The new Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon debuts this weekend, and while we can’t say anything about whether it’s any good, we have been thinking about the original show, as have a lot of people. The meant looking behind the scenes at how they made it and how it evolved, learning facts about the cast, and looking at the history that influenced the plot.
Here's a look back at the facts we learned this week. These short summaries are not meant to be appreciated by themselves—each one links to a full article we put out this past week with much more info, so click every one that interests you, or we will confiscate your dragon saddle.
For example, the writers would urge Jason Momoa to remove the pouch he wore, the one that prevented actual bare crotch-to-crotch contact—even though the camera would not notice the difference.
In the 15th century, a British king sent his predecessor’s mistress marching through London in her underwear as a “walk of penance.”
It was still disgusting, “tasted like bleach and raw pasta,” and sent Emilia Clarke puking.
Dwight make up his own rules of grammar, and the language's creator dubbed them canon.
The cartoon mocked the show’s scenes of plotting in the palace gardens, and so the creators decided those had to go henceforth.
We won't spoil the best joke for you, but it's a pun, and it's on someone's arm.
Rory McCann fell off a mountain and cracked his head open then recovered—and was immediately, coincidentally, offered the role of someone who’d got injured climbing.
It was kind of tasteful that he transformed to a wolf himself first before going through with the act.
In fact, George R.R. Martin has now said he has officially stopped even predicting when he’ll finish up.
The show stays popular on streaming and is also currently the most pirated TV show in the world.