10 Years Later, Game Of Thrones' Best Episode Is Still Peak Fantasy

Game of Thrones ushered in a new era of fantasy television. Before HBO turned George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books into a global blockbuster, fantasy TV shows existed in their own little niche, separate from the mainstream: Merlin, The 10th Kingdom, Xena: Warrior Princess. But Game of Thrones not only brought fantasy into the mainstream; it perfected the genre. Game of Thrones told universal, human stories in a fantasy setting, so it had all the dragons and magic that fantasy enthusiasts crave, but it also touched on something deeper, so that people who don’t care about fantasy still got emotionally invested.