Game of Thrones Weirdest Details Every Fan Missed

When dealing with political shows like Game of Thrones, the finer details typically make the show. The plots are driven by mischievous characters with dark and nefarious tensions, who all war with each other as they battle for supremacy. Cersei, Littlefinger, and Varys spend much of the show trading jabs and words. Every little detail hints at their plans.

Some of those details, however, are easy to miss. Even outside of their machinations, many details relating to the show are just so strange that they can easily escape the attention of even attentive viewers. Even those who watch every single episode multiple times can miss something for one reason or another if it relates to a behind-the-scenes twist.

10 Grey Worm Went Sailing To His Death

• The island of Naath is filled with poisonous butterflies.

Grey Worm is one of Game of Thrones‘ most tragic characters, owing to his painful backstory. Yet, despite being sold into the Unsullied, he managed to find love with Missandei, a freed slave from the island of Naath. She told him of its beauties, its butterflies, and her fond memories. After her death, Grey Worm took the Unsullied and sailed there.

Unfortunately, a detail that the show neglected to mention, is that they all sailed to their deaths. The butterflies on Naath are poisonous. Only the people of the island have any immunity. In sailing there, Grey Worm damned his people to a painful death and ended the Unsullied forever.

9 Bran Stark Missed an Entire Season

• Bran was absent for all of season 5.

With so many characters contained in the Game of Thrones ensemble cast, it isn’t rare for one to miss an episode or two. The many different leading characters manage to hide the fact that their co-stars are not present for some time. That’s why it can be easy to forget that Daenerys has not appeared in an episode or that the Wall hasn’t been seen for some time.

For Bran Stark, it was more than just an episode or two. Bran missed an entire season of the show. Season 5 does not feature a single one of his adventures. For a character that later becomes the King of the Seven Kingdoms, it is a bizarre omission, but it’s fairly easy to miss.

8 Tommen’s Actor Played Two Tragic Roles

• Dean-Charles Chapman also played the late Martyn Lannister.

King Tommen was originally played by the young Callum Wharry. When Tommen rose in prominence, however, a more suitable actor needed to be cast. Dean-Charles Chapman took to the role with ease to showcase Tommen’s tragic rise and his literal downfall. Tommen was not Chapman’s first role in the show, however.

Chapman originally played Martyn Lannister, a young boy who was held captive in King Robb’s camp. Martyn and Willem, his brother, were murdered by Rickard Karstark to avenge Karstark’s son. The boys had individually done nothing to Karstark, but his honor demanded repayment. It was a strange coincidence that Chapman would play two tragic Lannister boys.

7 Tyrion Stopped Bleaching His Hair

• Tyrion’s hair gradually grew darker.

House Lannister is known for its wealth, its arrogance, and the bright blonde hair of every member of the House. The clue that tipped both Jon Arryn and Ned Stark to Joffrey’s bastardy was the fact that he had Lannister-blonde hair, as opposed to the dark hair of the Baratheons. It was an essential note, but it was quickly forgotten.

Over time, multiple members of House Lannister lost their shiny golden hair. Tyrion, especially, seemingly stopped bleaching his hair, because it turned brown over time. His long hair turned wavy and dark, and it completely disrupted any notion that every Lannister needed to have bright hair to fit the House’s themes.

6 Yara’s Name Change Didn’t Make Any Sense

• Yara’s original name was “Asha”, which was deemed too similar to Osha.

One bizarre detail that came with the development of the show is that Theon’s sister is renamed Yara. Initially, the books named her Asha, but it was seemingly too similar to the wildling Osha. The decision to change her name helped to distinguish the two characters, especially as they both operated in the same geographic area, after Theon’s capture.

Unfortunately, Yara happens to be too similar to another character. It even happens to be an anagram of Arya. Considering that Yara primarily operated in the North for much of the show, having a name similar to Arya is a massive issue, especially as their warrior natures were similar. While they’re both extremely cool characters, it’s a weird detail that’s easy to miss when considering the name change.

5 The Modern Howland Reed is Never Shown

• Though he appeared in the past, Howland was never seen in the present day.

Howland Reed is an immensely important character when discussing Robert’s Rebellion. He and Ned Stark stood beside each other to save Lyanna Stark and stop Rhaegar. Years later, Howland sent his children, Meera and Jojen, to support Bran and Rickon after Ned went to King’s Landing.

Despite Meera and Jojen’s prominence, Howland is never seen on-screen in the modern age. A flashback to the Tower of Joy reveals what he looked like as a young man, but his older self is completely ignored. It’s a weird omission that failed to acknowledge just how necessary Howland is to the overall story.

4 Cersei’s Prophecy Was Wrong All Along

• Cersei had four children, rather than three.

Cersei was always a brooding child, but one flashback revealed that she brooded because of a prophecy delivered by a witch. After a young Cersei met with Maggy the Frog, she learned that she would someday have three children, and each would subsequently wear golden shrouds. Her husband, meanwhile, would have many.

In the books, that prophecy made sense. In the show, it’s easy to miss that the prophecy was wrong all along. Early on, Cersei revealed to Catelyn Stark that she was a fourth child, who died young. That would make four children with golden shrouds, rather than three. Unlike the powerful mystic Mirri Maz Duur, Maggy the Frog was a liar.

3 Jon Snow’s Stark Banner Was Reversed

• Bastard sigils have to have their colors reversed.

In the A Song of Ice and Fire books, there are specific rules for bastard children. They take a surname based on the land in which they were born, they cannot be legitimized without the king’s approval, and they cannot fly their House’s sigil. Instead, they need to flip the colors.

It is best seen with the Stark sigil, which is a grey wolf running on a white field. In later episodes of the show, however, the Stark banner was different. Instead, a white direwolf ran along a grey field. It could initially just look like Jon updated the banner to match his direwolf, Ghost. In reality, it was a clever nod to the books that showed careful attention to detail.

2 Arya Forgot One of the Names on Her List

• Ilyn Payne’s fate was never revealed.

For much of her time on the show, Arya Stark had a list of soon-to-be-dead men. Anyone who wronged her or members of her family was added to the list, which she would repeat every night before she slept. One name, however, slowly fell off of her list over time: Ilyn Payne.

Payne was the very man who took her father’s head on the steps of the Sept of Baelor. Though Arya swore to kill him, his fate was never revealed, as Ilyn’s actor, Wilko Johnson, left the show. Johnson was diagnosed with cancer and could not return. Instead of recasting him, Game of Thrones continued without Johnson, who tragically passed in 2022.

1 Everyone Else on Arya’s List Died

• While Arya didn’t kill them all, all of her enemies eventually succumbed to one killer or another.

Aside from Ilyn Payne, every other name on Arya’s list was eventually killed. It’s easy to miss because Arya stops repeating her list after returning to Winterfell, but she eventually accomplishes every goal. Joffrey, Cersei, Tywin, Walder Frey and his children, Meryn Trant, Beric, Thoros, the Red Woman, the Mountain, and the Hound have all met horrific ends by the time Arya sails West of Westeros.

In a show like Game of Thrones, it’s rare for a character to achieve everything they set out to do. Yet, somehow, even when she wasn’t trying, everyone that Arya hated eventually met a gruesome fate. It was either a lucky turn of fate or the Many-Faced God finally listened to Arya’s prayers.