Westeros

Among the podcasts I listen to on a weekly basis is the prop collecting-focused “The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of”, in part (but only in part!) because one of its hosts is House of the Dragon show runner and co-creator Ryan Condal (the other co-host? David Mandel, of Seinfeld and Veep fame whose White House Plumbers recently completed its run on HBO). Their areas of interest when it comes to collecting are very similar to what I—and I suspect many fans of A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, and House of the Dragon—consider pretty central parts of my favorite cinema: big genre works of the late 70s and through the 80s like Conan the Barbarian, Alien and Aliens, Blade Runner, Indiana Jones, and (of course) Star Wars.

Their latest episode (embedded below) features a semi-regular feature of the podcast, where Condal and Mandel discuss an upcoming props auction and go through its catalog together, discussing bits of information they know about a piece or similar ones, speculating on whether the expected sale price is on the mark or too high/low, and whether they’ll be pursuing any particular items themselves. But color me surprised when they mentioned that Propstore’s upcoming Entertainment Memorabilia Live Auction from June 28 to June 30th included two lots of scripts from Game of Thrones, apparently from Aidan Gillen (Littlefinger). I decided to examine what information Propstore provided about them, and discovered some fun details regarding scripts that Gillen had personally annotated.

First is Lot 155, 8 season 1 scripts valued at between $5,000 and $10,000 according to Propstore.

The preview images show at least some of the annotations, presumably in Gillen’s own hand. The episode 3 script has at the top of its cover page stating “Catelyn sister - Lysa - note about Lannister did set up”, suggesting Gillen (or someone else for Gillen?) was writing a reminder for himself of a key detail that he knew was relevant for Littlefinger’s scenes in the episode that introduces him. The page with Littlefinger and Eddard meeting for the first time also includes some interesting notes, like a bold “WINTER IS COMING” under a direction that Littlefinger’s smile “borders on insolence”, and some notes from Gillen providing his own direction for himself, breaking down a scene as having a duel-like quality (“counter”, “riposte”, and “touche”). Gillen even includes a prounciation guide for himself for Grand Maester Pycelle (“Pi-cell”). Even more interesting and extensive are Gillen’s writing down his take on the subtext of Littlefinger’s interactions with Catelyn in that episode.

Of particular note for season 1 is the annotation for episode 10, where the famous line, “Chaos is a ladder” is underlined and asterisked, with the asterisk including a simple note: “Killer line.”

Aidan Gillens’ hand-annotated page from the script for “Lord Snow”, episode 3 of season 1.

The second set of scripts if Lot 156, 7 season 2 scripts given an estimated value of $4,000 to $8,000. Here, epsiode 1 and 4 contain annotations from Gillen, such as a bold “WAR SUITS YOU”, seemingly Gillen’s way of remembering the general gist of the scene that follows as he’s present but not really a focal character. Episode 4 is especially intersting as it reveals something of Gillen’s process, as two sections of dialog where Littlefinger is cut off by Catelyn include Gillen having written out what he believes Littlefinger was going to say. Amusingly, he also adds a note to himself following Littlefinger’s claim that Sansa and Arya are both in his custody: “I don’t have them…”

Aidan Gillens’ hand-annotated page from the script for “Garden of Bones”, episode 4 of season 2.

Finally, here’s the Youtube version of the episode, which is actually just part 1 of their catalog coverage as they wrap up at just around the mid-point of Day 1 and its heavy hitters. Next week’s episode will conclude the catalog rundown. Personally, I’ve been very much enjoying them as they give an insight into the world of prop collecting, touch on a lot of films that many people love, and occasionally you even learn a few fun things about House of the Dragon, especially as Condal has arranged a number of related guests (including the smith responsible for the Valyrian steel swords, the show’s action prop supervisor, and even one George R.R. Martin!) Besides posting episodes to Youtube, the podcast can be found on iTunes, Spotify, and anywhere else that podcasts are aggregated. The podcast also has a social media presence on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.