From coffee breaks to disappearing extras
and rubber swords, there have been some unexpected
sights in Westeros over the years.
Here are a few of the biggest on screen mistakes
you can catch and chuckle at throughout Game
of Thrones.
During the fourth episode of Game of Thrones'
eighth and final season, the majority of the
show's characters found themselves celebrating
their victory against the Army of the Dead
at Winterfell in a raucous party scene filled
with drinking games, dirty jokes, and even
a marriage proposal.
As Jon Snow is venerated by his friends for
his valiant efforts during the Battle of Winterfell
and Daenerys watches, a coffee cup is clearly
visible on the table in front of her, sticking
out like a sore thumb among mugs of ale, goblets
of wine, and other medieval-style props typical
of Thrones' time and style.
Naturally, fans didn't let this pass quietly,
and they stormed the internet to make a million
Starbucks jokes, and even the cast got in
on the joke.
HBO, for their part, released a jokey statement
about the mistake but went on to digitally
remove the cup from the episode.
Throughout the series' run, Game of Thrones
viewers have watched Daenerys Targaryen pick
up titles, amass armies, free the downtrodden,
and experience enormous overall character
growth as she evolves from a meek, naïve
child bride to one of the most powerful players
in the Seven Kingdoms.
As she fights her way to the Iron Throne,
Daenerys learns new traditions from the different
tribes and people she encounters along the
way, and one of them has to do with her hair
and its very specific styling.
Thanks to Daenerys' first love, Khal Drogo,
one of Daenerys' signature traditions is to
keep her hair long and continue to add complicated
braids to her updos.
Braids indicate battle victories for the Dothraki,
and long hair means you haven't yet been defeated
by your enemies.
With that many braid wigs laying around, it's
probably hard to keep track, and sharp-eyed
viewers caught a rare wig error during the
first episode of Thrones' eighth season.
As Daenerys rides into Winterfell alongside
Jon Snow, her wig visibly changes, displaying
a totally different braid style between two
quick shots.
Daenerys' hair is a pretty important symbol,
but sometimes, even the crew probably has
trouble remembering which wig goes on when.
That many wigs would make anyone go a little
crazy.
Throughout eight seasons, fans have become
quite familiar with Game of Thrones' sets
and various locations.
Since the beginning, the show has made use
of incredible natural beauty across the world
to bring the Seven Kingdoms to life.
From quiet shores in Spain to the rolling
green hills of Northern Ireland, snowy spots
in Iceland, and ancient Croatian cities, Thrones
has utilized some of the most gorgeous places
on Earth to serve as stand-ins for these fantastical
locations.
These incredible filming locations give the
show a sense of enormous scale and richness
that digital effects alone would never create.
As the capital of the Seven Kingdoms, King's
Landing is one of the grandest locations on
the show, positioned as a large city that
sits directly on the sea.
Even though it gets a digital makeover every
time it shows up, that city is actually a
real place.
Thrones set their King's Landing scenes in
the real city of Dubrovnik, Croatia, known
as the "jewel of the Adriatic," which now
draws hordes of visitors every year thanks
to its prominent screen time on the show.
For the vast majority of that screen time,
the gates of King's landing looked out on
a green, pastoral space.
And then in season 8, it suddenly looked a
little...drier.
Yeah, it took on a totally new look, with
an expanse of flat, empty desert stretching
out from the capital.
If viewers had never seen the gates before,
this might make some sense, but considering
that audiences have spent plenty of time looking
at King's Landing, this continuity error is
especially jarring.
The coffee cup spotted during season eight's
"The Last of the Starks" inspired plenty of
jokes.
But thanks to long hours and grueling shoot
schedules, there's bound to be plenty of coffee
cups laying around Thrones' set, and most
people don't know that this wasn't even the
first errant cup to be spotted on the series.
During season four, episode two, "The Lion
and the Rose," which focused almost entirely
on an ill-fated royal wedding, a behind-the-scenes
shot of the Lannister clan catches Jaime Lannister
clutching a coffee cup of his own.
Fortunately, this blunder wasn't nearly as
bad as the internet made it out to be.
Since the scene was part of a behind-the-scenes
featurette and that didn't make it to the
episode, it didn't attract as much attention
as Daenerys' cup of herbal tea in season 8.
But it still goes to show that there are plenty
of caffeine habits waiting to slip up the
stars on the set of Game of Thrones.
The opening credits of Game of Thrones have
been lauded for their well-designed, imaginative
take on the series, giving fans plenty of
Easter eggs throughout the years as well as
spotlighting each location prominently featured
in each season.
After years of moving across the Seven Kingdoms,
with stylized, moving models of each major
city or location popping up to show where
fans might find their favorite characters
this time, the season eight title sequence
changed considerably, focusing on the North
and King's Landing as the massive war between
the two factions of Westeros draws to a bloody
close.
Another little detail during the opening credits
is the fact that each actor bears a sigil
next to their name in the credits identifying
their House of the Seven Kingdoms, from Starks
to Targaryens to Lannisters.
But every now and then in the early seasons,
someone would end up identified with the completely
wrong house.
