9 Theon Greyjoy, AKA Alfie Allen is the little brother of singer Lily Allen and it gets weird
Well siblings becoming famous and forging their own successful careers isn’t exactly a new thing. It is a regular occurrence, with many famous siblings reaching top billing status. From the questionable talents of the Olsen twins right through to perhaps the most successful siblings, Warren Beatty and Shirley MacLaine, Hollywood is littered with famous siblings. So it should come as no surprise to learn that Theon Greyjoy, AKA Alfie Allen is the little brother of singer Lily Allen.
So here we have two successful entertainers in their own rights. But things between them got a little weird, before potentially getting uber weird, I mean the kind of weird between Cersei and Jaime.
Before Alfie had really hit his struts, Lily released a song that is literally about him, Alfie. The song criticizes Alfie as being lazy and slothful. Ouch, right? That’s really a rather cruel thing to do to your own brother, especially on the world stage. But he would get his own back, it was only going to take some time. What we need is a dash of healthy sibling rivalry.
In 2014, during a Reddit thread, Lily told the Redditors that she was offered a role alongside her brother in GoT. She says that she turned down the role because it was too incestuous. Basically she says that she would have been playing Theon’s sister, Yara. If you recall, the very first thing Theon does is feel her up, this is something that Lily didn’t want. Well, duh. But maybe all she did want was a bit of attention.
Shortly after the Reddit session, Alfie got back at Lily for her song Alfie all those years ago. He outrightly denied that his sister was ever offered a role on Game of Thrones, and it was basically a LIE. Oh heavens above, a celebrity telling a lie, Heavens forbid.
10 George R R Martin got a dragon egg from the set as a wedding gift
Awesome!!! What do you give a rich guy who could get practically what ever he wants? Why not dragon eggs? How many people can say that they have received a dragon egg as a gift? Nope, not you or you, but Martin can, the lucky devil. But hold up for just one second. How the heck did he get a dragon egg?
You may recall that in the first season Daenerys Targaryen was given a few petrified dragon eggs as a wedding gift. But they weren’t petrified at all, they finally hatched and spawned a handful of baby dragons for the dethroned queen. But how did tey know what a dragons egg would look like?
According to Benioff, the eggs used in the pilot episode were dreadful and looked like Christmas decorations. It was a fairly difficult task to get the eggs to look right, but with the help of Gemma Jacskon, who redesigned the eggs, the final product became the ones that we all saw. You must admit that they did look pretty amazing.
When Martin wed Parris McBride in 2011, one of the eggs was given to them as a wedding guest. How amazing would that be? But do you want to know a little secret. You too can have your very own dragon egg, directly from HBO. They are selling replicas of them, along with figurines of the characters. I wonder if Ned’s head is detachable too?
11 Charlie Chaplin and Charles Dickens had descendants on the show, and Charles II still has one
The connections in this show just keep on going. It seems that three famous people, one of the greatest authors of the 19th century, the biggest entertainer of the early 20th century, and a King of England had a couple of descendants on GoT.
First we will eliminate the oldest and most distant relative. Charles Dickens is the great great great grandfather of Harry Lloyd. You might recall that Lloyd portrayed Viserys Targaryen, the power hungry and abusive brother of Daenerys. Well, for a little while anyway. He got his crown, be it a molten one. Harry Lloyd even wrote his thesis on his distant relative.
The other famous distant relative of a star of the show is none other than Charlie Chaplin. Everyone knows who Chaplin is, even those who have never seen his act. He was simply the biggest star of the silent film era. It’s only a pity that he sported the same ridiculous mustache as Hitler. So who is his descendant? Well that would be Robb Stark’s wife, Talisa Stark ( Oona Chaplin).
King Charles II also has a distant relative on Game of Thrones. Kit Harrington, or Jon Snow as he is otherwise known, is a distant relative of Charles II. Also related to Charles II is Rose Leslie, who played the wildling Ygritte on the show. If you can recall, Ygritte was Snow’s love interest. Oh dear, it’s that same old incest theme again.
This was a blink and you’ll miss it thing. But even if you didn’t blink, chances are that you missed it anyway. In one scene a line from Monty Pythons Holy Grail is mentioned. But which line was it, and when did it happen?
The line came directly from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It entered Westeros courtesy of linguist, David Peterson. In season four episode, the Breaker of Chains, a Meereenese rider is challenging Daenerys’ champion. He is shoting and hurling abuse Daenerys way, and it is being translated by Missandei. But she isn’t actually translating what he is saying. For the majority of us we took her word for it, but sharp eared listeners picked up the subtle joke.
Series creator Dan Weiss thought it would be a funny idea to throw a Monty Python line into the fray. What was the actual line?
