Marcel Winatschek

The Realm Endures

We were barely into Season 4—still processing the aftermath of whatever atrocity the writers had most recently committed against characters we’d made the mistake of caring about—when HBO went ahead and ordered two more seasons at once. Five and six, confirmed together, no suspense, no waiting. At the time it felt like a guarantee: the scheming and the violence and the sex in firelit rooms would continue through at least 2016.

The books had already left the showrunners somewhat on their own—nobody was quite sure how the remaining George R.R. Martin material would be carved across television seasons, and the man himself seemed to be working at a pace that suggested he’d rather not be rushed. None of that mattered in April 2014. What mattered was that Game of Thrones was locked in, and HBO understood what they had.

They did, for a while. Whatever came later, they did for a while.