Why We Freakin' Love Game of Thrones!

On Sunday, April 17, George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy novel, A Game of Thrones, springs to vibrant, brilliant life on HBO with an all-star cast that includes Sean Bean, Lena Headey, Peter Dinklage, Mark Addy and startling newcomer Emilia Clarke. And yes... oh, my. There's a reason why we've been so obsessed with this project. Anyone who's ever read Martin's dense, labyrinthine book knows what's in store for TV audiences everywhere and it's taking everything in our collective power to simply sit and wait two more goddamn weeks before things kick off with the pilot episode.

But why is this story so compelling? Most of us love fantasy fare (check out IGN's Top 25 Fantasy Films of All-Time!), but why is this story able to convert those who don't even like sword and sorcery tales? How is it different from Lord of the Rings? Or even the new Starz series Camelot, which premiered just this past week? Are there mazes? Monsters? Dungeons? Dragons? Just what is in store for all of us when the gates of Westeros open and we're all sucked into this salacious, morbid tale about a Kingdom in peril and a decades-long winter threatening the entire land from the North? Well, IGN is here to tell you why you need to tune in. This piece might seem like a friendly suggestion, but if you look closely you'll see that we're actually commanding you to watch. It's a moral imperative.

So here's why you should watch Game of Thrones, mothereffers!

Welcome to the Terrordome. The fictional land of Westeros, at first glance, may seem like your typical fantasy backdrop, but there's a remarkable beauty at its heart that's easy to miss. While the main draw of Thrones certainly has to be the remarkably complex characters, Westeros provides us with sweeping landscapes, icy wastelands, dark forests and crystalline shorelines. And while it seems vast, it's actually very accessible. Maps are readily available online and in the liners of each novel in Martin's A Song of Fire and Ice book series. This world, a floating nation of sorts, resembles Great Britain, complete with a thunderously mighty take on Hadrian's Wall, which The Romans built to cut off the untamable Pict-ridden Scotland from the rest of the conquered realm. Westeros boasts "The Wall" – a mammoth block of ice that protects unsuspecting denizens from the horrors of the snow-smothered Northern hell-zone that's over-run with Wildings and, perhaps, the mythical White Walkers.

Now, I'm not going to be one of those pricks that tries to tell you that Westeros, itself, can be seen as a "character" on the show, because it isn't really. And that would also be an insult to the grand human characters that you'll find in this series. Westeros is fragmented. Splintered. With many different areas ruled by many different people who all have their own agenda. And as fun as it is to trace all the characters adventures on the map, it's even more fun to notice how un-unified this "one-King" land really is. In some corners lay madness. In some, riches. But everywhere, treachery.

One thing that's fantastic about Game of Thrones is that it's not one thing. And it's the main reason why this story has managed to suck in so many people who usually turn their noses up at the thought of kings, knights and epic swordplay. Sean Bean's Eddard "Ned" Stark can be easily seen as a retired gunfighter who's drawn back into a world of violence and corruption that he hoped he'd left behind. When his old, stubborn friend, King Robert (Addy), travels for months, with his Queen (Headey) and a large retinue by his side, to Ned's warden Kingdom of Winterfell to ask Ned to leave his home behind and assume the role of "The King's Hand" back at the capital Kingdom, this tale transforms from common to legendary.

As Ned seemingly draws closer to a showdown with Robert's conniving in-laws, Thrones becomes a dark-corridored murder mystery. Yes, in Thrones people tend to use their brain more than they use their brawn and Ned discovers that Robert's city is, unfortunately, exactly what he expected – a viper's den of lies and seedy villainy. But this isn't the only story in play. Across the sea, a brother and sister conspire to take back the Iron Throne that Robert stole from their syphilis-mad father. And, of course, beyond the great Ice Wall to the North lies an even greater doom-filled horizon; the threat of a death-winter that will last generations.

At times, Ned seems like William Munny. And at other times, Sam Spade. He's the last noble man living in ignoble times and, yet still, he's just trying to keep his head above water.

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Why do we love Game of Thrones? Sex, dwarves and brutality on page 2…