Season ones finale, Fire And Blood, has a slightly unfortunate reference unfortunate, at least, for the producers of the show and for HBO. When child-monster Joffrey shows poor little Sansa the severed head of her father atop a spike, it wasnt the only evidence of decapitation on top of the wall. Sitting nearby on its own spike was a familiar face the head of the previous President Of The United States of America, George W. Bush. Going into full back-track mode after the episode was broadcast, showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss made sure to let everyone know that the inclusion wasnt some form of political statement, or a reference to Bush no longer being in office. Theyd had a certain number of prop heads available to them at the studio, and this one was chosen at random. Although the scene was amended with CGI in the subsequent DVD and Blu-Ray releases to look nothing like a dead President, HBO still felt the need to issue their own official apology, doubtless to forestall a personal visit from the Secret Service: "We were deeply dismayed to see this and find it unacceptable, disrespectful and in very bad taste. We made this clear to the executive producers of the series who apologized immediately for this inadvertent careless mistake. We are sorry this happened and will have it removed from any future DVD production." Backpedalling and retconning aside, we think someone in the props department who voted for Obama was definitely having a laugh here. Incidentally, if you're checking up on this article we don't recommend you google 'Game Of Thrones' and 'Bush'. You won't find exactly what you're looking for.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
