2. Under The Influence
Episode Eight: "The Pointy End" Commentator: Episode/novel writer George R.R. Martin As brilliant as the writing of "Game of Thrones" often can be, sometimes the best bits are spawned from the minds of the actors. Another of the aforementioned deviations I mentioned in the previous section is Khal Drogo's (Jason Momoa) brutal defeat of Mago (Ivailo Dimitrov). Considering that Mago is still alive as of "A Dance with Dragons," the 5th and most recent novel in the series, this is quite a deviation and the idea for its inclusion in the series came from none other than Khal Drogo himself. In the initial draft, Drogo had received the wound that would ultimately kill him off screen. That didn't satisfy Momoa, who was portraying a character whose prowess in battle was allegedly unmatched, but curiously never seen. Therefore, in order to show everyone how great of a warrior Drogo actually was, Momoa convinced director Daniel Minahan to include a scene where Drogo was not only challenged, but also arose victoriously in a fashion brutally fitting the Dothraki horse lord. Not only are we treated to a fantastically grizzly scene where a man's tongue is ripped out through his throat, but the appearance of his fatal wound also makes much more sense. Pretty bright suggestion for a guy whose made a career out of playing brutes. Another actor whose influence has extended beyond her performance is Natalia Tena, who we all know as former wildling, Osha. Martin actually considers Osha's character to be the one who deviates the most from how she's written in the book to how she appears in the show and he accredits that to Tena's performance. Such a fan is Martin of what Tena has brought to the character, that in a Samuel L. Jackson/Nick Fury kind of way he's actually altered how he's written the character in the book to reflect how Tena has portrayed Osha in the show. To date, Martin admits that this is the only tangible way that the show has or will influence the way he will be writing the remaining novels.