Maybe the showrunners hadn't quite figured
out how the credits would work yet, but during
the first season, Sophie Turner, who plays
Sansa Stark, was suddenly a Targaryen; Emilia
Clarke, who plays Daenerys Targaryen herself,
ended up marked as a Lannister; and Iain Glen,
who plays Daenerys' faithful right hand man
Jorah Mormont, was also apparently a secret
Lannister.
This show does have a lot of characters to
keep track of, but these particularly obvious
gaffes probably could have been avoided.
It's worth noting that these mistakes have
apparently been remedied since they first
showed up.
One of the most serious afflictions in Thrones
lore is known as greyscale, a super-contagious,
virus-like disease that turns human skin into
a stone-like substance and makes the victim
both unrecognizable and insane.
Spread by touch, greyscale is notorious and
deeply feared, even when the spread of it
can be stopped, as it was for Shireen Baratheon,
most of Westeros agrees that greyscale is
incurable and must be quarantined, even though
the audience learns later that you can apparently
just cut it all off and be perfectly fine.
But nobody knew that during the show's fifth
season, as Jorah Mormont and Tyrion Lannister
travel through ancient Valyria to track down
Daenerys.
While floating into the city on their boat,
they encounter a group of violent men all
afflicted with serious greyscale.
"Stonemen.
Don't let them touch you."
Although Tyrion escapes their clutches, Jorah
ends up with a patch of greyscale on his wrist,
and resigns himself to a slow death during
which he'll never touch another person.
A short while later, however, when Jorah and
Tyrion have met up with Daenerys in the fighting
pits of Meereen, Jorah straight up takes Daenerys'
hand to save her life.
Since he still has greyscale at this point,
he could have transmitted the disease and
killed her simply by touching her.
After taking great care to illustrate that
Jorah can't touch anyone at all so as not
to infect them, this seems like a pretty massive
oversight, even in the middle of a tense battle
scene.
Game of Thrones is no stranger to huge battle
setpieces, and season six's "The Battle of
the Bastards," a long-awaited showdown between
Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton, was no exception,
pitting the underdog Stark family against
the sadistic Bolton clan.
Considered one of the best episodes of the
entire series, "The Battle of the Bastards"
combined an incredibly choreographed and gorgeously
shot battle sequence with real emotional heft
and an incredibly satisfying ending.
Goodbye, Ramsay!
It's no surprise that fans and critics alike
venerated the popular episode, which scooped
up a whopping seven Emmy Awards in categories
that included writing and directing.
Fans were thrilled to see Jon charge into
righteous battle with his sword Longclaw,
but in one particular shot, something seems
to be a little wrong with the blade.
As Jon jumps onto his horse to enter the fray,
his sword literally bends, making it obvious
that Kit Harington was outfitted with a rubber
sword for this particular shot.
Jon probably won't take down any enemies with
this, but it at least gave viewers a good
laugh after the episode aired.
"This is Valyrian steel."
During the show's third season, Jon Snow infiltrates
a group of Wildlings, only to fall in love
with Ygritte, a fierce, fire-haired warrior
who spends most of her time telling Jon Snow
how much he knows.
"You know nothing, Jon Snow"
Eventually, Ygritte falls hard for Jon in
return, and the two of them set out to scale
the Wall and make their way into Westeros
with a few other Wildlings.
Though Jon eventually returns to the Night's
Watch, betraying Ygritte, she still can't
bring herself to kill him, and eventually
dies in his arms when the Wildlings stage
an attack on the Night's Watch, leaving Jon
feeling pretty dang sad at the loss of his
first love.
Ygritte and Jon are still pretty hot and heavy
by the time they reach the top of the Wall
along with a few other wildlings, and as they
look out at the green landscape of Westeros,
they kiss passionately, elated by their achievement.
However, their kiss is so powerful it apparently
knocks any other wildlings right back off
the Wall they just climbed, since everybody
else vanishes by the end of the shot.
Wanting some privacy for such an epic, romantic
moment is understandable, but that's just
taking it too far.
On a huge show like Thrones, there's bound
to be some prop accidents, especially when
a lot of the props involved are enormous metal
swords meant to look as menacing as possible.
As with all fantasy series, swords carry a
lot of weight, with characters gifting, naming,
and gushing over specific weapons that travel
throughout the show.
A perfect example is Ned Stark's sword, Ice,
which is melted down after his execution and
made into two new swords named Widow's Wail
and Oathkeeper.
Needless to say, swords on the show are treated
with all kinds of respect, but sometimes,
extras might have a little trouble managing
these massive weapons.
As Ser Barristan Selmy is unwillingly discharged
from the Kingsguard during the first season,
there's a tense moment in which it looks like
Ser Barristan might try to start a fight.
Fortunately, the moment is diffused without
bloodshed and Barristan storms off into retirement,
at which point all the guards sheath their
swords in one smooth motion like the pros
they are.
Well, almost all of them put their swords
back.
One of the extras has some trouble getting
his sword back into his sheath, which, embarrassingly
for that extra, ended up making it into the
final cut.
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