**DISCLAIMER: THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FROM SEASONS 1-5 OF GAME OF THRONES. IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN ALL OF SEASON 5 AND CARE ABOUT SPOILERS, PLEASE STOP READING. NOTHING FROM SEASON 6 IS SPOILED HERE, SO IF YOU’RE UP TO DATE, YOU’RE SAFE. THANK YOU**

HBO’s Game of Thrones is back for a sixth season of violence, amazement, glee, heartbreak, sadness, and overall immense emotional torture.

One would think the roller coaster of emotions GoT puts viewers on would be a turnoff, but it is in fact quite the opposite. What amazes me most about Game of Thrones is the sheer number of actual viewers. It’s the most watched (and the most pirated) show in the world, it’s number one in over 170 countries.

170 countries!

At the date of this posting, there are 196 official countries in the world, making GoT number one in 86% of the World. You can literally go almost anywhere and find someone to freak out about the latest episode with. Not much unifies mankind these days, but you can bet that the horrible and untimely death of Jon Snow can probably unify two warring countries.

GoT is based on A Song of Ice and Fire, written by psychopathic animal  author George RR Martin, and has largely kept true to the books since the first season aired in 2011. Now, though, the show has officially caught up to the books, and Martin is busy thinking of ways to torture his audience writing the next book.

This leaves us Thrones fans with truly no idea what to expect with this season. Others had book readers snickering and whispering and spoiling, but this has nothing. Obviously there are fan theories, my personal favorite being that Jon Snow is actually of House Targaryen, but it’s extremely refreshing to finally have a GoT Season that is truly left unspoiled and will be a mystery every week.

My main concern for this season is how exactly it’s going to tie up the absolute mess we were left with in Season 5 and not be completely devastating. Pretty much every character was left in some degree of distress. Jon Snow died his horrible death, Arya was blinded by the Many Faced God, Myrcella Lannister died at the hands of the Sand Snakes, Khaleesi was taken by the Dothraki (again), Stannis is dead…

Pretty much all we have to cling to for hope was that Sansa and Theon jumped from a high wall in an attempt to escape the Bolton held Winterfell.

Game of Thrones is famous for torturing fans with horrible deaths and sad storylines, but in the past there’s always been at least a few positives to hold out for; some good characters to want good things to happen to. Now, with the way the show is going, there’s increasingly less hope, and I’m honestly worried it’ll just become the caricature of itself, where everyone dies and there’s absolutely nothing left for fans except to wonder why on Earth they ever brought this show into their lives.

So, Season 6, you have a lot of work to do. I still fully expect you to break hearts and be frustratingly sad and terrible, but please don’t be bad enough that you leave me not even wanting to watch a Season 7.