Warning: This article is dark and full of spoilers if you’re not caught up all the way through season five of “Game of Thrones.”

This is the year “Game of Thrones” became television royalty. Sure, the HBO fantasy series, based on George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” novels, was a hit from its first season, but season five brought the show more acclaim, its biggest audiences, a torrent of awards — and new controversies.

When the show’s passionate fan base weren’t debating the lineage of Jon Snow (Kit Harington), they were arguing over whether the show’s writers took things too far with Sansa Stark’s (Sophie Turner) story line or which character “Deadwood” and “Ray Donovan” star Ian McShane would be playing. “Game of Thrones” fever reached as far as the corridors of power in Washington, D.C.

With season six and book six of Martin’s novel series on the way, we take a look back at the year in all things Westeros and beyond.