10 Improvised Moments From Game Of Thrones & House Of The Dragon That Were Perfect
The Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon actors improvised many iconic scenes, demonstrating their knowledge of their characters and the world.
Game of Thrones partially owes its success to its brilliant cast, who did occasionally improvise while filming the series. The new cast of the prequel series House of the Dragon continues to maintain the high standards of acting associated with adaptations of the world of Westeros. Both shows are dominated by the complex political machinations of the Seven Kingdom’s noble families, including a variety of Machiavellian characters.
The Game of Thrones cast and the House of the Dragon cast learned about their characters before and during filming, enabling them to improvise moments that still make sense. Throughout the history of both shows, improvised moments have included new relationships, battle scenes, and lines in the fictional languages of Westeros and Essos. With House of the Dragon season 2 coming soon, fans are eager to see new scenes from HBO’s stellar cast that will become iconic.
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Tormund And Brienne
Game Of Thrones Season 6, Episode 4: “Book Of The Stranger”
When they are leaving Castle Black to help Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) and Sansa Stark (Sophie Turner) take Winterfell, Tormund Giantsbane (Kristofer Hivju) glances and smiles at Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie). The moment was completely unscripted, but David Benioff and Dan Weiss immediately loved it and kept it in the show (via Entertainment Weekly). Tormund’s attempts to connect with Brienne become a running gag up until Game of Thrones season 8 when Tormund accepts that Brienne isn’t interested and moves on.
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Viserys’ Final Words
House Of The Dragon Season 1, Episode 8: “The Lord Of The Tides”
King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) suffered from a leprosy-like illness for many years before his death in House of the Dragon. In Viserys’ final scene, he delivers a confusing message to his wife Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke). After she leaves, he says the words “My love” with his final breath. Considine improvised the line, believing that Viserys sees his first wife Aemma (Sian Brooke) in his final moments.
“The narrative I had in my mind was that he never really gets over Aemma, that he’s devastated for the rest of his life,” says Considine (via The New York Times). Viserys’ enduring love for Aemma is essential to the show’s overall plot: It drives his insistence that Aemma’s daughter Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) will succeed him, as well as his negligence of Alicent and her children. Viserys’ last words reflect his regret and generally kind nature, but also the circumstances that contributed to the civil war.
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Daemon Crowning Rhaenyra
House Of The Dragon Season 1, Episode 10: “The Black Queen”
In the House of the Dragon season 1 finale, Ser Erryk Cargyll (Elliot Tittensor) unexpectedly arrives at Rhaenyra and Daemon’s (Matt Smith) daughter’s funeral to deliver Rhaenyra’s father’s crown. Daemon takes the crown but stares at it for a moment before placing it on Rhaenyra’s head. Daemon is certainly a complicated character and the moment that simultaneously shows his lingering desire for the throne and his loyalty to Rhaenyra is a subtle but powerful addition to the scene. Producer Greg Yaitanes and Smith improvised this moment to demonstrate Daemon’s complex emotions about giving up the throne to his wife (via Playlist).
“And so,” says Yaitanes “I thought there was a moment to have there of holding the thing that he wanted, or maybe didn’t want, or has a complicated relationship to, that represents his brother in so many ways to look around and take the read of the room as to what to do in this moment. And because it’s Damon, it was a nice unscripted moment of character suspense of what he was going to do at that moment.”
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Yara And Ellaria
Game Of Thrones Season 7, Episode 3: “The Queen’s Justice”
Moments before their ship is attacked by Euron Greyjoy (Pilou Asbæk), Yara Greyjoy (Gemma Whelan) and Ellaria Sand (Indira Varma) are having a conversation that becomes flirtatious. The actresses confirmed in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that they improvised their kiss on the spot. “It just seemed like something we should do,” says Whelan. “We led it, very much so. It was meant to be a suggestion [of flirting] and then it became more sexual than we expected because it seemed right.”
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Jon’s “Rebirthing” Scene
Game Of Thrones Season 6, Episode 9: “Battle Of The Bastards”
In the famous “Battle of the Bastards” episode Jon leads his forces against Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) to retake Winterfell and is nearly defeated, saved by his sister Sansa calling for aid from the Vale. At one point during the battle, Jon is almost crushed to death by his own men before finding the will to continue fighting, referred to as his “rebirthing” scene.
Harrington and director Miguel Sapochnik came up with this moment when filming was delayed by bad weather (via Entertainment Weekly).
