
The lead mutineer (Burn Gorman) threatens Bran's friends (Ellie Kendrick and Thomas Brodie-Sangster). (Helen Sloan / HBO)
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From left, Dean-Charles Chapman, Peter Dinklage, Jack Gleeson and Sophie Turner in "Game of Thrones." (HBO)
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Bronn (Jerome Flynn) and Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) spar in "Game of Thrones." (HBO)
LinkIn Sunday’s episode of HBO’s breakout hit fantasy series “Game of Thrones,” a major (and majorly unlikable) character died at the royal nuptials of King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) and Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer), and if you haven’t seen the episode, “The Lion and the Rose,” you might want to stop reading now.
Those who did watch the installment witnessed one of the show’s most widely despised characters meet with an untimely end.
The cruel King Joffrey was poisoned at his own wedding feast, and by episode’s end, had died in the arms of his parents — Cersei (Lena Headey) and Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). Cersei immediately accused their brother Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) of the crime, which puts him in a quite precarious position.
Murdering your nephew, the King, isn’t an action that’s likely to go unpunished — regardless of guilt or innocence.
In a recent telephone interview with Hero Complex, “Game of Thrones” showrunner D.B. Weiss described the Purple Wedding as a “devastating, powerful” event to read on the page. He said that he and his creative partner David Benioff looked back to one of the greatest films ever made as a source of inspiration when adapting one of the most memorable scenes from “A Storm of Swords,” the third book in George R.R. Martin’s bestselling “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series on which “Game of Thrones” is based.
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“One of the things about the Purple Wedding, aside from the punch of the ending, one of the things that we realized as we were putting it together was that this was probably one of the largest number of main characters we would ever have together in one scene, in one space at the same time,” Weiss said. “One of the things that was most fun in the writing of it was letting us go back and watch ‘The Godfather’ again and see how to best handle an event like that where many story lines are crisscrossing and happening simultaneously in the same space.
“Most shows get to have those character reunions pretty frequently and in our show it’s a pretty rare special event to have these story lines come together. It happens not even once a season to be honest.”
Click through the image gallery above for a more in-depth look at “The Lion and The Rose,” which was penned by Martin himself.
— Gina McIntyre | @LATHeroComplex
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