50 Fun Facts About Game of Thrones Season 3

Season 3 of Game of Thrones adapts roughly the first half of which novel?

A Storm of Swords was judged too long for one season, so the showrunners split it in two and held its second half back for season 4.

Which country hosted Game of Thrones season 3 filming for Daenerys's scenes in Astapor and Yunkai?

Morocco. The unaired 2009 pilot had filmed Daenerys's wedding there too, but HBO scrapped those scenes and they were reshot in Malta.

Gosford Castle in County Armagh stood in for which castle in Game of Thrones season 3?

Riverrun, House Tully's seat, was filmed at Gosford Castle, which has since been converted into private homes, so a fan with the money can now live there.

Which language creator built the Valyrian languages first heard at length in Game of Thrones season 3?

David J. Peterson won the job in a contest among language inventors and built Dothraki for season 1 first; for Valyrian he had only a few words from the novels to start from.

Who wrote the Game of Thrones season 3 episode 'The Bear and the Maiden Fair'?

George R. R. Martin first called his script 'Autumn Storms' for all its rain; when the rain was cut it became 'Chains', and it only got its final title once the bear scene was moved in.

Which season 3 episode, the first to credit showrunner David Benioff as director, ends with Jaime losing his sword hand?

Walk of Punishment was directed by both showrunners, but guild rules allow a single credit, so David Benioff took it and D. B. Weiss took the credit when they co-directed the season 4 premiere.

Which Game of Thrones actor broke an ankle in July 2012, delaying season 3's Iceland shoot?

Kit Harington lost his keys after a night out, tried to climb in through a window of his London flat and fell; a body double covered some of Jon Snow's shots while he healed.

Which band recorded 'The Bear and the Maiden Fair' for the end credits of a Game of Thrones season 3 episode?

The Hold Steady were asked for a bawdy, sloppy, drunken-sounding version; it crashes in over the credits right after Jaime loses his hand, because the showrunners wanted to deepen the shock.

Which Coldplay member cameoed as a musician at Game of Thrones' Red Wedding?

Will Champion, Coldplay's drummer, plays a drummer in the wedding band; the hall doors are locked as it strikes up 'The Rains of Castamere', and the slaughter begins.

Game of Thrones flew actors to which US city to film Brienne's bear-pit fight with a live bear?

Los Angeles. Rules on moving large animals between countries kept the bear, Bart the Bear 2, in the US, which made America the season's fifth filming country for a single scene.

Game of Thrones' 'The Rains of Castamere' won which science-fiction prize in 2014?

The Hugo Award for short-form drama went to the Red Wedding episode, which beat four Doctor Who-themed finalists on the same ballot.

What does 'Valar Dohaeris', the title of Game of Thrones' season 3 premiere, mean in High Valyrian?

'All men must serve' is the reply to 'valar morghulis', the phrase that titled the season 2 finale, so season 3 opens by completing the exchange.

Which Irish actor joined Game of Thrones in season 3 as Mance Rayder?

Ciarán Hinds, HBO's Julius Caesar in Rome, plays the King-beyond-the-Wall; Jon Snow first kneels to the wrong man, Tormund, before the real Mance speaks up from a corner.

In Game of Thrones season 3, who saves Daenerys from a warlock's scorpion-like creature in Astapor?

Barristan Selmy, who once guarded her father as a knight of the Kingsguard, has trailed Daenerys in a hood; he kills the creature with a dagger, then asks to serve in her Queensguard.

In Game of Thrones season 3, which pirate rescues a stranded Davos after the Battle of the Blackwater?

Salladhor Saan has quit Stannis's cause, but the stranded Davos talks his old friend into ferrying him to Dragonstone, where he means to kill Melisandre.

Which actor joined Game of Thrones in season 3 as the seer Jojen Reed?

Thomas Brodie-Sangster, the lovesick boy of Love Actually, plays Jojen, who walks into Bran's dreams before tracking him down in the flesh to explain his visions.

In the Game of Thrones season 3 finale, Theon's unnamed torturer is revealed to be whom?