In Monty Python and the Holy Grail a French knight is insulting Arthur. He throws the line “Your mother was a hamster, and your father smelled of elderberries.” This is the famous line that was thrown into the GoT episode. It seems that Monty Pythons is a show for all time.
13 Peter Dinklage was the first and only choice for Tyrion Lannister
Admit it. If you’re a fan of Game of Thrones you’re a fan of Peter Dinklage. The pint sized actor has made the role his own, becoming one of the shows biggest names. But it was always meant to be that way.
When the auditions for the show began most of the actors had to compete for their roles. A few were spared that trauma. One was Sean Bean (Ned Stark) who got top billing in season 1, the other was Peter Dinklage. According to the shows creators, both they and Martin always envisioned Peter taking on the role. So confident were they in his acting ability and that he wouldn’t turn down the role, they didn’t test the role on any other actor. But in some way they underestimated his acting ability.
There’s little doubt that when the show first started the biggest name was Sean Bean. He had starred in several hits, including Lord of the Rings. Audiences would recognize the face even if they didn’t recognize the name. It made sense to place his name at the beginning of the show credits. But when Dinklage won the Emmy for best actor, things changed.
In the first season he was billed at the very end with “and Peter Dinklage.” He was like the last of the main actors worth mentioning. After the Emmy’s it was all different. He went from last to the top. A well deserved reward for a fine actor.
14 The opening title sequence was inspired by one of Leonardo da Vinci’s machines
One of the most eye catching things about Game of Thrones if the opening title sequence. It starts like no other show on television. Based upon a map, it is set inside a sphere and has moving parts. It’s a pure joy to watch. But there was inspiration behind the map, and much more about it than you may have known.
The company who designed the sequence got the idea from a 1960s sci-fi space station with terrain inside. However, instead of it looking futuristic they wanted something that looked more like something out of Middle Earth. That’s when they went looking for one of Leonardo da Vinci’s machines.
They used the idea of the moving cogs and machine like functions to bring the map alive. It features different parts of the map, and if you pay close attention you may be able to see the family back story hidden in the map. But even more amazing, and a true masterpiece of special effects, is that all everything on the map is literally connected by cogs, just like a machine.
If you pay close attention to the shadowed areas of the map you can see cogs moving below the maps surface. So it brings Westeros from the surface below the map to life.
As you know. Each season requires a new map, so the work involved in setting it up and bringing it to life is a work of art, just like Leonardo da Vinci.
15 The horse heart Khaleesi ate was seven pounds of a gummy bear-like mass
The show is often filled with gut wrenching scenes, and few surpass that of the one is season 1 when Khaleesi consumed the heart of a horse. Anyone with even a slightly squeamish stomach would have found that scene hard to swallow. But the thing is that it should have been easy, but was still difficult.
Getting stars, even little known stars to eat a horse heart for entertainment purposes would be a difficult task. I mean, John Waters wasn’t directing this masterpiece. So what do you do? You have a gruesome scene where an actor is supposed to eat a raw horse heart, but there’s something obviously wrong with the picture. Simple solution is that you make a fake heart that is easy to stomach.
The raw horse heart that Khaleesi ate was actually a seven pound mixture of gummy bear-like substance. She was told that is would be pleasant to the taste, a lot like a big gummy bear. But everyone was so wrong, and it provided a great piece of acting.
Emilia Clarke was caught off guard. What should have tasted like a gummy bear tasted like bleach. So her reaction was genuine revulsion at the taste. She described it as being a mix of congealed jam with fake blood and pasta. I’m glad it was her and not me.
16 Rounding out our Game of Thrones facts. George R R Martin has revealed the ending of the story before he has finished the books. Want to know what it is?
Spoiler alert! Do you want to know how Game of Thrones ends? Well, George R R Martin has revealed the ending, despite not yet completing the massive story. So how does the story end?
Unfortunately we don’t know either. Only three people alive know the ending to a Song of Ice and Fire, the book version of Game of Thrones. Those three people are Martin, obviously, and creators Weiss and Benioff. Martin, despite not yet finishing his work has told the pair how he intends for the story to end. Buy why would he do that?
Weiss and Benioff have already said that they intend for the series to conclude in season 7 or 8. The only problem is that Martin is still writing his story, and he may not complete it before the final seasons are produced. The other reason he had for telling them how he wants the story to end is his own mortality. If he dies before completing the books, they will know how to finish it. But in saying all of that, he does hope to complete the work in time for filming.
We hope that you enjoyed our list of 16 Game of Throne facts that all fans should know. It took a while to compile such an extensive list, but the series is deserving of our time and effort. If you enjoyed reading this, please consider sharing it with your friends. All it takes is a click to post it on a social network or email.
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