Image Source: Game of Thrones/Facebook
Hopefully the night of April 6, 2014 wasn’t ruined because your HBO Go crashed, which caused you to miss the season 4 premiere of Game of Thrones. Even if it caused you to miss some key points during the show, we won’t spoil anything for you here. That’s not our style. But, we will say that if you enjoy blood, sex, and dragons, you definitely won’t be disappointed.
Regardless if you have already seen the latest episode of HBO’s epic hit or not, there are plenty of facts that you should know about George R.R. Martin’s creation just to be prove your devotion.
12. Baby Names
Despite being a title and not a name, there were over 160 babies named “Khaleesi” in the United States in 2012. That trend is continuing with Arya even being listed at the 89th spot on Baby Center’s Top 100 list. Tyrion, Tywin, Bran and Ned are the most popular names for males.
11. It Takes Place on Earth
George R.R. Martin has stated that his sweeping tale takes place on a familiar place.“It’s Earth. But it’s not our Earth. If you wanted to do a science fiction approach, you could call it an alternate world, but that sounds too science fictional.”
10. The Dothraki Language Was Invented
Linguist David Peterson was hired to create the Dothraki language. He began with the culture of the Dothraki people and created some 2,000 words – which was prior to translating the scripts for season one. Peterson also claims that there are more words for “kill” than “love”.
9. The “Red Wedding” Won Over HBO
Executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have stated that they optioned the books for a television series after reading the infamous “Red Wedding” section from novel A Storm of Swords. However, George R.R. Martin has stated that that chapter was the most challenging for him to write, and it was the last thing he wrote for A Storm of Swords.
Just in case you weren’t already informed, that scene was based off of the Black Dinner that took place Edinburgh Castle in 1440.
8. Leonardo da Vinci’s Opening Sequence
Title designer Angus Wall stated to The Hollywood Reporter that, “We wanted to do something different from the standard tropes for fantasy maps,” and he added. “So we came up with the idea of a world inside a sphere.”
The turning gears and cogs, which represent the power struggle in Westeros, were meant to be reminiscent of Leonardo da Vinci’s inventions.
7. Gummy Heart
Who can forget when Daenerys consumed the heart of the horse given to her by Drogo? It’s one of the most memorable scenes from the series. But, the heart was actually made from 1.3 kilograms of gummy bears.
Clarke, however, has claimed that it tasted more like bleach. Delicious.
It’s also been claimed that Clarke was covered in so much of the fake blood that she got stuck to the toilet seat after filming the scene.
6. The Wall
In 1981, Martin visited Hadrian’s Wall, a fortification built in 122 AD in Roman Britain. While constructing the idea of massive 700-foot-high wall of solid ice that protects the Seven Kingdoms, Martin kept Hadrian’s Wall in mind.
“Of course fantasy is the stuff of bright colors and being larger than real life, so my Wall is bigger and considerably longer and more magical,” he told SF Site. “And, of course, what lies beyond it has to be more than just Scots.”
5. Dire Wolves Were Real
Dire wolves were an actual species that lived over 10,000 years ago. Their teeth were stronger than a grey wolf and it’s rumored that they could crush bone.
4. The Throne’s Lord of the Rings Connection
The now-famous ‘Iron Throne’ is just under two and a half meters, about 8-feet, tall and took over two months to construct.
What’s really interesting, however, is that one of the sword’s in the throne is a replica of Gandalf’s Glamdring from the Lord of the Rings, which has lead to some people believing that both stories take place in the same universe.
3. Sexposition
The show is coined the term ‘sexposition’ which means, according to the Financial Times, “keeping viewers hooked by combining complex plot exposition with explicit sexual goings-on”.
Apparently, blogger and critic Myles McNutt was the first to use this term in 2011 while describing the show.
2. Inspired By The ‘War of the Roses’
It should be no secret that Martin has been inspired by historical events, which includes one of the most key plots in the series; the battles over proper succession. Martin used the ‘War of the Roses,’ which was a series of battles between 1455–1487 involving the houses of Lancaster and York, as a model for his story.
Martin has also gone on to state that he’s fascinated by both the glory and horror of war. And, despite what some fans believe, however, that there’s no precise character correlation. aren’t convinced.
1. King’s Landing is Real
King’s Landing is not a CGI production or model built on a sound-stage. The exterior shots are actually filmed in Dubrovnik, seaside castle-town in Croatia. The town is also surrounded by a wall which is almost two kilometers long (about 1.2 miles) that dates back to the 14th century.
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