Ramsay Snow had posed as a servant sent by Theon's sister to free him, then led him straight back to the torture chamber he had escaped from.

Which court position does Tywin give Tyrion in Game of Thrones season 3?

Master of Coin: Tyrion inherits the treasury from Littlefinger and finds its magic was borrowing, with tens of millions owed to the Iron Bank of Braavos.

In Game of Thrones season 3, who cuts off Jaime Lannister's sword hand?

Locke, played by Noah Taylor, was invented for the show: in the novels it is the sellsword captain Vargo Hoat who has Jaime's hand cut off.

In Game of Thrones, Tyrion jokes about a 'knot' named after which city, a nod to a plot tangle in the novels?

Meereen. The 'Meereenese Knot' was the author's own name for the puzzle of getting several characters to that city at the right moment, a tangle that held up the fifth novel for years.

In Game of Thrones season 3, who kills Lord Commander Jeor Mormont during the Night's Watch mutiny?

Rast stabs the Lord Commander in the back as the mutiny erupts, moments after Karl Tanner has knifed their host; it was James Cosmo's last episode as Mormont.

Which Game of Thrones character opens a crate to reveal the sorcerer who castrated him?

Varys tells Tyrion that a sorcerer in Myr cut him as a boy, then prises off the lid: he has spent years patiently growing his influence until it could deliver the man for his revenge.

In Game of Thrones season 3, Daenerys offers the slavers of Astapor which dragon in exchange for the Unsullied?

Drogon. The slaver Kraznys insults her in Valyrian all through the haggling, never guessing it is her first language; the moment the deal is done she has the dragon burn him alive.

Which translator does Daenerys demand along with the Unsullied?

Missandei is handed over as a gift to seal the sale of all 8,000 soldiers in Astapor; once the army is hers, Daenerys turns it on the slavers who sold it.

Which Game of Thrones character is revived after the Hound kills him?

Beric Dondarrion falls to the Hound in a trial by combat and is prayed back to life by the priest Thoros, his sixth return; Richard Dormer took over the role for season 3.

The Game of Thrones episode title 'Kissed by Fire' refers to wildlings with what feature?

Red hair: the wildlings say a redhead has been 'kissed by fire', and the title doubles for an hour full of flames, from the Hound's terror of them to Jaime's tale of the Mad King's wildfire.

In Game of Thrones season 3, who begins teaching Davos to read in the Dragonstone dungeons?

Shireen Baratheon, Stannis's daughter, visits with a book and starts lessons when Davos admits he cannot read; in the finale a letter from the Night's Watch is what saves him from execution.

Which lord does Robb Stark personally execute in Game of Thrones season 3 for murdering two Lannister boys?

Rickard Karstark is beheaded by Robb himself, against the pleas of his own family; the Karstark soldiers then abandon his army, which drives him back to the Freys for troops.

In Game of Thrones, why was Qyburn thrown out of the Citadel?

Human experimentation cost Qyburn his maester's chain, yet the outcast is the one who treats Jaime's infected stump, after Jaime refuses to let him take the whole arm.

Iceland's Grjótagjá lava cave provided the opening shot of which Game of Thrones season 3 moment?

Jon Snow's love scene opens on the real cave, whose pool was a popular bathing spot until eruptions between 1975 and 1984 heated the water too much to swim in.

Melisandre reveals to Gendry that his father was which king?

Robert Baratheon's blood is what Melisandre is after: she pays the Brotherhood two sacks of gold for the unacknowledged bastard, because she says there is power in a king's blood.

In Game of Thrones season 3, Brienne is forced to face the bear at Harrenhal armed with what?

A wooden sword is all her captors allow her, for sport; Jaime jumps into the pit unarmed, betting rightly that his escort dare not let so valuable a hostage die.

Which sellsword kills his two captains and joins Daenerys outside Yunkai?

Daario Naharis was chosen by lot to assassinate her; instead he slips into her tent dressed as one of her own soldiers, tips the two severed heads onto the floor and kneels to swear himself to her.

In Game of Thrones season 3, who escorts Sansa down the aisle at her wedding to Tyrion?

