Hello. My name is knapplc, and I just finished watching Season 7, Episode 7 of this show.
From the time this show debuted until I started watching it in about September of this year, I managed to avoid most spoilers. Here are the things I couldn't avoid
I knew about Hodor. I knew how he got his name, and that it was related to a "time travel" character. I knew he died holding the door from the White Walkers.
I "knew" that Jon Snow and Khaleesi survived into Season 7 because I saw promo material for Season 7 showing them both together standing somewhere cold. Whatever the promo pic was, they were both wearing fur and there was snow everywhere. So I was JUST A BIT SURPRISED when Jon died in Season 6. And it made sense when he came back because we'd already seen Beric come back before, but I didn't piece that together until they brought Melisandre in to try to resurrect him.
I knew Khaleesi's name and that she was "Mother of Dragons," and that there would be dragons. Duh.
I knew there were the White Walker/zombie things, but that's about it. Mostly I knew this in relation to Hodor, but I figured they'd be a big thing.
I knew the name Lannister, and I'd seen images of Tyrion and Cersei, but I didn't know who was who or what they meant. The image I saw of Cersei was with her short hair, in black, on the throne. So something in Season 6 or 7, whenever she became Queen. I'm a big fan of Lena Headey, so I always liked Cersei. I knew nothing about Tywin or Jaime Lannister, or that Jaime and Cersei boinked.
I think I saw some images of Brienne. She wasn't a surprise to me, however I knew about her.
I knew basically nothing about the Starks, other than Sean Bean played Ned Stark and that he died. But Sean Bean always dies, and that wasn't shocking.
I also knew the whole "brace yourself" meme because it was inescapable online for years. But I didn't know about the whole weather patterns and years-long winters.
I knew nothing about the Greyjoys, the Baratheons, the Boltons (or anything about the Theon timeline/torture stuff, which sucked), or really any other major or minor house or character. So the whole thing was a big revelation to me.
Mostly it was good. Some of it sucked. A lot of the violence, bloodshed, torture and horror was gratuitous, and I felt manipulated by the show for a lot of i, as in, there were cheap shocks and thrills that didn't need to be there. The blood was OK, but a lot of it (especially with the Boltons/Ramsay) was gratuitous. The nudity was mostly nice, because pretty much everyone is smoking hot, but absolutely none of it was necessary and it seemed like "this is HBO so we have to show a bunch of skin." It was mostly dumb.
The worst part was when Shereen died. That show was awful, and I almost paused watching the rest of it for a while. And then when it all turned out to be wasted and useless, that was almost as bad. When Stannis died and all of his story was wasted, all I could think about were Shereen's screams, begging for help. Ick. That's cheap manipulation of the audience and I don't like it.
Same with Theon's torture/storyline. It was just never-ending and dumb. I hope he dies or finds a spine in the last season SOON.
The Army of the Dead is dumb. You have this good story about all these warring feudal houses that is super entertaining, and then suddenly there's this zombie army that comes in and changes everything. All the previous seven seasons of warring and strife are basically prologue to this whole upcoming war. I don't need it. Give me more Cersei, more Bronn of Blackwater, more Uncle The Hound (love that guy!) and more Tyrion - LOTS more Tyrion - and I'd be happy.
Season 8 seems like it's going to be Walking Dead meets Lord of the Rings, and that's not the story I signed up to watch in the previous seven seasons. Yawn.
So that's my catching up wrap. I'm sure I forgot tons. Now I can go read this whole thread and see what you guys have been saying this whole time, and what I missed. I'm sure I missed a LOT.