80 Little Known Facts About Game of Thrones

In 2012, 146 girls were legally named Khaleesi after Daenerys’ nickname.

52. The Dothraki language used in Game of Thrones was designed to sound like Arabic to the untrained ear, or a mix between Spanish and Arabic to anyone who knows Arabic.

53. George R.R. Martin has stated that the infamous "Red Wedding" was the hardest chapter for him to write in "A Storm of Swords." He was so emotionally attached to the characters that he actually wrote the rest of the book first, and then that chapter last. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, upon reading it, declared it was one of the major reasons they decided to option the books for a television series. Their dramatisation differs from the book in a few details. Most notably, Robb's wife is not present at the wedding, nor is she killed. Whether she is pregnant is unknown.

54. Characters from noble houses often have images of their house's sigil incorporated into their costumes.Sometimes the inclusion is almost indiscernible to the television viewer, such as the blue dress Daenerys’ wore through season three which was embroidered with a texture resembling dragon scales and Cersei Lannister dress was embroidered with two lions on it.

55. During the series you can see characters wearing belts with a particular knot twisted after the buckle, this is clearly visible in most knights. The knot is actually correct and used in medieval times, often referred as a garter and used to fix leg armour pieces to the knights' legs below the knees. It is one of the symbols of the English "Order of the Garter", the highest Chivalry Order founded in 1348 by the English King Henry III in the early stages of the Hundred Years War with France. The Arms of the Order of the Garter is a blue belt, or garter, with this same characteristic knot seen in the TV series. An example can also be seen in the tomb of one of the Order founders, Sir Reginald of Cobham, at Lingfield Church in Surrey, his effigy has the garter below his left knee.

After Jon Snow’s apparent death in the season five finale of Game of Thrones, Kit Harrington said that the only person he told the character’s fate to was a police officer in order to get out of a speeding ticket.

57. After filming Ned Stark’s death scene for Game of Thrones, Sean Bean played football with the replica of his decapitated head.

58. The creators of Game of Thrones admitted that they thought the show’s original pilot was a disaster, and 90% of the episode had to be reshot.

59. The Navy e-Reader Device, for use aboard US Navy Submarines, is pre-loaded with Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings books.

60. Actresses trying out for parts of Game of Thrones have been asked to pretend to masturbate a male character sitting beside them as part of their audition.

Kristian Nairn, the actor who plays “Hodor” in Game of Thrones is also a progressive house DJ and used to be the resident DJ at a gay club in Belfast. He also went on a US tour called “Rave of Thrones.”

62. Due to the extreme amount of red tape involved in exporting animals, Game of Thrones moves production to the home country of the dogs who portray the Starks’ dire wolves to film their scenes, rather than attempt transporting them to Ireland.

63. The Game of Thrones showrunners/producers began trying to reduce the amount of frequent character and political intrigues during garden walks, because of the South Park parody episode 'Black Friday'

64. According to estimates from the government of Northern Ireland, the filming of Game of Thrones scenes there has benefited the Northern Ireland economy by £65 million.

65. For dragon screams, Game of Thrones uses the sounds of two tortoises mating.

Charles Dance dressed an actual stag carcas on-camera for Tywin Lannister’s first scene.

67. The showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss said the production of the show is a massive undertaking. The production lasts the entire year and they shoot the show like a 10-hour movie. Season 5 alone was shot in 5 countries, on 151 sets, for 240 days, having 166 cast members, over 1,000 crew members and over 5,000 extras.

68. George R.R. Martin was inspired to write the novel series "A Song of Ice and Fire" after years of writing for restrictive television budgets and deliberately wrote the series to be nearly unfilmable. After the success of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) Martin was approached to license the novels into a series of films, one project was proposed using only Daenerys' story line, and another project proposed only including the conflict between the Starks and Lannisters.

69. With winning a total of 12 Emmys in 2015, the show took home more Emmys in a single year than any other show, surpassing The West Wing (1999) (9)

70. Author George R.R. Martin was asked if he had a resolution or ending to the seemingly endless conflict. He jokingly replied that the next book would just be a description of a cloud of dust or snow being driven by the wind across a vast graveyard full of tombstones.

Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson was the third actor to take on the role of Gregor Clegane (aka "The Mountain"), a role previously played by Conan Stevens in the first season, and Ian Whyte in the second season. Whyte had a brief appearance in the third season premiere, though as a different character.

72. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss stated when the show began they set a rule of "no prophecies, dreams, or flashbacks". All three rules were eventually broken, with the inclusion of Bran's dreams of the three-eyed raven, a prophecy from Quaithe for Daenerys, and a flashback scene to Cersei's childhood.

73. The first season used Northern Inuit dogs, a type specifically bred for wolf-like appearance, to stand in for the dire wolves (the Stark's house sigil). However, since dire wolves are known to be much larger than normal wolves, real wolves were digitally composited into scenes for season 2. This strained the budget and the schedule, hence why there are only a handful of scenes with Grey Wind (Robb Stark's wolf), Summer (Bran Stark's wolf) and Shaggydog (Rickon Stark's wolf); Ghost, who belongs to Jon Snow, is shown in brief glimpses.

74. While the first two seasons roughly cover the novels "A Game of Thrones" and "A Clash of Kings" respectively, the third season covers about two-thirds of the third novel "A Storm of Swords." The fourth season covers the rest of "A Storm of Swords" and chapters from the fourth and fifth novels "A Feast for Crows" and "A Dance with Dragons". Finally, the fifth season covers almost entirely "A Feast for Crows", "A Dance With Dragons", and even early events of the unreleased sixth novel "The Winds of Winter".

75. In the series, Charles Dance's character, Tywin Lannister, was previously married to a woman named Joanna before her death and had three children by her. In real life, Dance was previously married to a woman who was also named Joanna before their divorce and has three children.