Trivia / Game of Thrones S8E5: "The Bells"

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• Accidentally-Correct Writing: While portrayed as horrific to both modern viewers and In-Universe Westerosi witnesses, Daenerys and her army targeting civilians during the siege of King's Landing is quite accurate to siege warfare in the medieval era. When Daenerys mentions that the people of King's Landing did not turn against Cersei and as such count as legitimate targets, this is consistent to the norms of warfare observed in the Pre-Geneva Code days. It was widely agreed that if a defending city had rejected all offers of surrender before the breach of the city, then quarter would be denied, and the whole city would be made examples of. ^Source  "While medieval law made a distinction between combatants and civilian in combat this was not the case in siege of a city that refused to surrender...Responsibility was shifted to the defender for the ‘harm befalling non-combatants as a result of a siege – starvation, bombardment, sack—was understood as incidental effects of warfare’ ... Sieges in the medieval period began typically when a herald went forward and demanded that a town or city surrendered. If this was accepted it was expected that the inhabitants would be protected. If the population refused ‘this was regarded by the besieging lord as treason’ and all rights were revoked...Quarter was denied to all who had failed to surrender under the proper conditions."
  — Leonard F. Taylor, There Shall Be Survivors: The Prohibition of the Denial of Quarter in International Law
• Actor-Inspired Element: Originally, Euron was just supposed to die outright in the fight with Jaime after mortally wounding him. Pilou Asbæk objected to this◊ by literally refusing to close his eyes or stop smiling when they were shooting the scene, insisting he instead continue talking and stare into the sky (that is, the camera) "like life is beautiful, and then you guys have to cut away." Thus, Euron gets to Go Out with a Smile, satisfied that he killed and cuckolded the last Lannister man as his last act, right after killing a dragon and burning another fleet.
  Pilou Asbæk: Everyone else has a terrible death, or are in a position of, "OK, the world has burned down and now I have to rebuild it." Euron isn't. He's just like, "Yay, I'm going to go into history." I'm the only one with a real happy ending.
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Jaime is often quoted as saying that he "never cared about the innocents." His actual line is, "To be honest I've never really cared much for them, innocent or otherwise," when Tyrion asks him to convince Cersei to surrender for the smallfolk, "innocent or otherwise."
• Creator Backlash:
  • Lena Headey later stated that she hated how anticlimactic Cersei's death was, even preferring the popular fan theories of either Arya, Jaime, or even Arya disguised as Jaime delivering her comeuppance.
  • Emilia Clarke implied in interviews that she wasn't fond of the direction her character took in this episode.
• Wag the Director: Reportedly, Euron Greyjoy was meant to just die without any last words, but Pilou Asbæk kept intentionally ruining the takes until he was allowed to say some.

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