Joffrey gives the bride away himself 'as the father of the realm', having had her own father beheaded, then carries off Tyrion's step stool so the groom cannot reach to cloak her.

Stannis burns three leeches in Game of Thrones season 3, naming Robb Stark, Joffrey and which third 'usurper'?

Balon Greyjoy is the third name. The leeches are fat with Gendry's royal blood, Melisandre's proof of its power, and word of Robb Stark's death reaches Stannis by the finale.

What weapon does Sam use to destroy a White Walker in the Game of Thrones episode 'Second Sons'?

A dragonglass dagger does what steel cannot: the Walker shatters Sam's sword with a touch, then crumbles to dust itself when he stabs it with the obsidian blade.

Besides the 'Black Dinner', which Scottish atrocity inspired Game of Thrones' Red Wedding?

The Massacre of Glencoe broke the same taboo: in 1692 soldiers who had been housed peacefully by the MacDonalds for more than a week suddenly turned on their hosts.

Whose wedding is the setting for Game of Thrones' Red Wedding?

Edmure Tully and Roslin Frey are married to mend the insult of Robb breaking his own promise to wed a Frey; Edmure, braced for the worst, is relieved to find his bride a beauty.

Who directed 'The Rains of Castamere' and the Game of Thrones season 3 finale?

David Nutter shot the Red Wedding and the finale as a pair and came back for the last two episodes of season 5; back surgery then kept him away until three episodes of the final season.

In Game of Thrones season 3, what name does Talisa suggest for her unborn son?

Eddard, after her husband's executed father: Talisa suggests it at the wedding feast, asking if he wants to teach 'little Ned Stark' to ride, minutes before the hall doors are locked.

Who shoots Jon Snow with three arrows in the Game of Thrones season 3 finale?

Ygritte finds him washing his wounds; he says he knows she won't hurt him, she answers 'You know nothing, Jon Snow', and the arrows follow, yet he still rides on to Castle Black.

What does 'Mhysa', the title of the Game of Thrones season 3 finale, mean?

Mother, in Old Ghiscari: one freed slave of Yunkai calls it out to Daenerys, then another, until the whole crowd is chanting it in the scene that closes the season.

Which maester sends every raven out to warn Westeros of the White Walkers?

Aemon has Sam fetch quill and ink and orders all forty-four of Castle Black's ravens to fly that night; the letter that reaches Dragonstone has Melisandre telling Stannis the true war lies to the north.

Who is revealed as the mastermind behind the Red Wedding in the Game of Thrones season 3 finale?

Tywin Lannister defends it to Tyrion with cold arithmetic, asking why it is nobler to kill ten thousand men in battle than a dozen at dinner.

In Game of Thrones, who is appointed Warden of the North after the Red Wedding?

Roose Bolton was Robb's own bannerman, and at the feast he is the one who drives the blade into the young king's heart; the title is his price.

What new name does Theon's tormentor give him in the Game of Thrones season 3 finale?

Reek: sniffing his prisoner, the torturer says 'You reek' and decides it will do for a name, then beats Theon until he says it himself.

At which abandoned castle do Sam's and Bran's parties cross paths in Game of Thrones season 3?

The Nightfort: Bran has just told its legend of the Rat Cook when Sam and Gilly climb out of the castle well; Sam fails to talk him out of going north, then shows him the way through.

In Game of Thrones season 3, who fails to light Hoster Tully's funeral boat with a flaming arrow?

Edmure misses the drifting boat three times before his uncle, the Blackfish, shoves him aside, lights it with one shot and walks off without waiting to see the arrow land.

What shape is the loaf Hot Pie bakes as a parting gift in Game of Thrones season 3?

A wolf, though the friend he hands it to has to ask what it is; Hot Pie stays behind because the innkeeper, won over by his bread, keeps him as payment for the Brotherhood's free meals.

Gilly's baby in Game of Thrones season 3 was played by an infant named after which character?

Arya Stark: Gilly's newborn son was played by a ten-month-old girl from Derry, Arya Hasson, whose parents were fans and had named her after the character.