Game of Thrones had the coffee cup-gate. House of the Dragon has Viserys fingers.
Fans of the Westeros-set fantasy series believe they found an editing mistake in episode 3 of House of the Dragon that is feeling like a major throwback to the coffee cup situation on the original series.
In the scene from “Second of His Name” where King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) has a private discussion with his daughter, Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), he first gives a letter to one of his footmen for delivery. Two of his fingers are covered by a partial green glove.
Ollie Upton/HBO Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) on ‘House of the Dragon’
Viserys cut himself on the Iron Throne back in episode 1, and the wound has since been festering. By the time we get to episode 3, it has spread to two of his fingers. It’s presumed the green-screen glove was to assist the producers in post-production in emulating that effect through VFX. But the glove can be seen briefly in the final cut of the episode.
HBO ‘Game of Thrones’ fans think they found the equivalent of the coffee cup mistake in ‘House of the Dragon’
When Game of Thrones was on the air in 2019, fans similarly spotted a lone coffee cup sitting on a medieval table by Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) in season 8, episode 4.
“Here’s the truth,” Clarke told Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show in 2019. “We had like a party before the Emmys recently, and Conleth [Hill], who plays Varys, who’s sitting next to me in that scene, he pulls me aside and he’s like, ‘Emilia, I’ve got to tell you something. I’ve got to tell you something, love. The coffee cup was mine!’ It was his! It was Conleth’s coffee cup. He said so.”
HBO A scene from ‘Game of Thrones’ episode ‘The Last of the Starks’ (Season 8, Episode 4) is marred by a wayward coffee cup
D.B. Weiss, who executive produced Game of Thrones with David Benioff, addressed the matter in James Hibberd’s book Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon.
“I’d seen that shot one thousand times, and we’re always looking at their faces or how the shot sat with the shots on either side of it,” Weiss said. “I felt like we were the participants in a psychology experiment, like where you don’t see the gorillas running around in the background because you’re counting the basketballs. Every production that’s ever existed had things like this. You can see a crew member in Braveheart; there’s an actor wearing a wristwatch in Spartacus. But now people can rewind things and everybody is talking to each other in real time. So one person saw the coffee cup, rewound it, and then everybody did.”
Those watching House of the Dragon were quick to point out the perceived mistake with Viserys’ fingers after Sunday’s airing of the episode on HBO. Some have been sharing images and video of the scene on social media.
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