I tried to avoid the wave. The giant all-encompassing wave of Game of Thrones fans.

Everybody on my Facebook timeline would post about the Red Wedding and Daenerys and the Others after a new episode aired. Yelling over the next death or the plot twist or whatever is happening with Jon Snow.

And still, for years I managed to avoid getting sucked in. Even living with two wildly fanatical GoT people, I watched about 3 minutes of an episode and was uninterested.

Until now.

Fast-forwarding through the weird sex scenes and stopping to appreciate the special effects and the sheer amount of (very realistic) fake blood that must have to be manufactured for most of these episodes, we have managed to make it through about 3 seasons so far.

And from those three (and a half) seasons, I’ve noticed a few really important things that I like to call…

1. Life goes sideways; that’s inevitable. How you handle it is what defines you. Jon Snow had a lot of disappointment. He went at it with both hands and made the best of his situation…to a point. (ha)
   Bran Stark fell out a window and found himself.
   Arya went through some STUFF, man and look at what she’s doing.
   And Sansa. That girl. Whoa. She’s gone through hell and back and the fact she’s still standing upright is pretty impressive.
2. If you come at people with even a modicum of power, you better be prepared. These people do. not. play. Some people with money or power will do anything to keep it.
   Cough CERSEI cough. (ew)
   Lord Baelish. *shudder*
   Joffrey (Don’t RIP, kid).
3. If someone tells you not to trust them, that’s the one thing out of their mouth you should take at face value. People will tell you, one way or another, whether or not you can trust them.
   One of my favorite lines from Arya’s “dancing master” is: “my tongue lied, my eyes were shouting the truth.” Trust your gut.
4. It is never ever a good idea to lie to people or hide the truth, especially when you’re trying to avoid something. I don’t know if I really need to elaborate on this one. This show would be a wholly different monster if people stopped pushing people off towers to hide something. Or stopped doing their sister.
5. Size absolutely does not matter. Take Tyrion for example. Or Arya and her Needle. Or the sassy Khaleesi and her dragons.
6. Sometimes, your family is not worth fighting for. Sometimes your family is a hot Lannister mess and picking all sorts of fights you are expected to finish. Sometimes, your family is Stark-ish and proud and loyal and needs to watch their backs. Sometimes you’re Stormborn and the last of your line. Either way, the ones who distance themselves from their family survive.
7. Never EVER underestimate the wrath of a mom. You mess with her dragons kids? Fully expect her to either completely eviscerate you verbally (or sometimes with a giant sword) or just completely end you. She has no time to prolong your suffering, because she’s got kids to take care of. And probably
8. People who are hurting will do some crazy things to other people. Like give birth to shadow babies and humiliate other people for their own entertainment and lie lie lie lie lie lie lie until they cannot lie anymore. Like set fire to boats and have red weddings and send other people to the North.

All in all, I think I’m going to stop watching now. I think I’m good with nearly four seasons watched! (And I read the books, so I’m ok with the storyline the way the books have it.)

What “life lessons” from GoT would you add to this list?