page_title: Blood of My Blood
section_title: Filming
hierarchical_section_title: Blood of My Blood / Production / Filming
caption_attribution_description: Español: Escalera de la Catedral de Santa Maria de Girona Català: Escalinata de la Catedral de Santa Maria de Girona English: Steps leading to the Cathedral of Girona, Spain
context_page_description: "Blood of My Blood" is the sixth episode of the sixth season of HBO's fantasy television series Game of Thrones, and the 56th overall. The episode was written by Bryan Cogman, and directed by Jack Bender.
  Bran Stark and Meera Reed are rescued from the White Walkers by Benjen Stark. Samwell Tarly returns to his family's home in Horn Hill, accompanied by Gilly and little Sam; Jaime Lannister attempts to rescue the Queen, Margaery Tyrell; Arya Stark defies the Faceless Men; and Daenerys Targaryen rides on Drogon and emboldens her newly acquired khalasar.
  "Blood of My Blood" was positively received by critics who praised the return of several notable characters, including Benjen Stark, Walder Frey and Edmure Tully. Further praise was given to other plot points, such as Samwell's return to Horn Hill, and Arya's decision to return to being a Stark rather than a disciple of the Many-Faced God. The episode title is a reference to a famous Dothraki saying used between a Khal and his bloodriders. Filming of Bran's visions was put together precisely and also very carefully chosen. In the United States, the episode achieved a viewership of 6.71 million in its initial broadcast.
context_section_description: "Blood of My Blood" was directed by Jack Bender, who also directed the previous episode "The Door", his directorial debut for the series. Bender had been approached to direct for the series but declined due to the extensive time commitment involved in shooting, which he noted in an interview as having to commit to "four-and-a-half to six months because of the enormity of the episodes".
  For the primary King's Landing scene at the Great Sept, with Margaery being presented to the city by the High Sparrow, the grand staircase of the Girona Cathedral in Girona, Spain was used. The cathedral was constructed in the 11th century, and continued its expansion throughout the 12th and 13th centuries, as well as the 18th century. According to prior reports, filming took place over the course of approximately two weeks, with many different challenges involved in shooting at the location, including "extras requiring medical attention due to exhaustion and dehydration," as well as the need for extensive security to close off certain areas, during filming, from the public. Parts of Braavos were also filmed in Girona. In nearby Canet de Mar, Catalonia, Spain, the Castell de Santa Florentina, an 11th-century medieval castle, was utilized for the castle of House Tarly.
  The director of the episode, Bender, conducted an interview with The Wall Street Journal following the airing of the episode, and spoke about filming the play with Arya in Braavos, stating "I staged the whole play, we did it, and the producers came in to watch the rehearsal, including all the fart jokes, all that stuff, some of which was written. So, after we watched the rehearsal, and the guys laughed a lot, I said, 'My only concern is, am I mocking your brilliant show too much?' And they said, 'No, do it more!' They're completely unpretentious, David and Dan, and they loved it." He also noted that several other extra scenes were filmed, but were cut from the final version of the episode, noting that they will likely be released as deleted scenes on the DVD for the season.
  In the behind the scenes video published by HBO following the airing of the fifth and sixth episodes, Benioff described Bran's visions at the beginning of the episode as being something that was put together very precisely and purposefully, noting "Even though some of those images flash by in just a fraction of a second each of them was very carefully chosen. And the Mad King was probably the most dramatic of those because we've been hearing about the Mad King from the very beginning of the show, but he's never appeared on screen before. And shooting it, you know, spending a lot of time on what ended up being maybe like a second and a half, couple seconds, of screen time." The new scenes of the Mad King, Aerys II Targaryen, are interspersed with previously shown footage of the White Walkers, as well as wildfire explosions, and other landmark moments from throughout the series, such as Ned Stark's beheading, the Red Wedding, and Bran falling from the Broken Tower in the series premiere. In the A Song of Ice and Fire series by George R. R. Martin, the Mad King is described as having long, unkempt hair and beard, with nine inch long fingernails. The show's version portrayed his look in a more tidy fashion, with David Rintoul playing the role of the Mad King.
  Ellie Kendrick, who portrays Meera Reed in the series, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter spoke about the re-introduction of Benjen Stark, or Coldhands Benjen, and working with Joseph Mawle, saying "It was so fantastic. And it's interesting. If you've read the books, then you know about the Coldhands character, who was cut out of the Bran, Meera and Jojen storyline on the show. It was always interesting, having read the books, watching this amalgamation of story lines happen. Benjen is sort of like the Coldhands character in that he's a slightly suspicious guy who is half-dead and half-alive with blue hands. I thought that was very cool, the way it happened. It was a nice marriage between the book and TV revelations rolled into one. I was very ex
caption: The Cathedral in Girona, Spain stood in for the Great Sept, with some extending CGI altering the building.
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