Both Game of Thrones, with its rollercoaster ride of an eight-season run, and the currently airing prequel House of the Dragon are born from the mind and pen of George R.R. Martin— the creator of the entire world of Ice and Fire and “the American Tolkien” according to Time magazine. 

Martin first put the stories of the Houses fighting each other for the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms on paper in the Nineties, and his characters and worldbuilding have by now ascended to the role of cultural staples, with the television adaptations obviously playing a major role in this. The books themselves have also left their definite mark on their genre, not just in terms of goriness and a general “nobody is safe” vibe but especially when it comes to deconstructing of tropes and story beats that have so far been taken as absolute truths in any fantasy story.