The eighth and final season of the iconic show, Game of Thrones premiered on April 14, and has left its fan base raving. As one of the only people in this world who doesn’t have an HBO subscription and is unable to watch the show, I have to rely on my fellow staff members to see what all the praise is about.

Graphic design editor Abby Smith and web editor Clara Sloan are avid fans of the show, and have watched the series multiple times. Smith enjoys the intricacy of the show, while Sloan enjoys it because of the dynamic character and plot development.

“There’s just so many different storylines going on at the same time so you’ll never be bored,” Smith said. “There’s always drama going on with someone somewhere.”

In response to the new season, Sloan feels that, “it will be interesting to see how a lot of the events the show has built up will be addressed.”

Smith feels that the eighth season is one of the best thus far due to the quality of the content.

“The production value of the past few seasons has been really good, but this season seems to have blown it out of the water,” Smith explained. “I watched a 40-minute video on the behind the scenes footage on episode three alone, and it’s crazy what it took to make just that happen.”

If you’re not up to date on the current season, it is advised that you stop reading now.

Sloan says that there are four prominent characters who died in episode three and that she thinks that writers did a good job of honoring them each differently in their last moments.

“I feel like the most heartbreaking death of the episode was Theon’s,” Sloan said. “Throughout the show Theon’s character development has been unlike anyone else’s. First, we loved him as the Stark’s loyal friend, then we hated him when he betrayed them, then we felt bad for him as Reek and now we’ve been rooting for him up until his death.”

Smith really enjoyed Lyanna’s heroic demise.

“Not only did I appreciate the heroism of her death but after watching the behind the scenes I really appreciate all of the special effects and CGI that went into it,” Smith said. “Basically she killed a giant so they had to film a real person in front of a green screen picking up a doll and then they used a robotic arm to pick Lyanna up before putting it all together digitally.”

Overall, Smith and Sloan equally excited to see what the end of the series holds as they are sad that it is ending.

“There’s been no other show like Game of Thrones. Even though its fantasy, the writers have done a phenomenal job making the characters and plot complex and real,” Sloan concluded.