While the show probably deviated quite a bit from where George R.R. Martin would/will take it, I think it's still putting a spin on those old tropes.

Ramsey getting eaten by his dogs? Yeah everyone might have been cheering at it, but I thought it showed that Sansa had evolved into someone who could have someone killed off just as brutally and sadistically as Ramsey.

Same with Little Finger. Sansa sits on with almost satisfaction as her once innocent l'il sister slits dude's throat. Even fine ass Danaerys is straight burning folks alive with them dragons and watching it all without flinching. If that's not enough, the show started with Ned Stark chopping ol' boys head off, then he dies the same way, then a few seasons later Jon Snow has to prove his worth as a leader by doing the same thing and chopping off dude's head.

Nobody comes out clean on that show.

I know we live in a time where our movies and TV shows don't shy away from featuring good guys that are okay murdering the bad guys, but even so, I think GoT is pretty successful in showing characters get got in the worse way by merciless villains for the first five or so seasons, then wrapping it up with the characters will love being just as merciless, but somehow we cheer. And there's even characters like Cersei that are right in the middle. She does awful shit and you hate her, but after she goes through hell herself, you almost root for her when she takes her sweet revenge. Or at least you don't know who to root for as almost everyone did someone else dirty.