This article originally appeared onDen of Geek UK.
Warning: contains spoilers forGame Of Thronesseason 5.
Thats where we come in.
Number 64 will blow your mind!!!
Hang on, no, that ones not actually very interesting.
But some of the rest of them are.
A bit, anyway.
Well, we thought so.
The idea of the animated game-style opening credits changing as the episode locations changed later replaced that.
3.Season five was intended as a resetting according to producer Bryan Cogman.
4.The flashback to Cerseis visit to Maggy the Frog in The Wars To Come referencedApocalypse Now.
6.Alfie Allen originally auditioned for the role of Jon Snow, and was later cast as Theon Greyjoy.
7.The fact thatGame Of Thronesfilms in many tourist spots around the world creates extra work for the units.
Pleasure yachts and boats have to be digitally removed from the Croatian coastline used for Kings Landing.
You cant beat the real thing.
9.Similarly, the scene of Mance Rayder being burnt at the stake was done old school.
No digital face replacements were used for actor Ciaran Hinds.
10.All of the arrows fired inGame Of Throneshowever, are CGI, for safety reasons.
13.Jaime Lannisters armor has been made of solid brass since season two.
In season one, it was made of plastic but afterwards swapped for the real thing for authenticity.
Clapton describes Cerseis metal belts as her armor.
Theyre exclusively gold now to reflect her Queenly status.
And rub it in Cerseis face.
21.The Winterfell set, filmed at Banbridge, Northern Ireland, was greatly expanded in season five.
A complex of staircases, corridors and bedrooms were added on top of the existing courtyard and feast hall.
One of the painters refuses to go there for that reason.
28.The Volantis Bridge design was loosely based on the Phoenix Bridge in Huaiyang County, China.
Its markets and timber dwellings were based on old Shanghai.
It became a game among cast and crew to spot where set elements had been repurposed from.
30.The brothel set in Volantis was previously used as the Molestown brothel where Gilly lived in season four.
The bane of her existence on set now?
Thatd be the tricky to manoeuvre oyster cart that Cat of the Canals has to push everywhere.
His mother, Lady Olenna (Dame Diana Rigg), says different.
She used this observation to play Margaerys stillness confronting Tommen about her brother Loras arrest.
39.Director Mark Mylod choreographs sex scenes like dances.
We cant see them on screen, but actors see, hear and sometimes feel them while filming.
The fight scene was duly re-written and re-choreographed.
Apparently scorpions are reluctant to sting unless provoked.
49.Iain Glen actually sails the boat he and Tyrion take to Volantis in those scenes.
The crew dont do it for him.
51.If you see blood spurting or a blade going right through someone, thats a digital VFX shot.
Thats what the chap playing the Meereenese aristocrat Dany burnt to death in episode five,Kill The Boy.
Nobody has noticed yet, but they did it anyway.
Martins description inA Song Of Ice And Fire.
The rest were CGI extensions.
They wanted people to momentarily think he had died.
63.The majority of scenes in dragon daycare are filmed using only firelight.
We told you this one wasnt very interesting.
68.There are so many standing sets built for the show that theyre running out of space.
The smaller interiors are filmed at Banbridge, while the larger spaces are housed at Titanic Studios.
71.In Dorne, the song Bronn is singing on horseback isThe Dornishmans Wife, taken from George R.R.
72.Nikolai Coster-Waldau isnt left-handed in real life.
73.The showrunners always planned to bring Jaqen Hghar back after season two.
Heres atranscriptof what he says.
When they saw Alfie Allens performance, they went in closer to it and used that.
78.Maisie Williams had to have shucking lessons to play Cat, the oyster seller.
Her gloves are proper functioning gauntlets because oyster shells are really sharp.
80.Aemons chamber at Castle Black doubles for Jon Snows office and Samwell Tarlys chamber.
82.Magheramorne Quarry in Northern Ireland is the location of the Hardhome set.
83.Everything you see in the Hardhome sequence is real up to the rocks.
Originally it wasnt going to be the four-walled set we saw.
loud and clear on every single take.
It was deliberately lost in the babble.
The mantra on set used to cope with the gruelling filming conditions was Go hard or go home.
90.The director of Hardhome, Miguel Sapochnik, used SpielbergsJawsas a reference for the attack.
93.Stunt performer extraordinaire Vladimir Furdik played the Wight that Jon Snow fights in the longhouse at Hardhome.
The contact lenses he was wearing reduced his vision to twenty percent.
His look was achieved entirely through prosthetics, not with CGI.
Because Wun-Wun prefers logs say the showrunners.
His scale is forced simply by adjusting the camera angle.
104.Kit Harrington does most if not all of his own stunts.
105.The Night Kings look was achieved using silicon prosthetics aided by half an inch of digital ice.
As an adult, he could legally work longer hours than a child.
When Arya watches Ser Merryn and the others walk in and out, theyre just faking it.
109.Although it has yet to feature inA Song Of Ice And Fire, George R.R.
Go on, do your duty is the only one he needed.
115.Brienne does 100% kill Stannis in that scene.
The only reason they didnt show him actually dying was to avoid being gratuitous.
116.Episode ten, Mothers Mercy, was costume designer Michele Claptons swan song on the show.
Shes not returning for season six.
117.The bloody scene in which Arya kills Ser Merryn Trant was influenced by the work of Quentin Tarantino.
They dont say which work, but still.
120.When Maisie Williams wears Aryas blind contact lenses, she really cant see anything.
122.The reason Drogon could be so badly injured in the Fighting Pits is that hes just an adolescent dragon.
His impenetrable adult scales havent come in yet, the poor thing.
123.Lena Headeys body double for Cerseis walk of shame is Rebecca Van Cleave.
They filmed Headey and Van Cleave walking the route and digitally swapped the head in.
125.The blood leaking from Jon Snow in the seasons final shot wasnt CGI, but a physical blood bag.
Look closely at Kit Harringtons eyes and youll see them dilate at the precise moment Jon dies.
Hes definitely a goner.
