Trivia / Game of Thrones S1E8: "The Pointy End"

• Actor-Inspired Element: Khal Drogo's fight with Mago was Jason Momoa's idea—when he realized that the supposedly great warrior had never shown his fighting prowess on screen.
• In Memoriam: The episode is dedicated to Ralph Vicinanza, an executive producer who died. He was the one who recommended the books to the creators in the first place, making him responsible for the adaptation.
• Self-Adaptation: George R. R. Martin wrote the script for this episode.
• Trolling Creator: Susan Brown jokes that she lobbied for Septa Mordane to come back as a wight.
  Brown: They didn't think it was the best idea.
• What Could Have Been:
  • A scene was scripted following Robb calling his father's bannermen—with a montage of eight different castles responding and riding out. This was deemed too expensive to film.
  • The scene between Bronn and Tyrion encountering the clansmen was written for the previous episode, but moved to this one for time reasons.
  • Originally, the scene of Ned Stark's conversation with Varys would be Ned's only appearance in the episode. According to screenwriter Bryan Cogman, HBO executives were concerned about the protagonist being absent for most of the episode, which resulted in a random scene of Ned being woken up by a guard.
  • The original script would have Jeyne Poole, a supporting character in the books, imprisoned along with Sansa at the beginning of the episode. Later, Littlefinger would warn Cersei that he would take care of Jeyne and that she would not cause any more inconvenience. These scenes were cut and never filmed, which would have huge repercussions on Sansa's storyline a few seasons later.