[DennisP]

Zombies aren't the only magic in Game of Thrones. They're fantasy novels.

If it weren't for the zombies, the political story would just be about people fighting each other for advantage. The zombies add a tension between that and a common cause, since the threat faces them all; much like the world we live in today.

[WalterBright]

The political intrigue was interesting. The zombie apocalypse was a singular lack of imagination - how many zombie movies has Hollywood produced? 200? 300? There are even multiple miniseries about zombies. There's simply nothing interesting about them.

Even Lord of the Rings just had to bring in a zombie army at the end, but fortunately didn't spend much screen time on it.

The only one I like was the Jason and the Argonauts one where the hero fights a group of skeletons. The herky-jerky Harry Harrison animation is a pleasure to watch. And it was original.

[DennisP]

The "zombie army" in Lord of the Rings was in the book Return of the King, published in 1955. The first big, modern zombie movie was Night of the Living Dead in 1968. So I don't think you can blame them for being unoriginal. Also I'd say they were more ghost than zombie, in both book and movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYEvmnTghPk

(As for GoT, how many movies have had dragons?)

[SketchySeaBeast]

I'm guessing they didn't stick around for the dragons.