitimate claim to the Iron Throne.
And finally, the Night King and the White Walkers breach the Wall with the help of Viserion, now an undead dragon of ice.
Winter has come to Westeros.
Jananey R. is a first year student at the Faculty of Communication, Arts & Media. Her interest for writing and pop culture got her into #FCAMSquad.
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