10 TV Backstories Revealed In Opening Credits

While most shows told their stories in the credits directly through narration or song, Game of Thrones took the concept and made it into something truly revolutionary. The credit scene for each episode of Game of Thrones tells the story that's happened up to that point.

It's done expertly so that each shot reveals a tiny detail of the story. Had a viewer never seen it before, they likely wouldn't realize what they were watching, but as the series progressed, the intro got more and more detailed. As a result, the credit scene evolved throughout the course of the series.

This approach was truly innovative and unique, and each subsequent episode revealed the changes brought by the ones that came before. The title sequence begins with a three-dimensional map of the world projected onto a concave earth, which is lit by an astrolabe. Everything that plays out at the center of the sphere is the history of Westeros.

The camera then swoops to the main areas taking up the focus of the events, and while this is happening, clockwork mechanisms cause the buildings to change, which illustrates changes made in previous episodes. These are noted with the major house seals, and over the course of 90 seconds, anyone paying attention knows exactly what's happening in Game of Thrones.