Having just started production for its final season, Game of Thrones will be entering the final era of its eight year saga.

D.B. Weiss, David Nutter, Miguel Sapochnik, and David Benioff will be the directors for the final installment of the HBO fantasy drama as well as the returning cast members who will finish the series in just  six episodes, a shortened season. While most shows will be saying their final goodbyes, it is safe to say that Game of Thrones has only just started growing into the uber’ popular show it was destined to become.

The seventh season’s finale saw record viewership for the show. According to Variety writer Joe Otterson, the “Game of Thrones Season 7 finale set another ratings high with 16.5 million viewers on Sunday night, according to Nielsen data. That number includes people who watched the episode as it aired and night-of streams. The linear ratings alone put the series at 12.1 million viewers, making it the most-watched episode in series history. The 12.1 million number also represents a 36% increase over the Season 6 finale, which drew 8.9 million viewers in 2016.”

But what is it about this show that draws so many viewers? Is it the gratuitous sex and violence the show offers, or the constant bait and switch backstabbing that almost all the characters come to experience in one way or another in the show?

The truth is, Game of Thrones is mostly a show about talking, politicking , and rolling the dice with a few major battles in between. Many of the characters that started in season one are long gone, having played their part on the continent of Westeros, a continent ruled by one true king who commands seven kingdoms and who oversee the continent. But it is clear that the one ruler is actually many different houses all fighting for the throne.

The first few seasons of the show had very little action and fantasy elements or dragons. Instead it was a political show with each house constantly debating whom to trust, whom to backstab, and whom to fight and conquer. Game of Thrones centers on women as well, showing the struggle of living in a medieval world that refuses to acknowledge women as equal to men. Game of Thrones clearly has outdone all other TV shows currently on the air.  Stay tuned for season 8 in 2019!