“That piece came about with me and director Miguel Sapochnik having a conversation,” says Harrington (via The Hollywood Reporter). “Everything had backed up a bit and we were running out of time to shoot what we had intended. Miguel and I talked about what my greatest fears are. And as it happens, one of my greatest fears is a human crush — those horrible stories you hear about stadiums where people literally suffocate to death because they can’t get out of other people panicking. I thought if we could do that in this sequence, that could be really terrifying for the viewer.”
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Rhaenyra Learns That Lucerys Died
House Of The Dragon Season 1, Episode 10: “The Black Queen”
Rhaenyra’s son Lucerys “Luke” Velaryon (Elliot Grihault) is killed in the House of the Dragon season finale by Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) and his dragon Vhagar. Daemon tells Rhaenyra that Luke is dead in the final moments of the episode. The audience does not hear their voices or even see Rhaenyra’s face until she turns around with a look of fury. Smith suggested the staging of this moment while filming. According to Yaitanes (Playlist),
“So as we were puzzling through it, Matt had the idea, ‘Do we want to see her get the news? How do we want to see?’ And, in that discovered that taking her away from the table felt right, to give her this news privately, and then that evolved into wanting to not see her face him for that and then stay behind her. So, just watching and having to imagine what somebody’s experiencing was also beautiful and exciting. And then, to see her whole physicality change, and then turn around, and the last line of the script was ‘we see war is in her eyes.'”
George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood characterizes Luke’s death as the true beginning of the Dance of Dragons when the opposing sides began to fight for vengeance. D’Arcy captures this in the final shot of the season. Luke’s death is a harbinger of the destruction the war will bring, including the deaths of Rhaenyra’s other sons.
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Jorah Speaking Dothraki
Game Of Thrones Season 2, Episode 10: “Valar Morghulis”
In the Game of Thrones season 2 finale, Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen) is giving orders in Dothraki to Daenerys Targaryen’s (Emilia Clarke) followers to gather the treasures from Xaro Xhoan Daxos’ house. The language creator and consultant David J. Peterson was not on set when the team sent him an emergency request for a translation of “take all the gold and jewels.” They didn’t get the translation in time and Glen had to come up with something on the spot. The final version of the line seen in the show roughly means “the loose valuables are for loading” (via theweek.com).
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Jon’s Resurrection
Game Of Thrones Season 6, Episode 1: “The Red Woman”
When the time came to film Jon’s famous resurrection scene, Carice van Houten also had to improvise lines in a fictional language (via The Hollywood Reporter in Studio). At Castle Black, van Houten’s Melisandre is called upon to attempt to bring Jon back from the dead. “I improvised the [s**t] out of that,” says van Houten.
“Nobody saw it. I mean, I’m sure there’s a few people that said, ‘I knew what you were saying was wrong.’ I’m sorry. But, you know, it was a tricky time.” The scene carries great narrative weight and months of audience anticipation. Van Houten and Glen’s improvisation of lines in High Valyrian and Dothraki, respectively, also demonstrate how many actors became a part of the world during their time on the show.
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Daemon Crowning Viserys
House Of The Dragon Season 1, Episode 8: “The Lord Of The Tides”
Smith appears to be adept at improvising impactful moments for House of the Dragon. In what might be considered the king’s final stand, the dying Viserys comes to the throne room to defend Rhaenyra and her sons’ inheritance. He is struggling to reach the Iron Throne when Daemon steps up to help him with the last few steps. Viserys’ crown accidentally fell off Considine’s head while filming. Smith improvised Daemon picking up the crown and replacing it on his brother’s head once he was seated (via Entertainment Weekly). It is an amazing moment that demonstrates the enduring bond between Viserys and Daemon, despite their differences.
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1 Daenerys’ Speech In High Valyrian
Game Of Thrones Season 5, Episode 5: “Kill The Boy”
Clarke claims probably the most famous improvised moment in Game of Thrones. Midway through season 5, Dany’s loyal guard Barristan Selmy (Ian McElhinney) is killed, leading her to suspect a greater plot against her. Clarke improvised a terrifying monologue in Valyrian when Dany feeds one of Meereen’s noblemen to her Rhaegal and Viserion. Dany is always delivering memorable speeches, but Clarke went above and beyond by demonstrating her knowledge of the fictional language while maintaining the character’s gravitas. House of the Dragons and Game of Thrones would not be the same without actors who know their characters well enough to improvise iconic moments like this one.
