Writing '' author
George R. R. Martin. The episode was written by
George R. R. Martin, the author of the book
A Game of Thrones on which the series is based. Content from this episode is derived from chapters 43, 51–54, 55–58, and 61 (Tyrion VI, Arya IV, Sansa IV, Jon VII, Bran VI, Catelyn VIII, Tyrion VII, Sansa V, the early part of Eddard XV, and Daenerys VII). Martin has extensive experience in television writing, but it had been a decade since he had produced a teleplay. He said that he found writing this episode very easy because of his familiarity with the characters and the story, and that the hardest part was "getting used to the new screenwriting software that [he] had to use." Martin delivered the first draft of the script to the show's executive producers
David Benioff and
D. B. Weiss on May 1, 2010, admitting that it was probably "too long and too expensive." In fact, one scene that Martin wrote – Robb Stark calling his father's Northern bannermen, with a montage of eight different castles receiving the summons and riding out – was deemed impossible to film. The first scenes depicting Tyrion descending with Bronn from the Mountains of the Moon and encountering the clansmen were not written by Martin. Since they were originally intended to be part of
episode seven, they were written by that episode's authors, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. As often happens in TV production, the scene was moved from one episode to another during editing. The scene where Drogo fights Mago was not in the original script, but Momoa suggested it after realizing that Drogo, supposedly a great warrior, had never had his fighting prowess shown onscreen.
Casting "The Pointy End" includes the first appearance of two significant recurring characters in the book series:
Clive Mantle as the Northern bannerman Lord Jon Umber, known as the Greatjon due to his size, and
Ian Gelder as Lord Tywin's brother and right-hand man Ser Kevan Lannister. was used as one of the ruined towers of Moat Cailin that defend the Neck.
Filming locations Interior scenes were filmed at
The Paint Hall studio, in Belfast, including all the scenes set in the Red Keep and Winterfell. The scenes at the village of the Lamb Men that is sacked by the Dothraki were filmed towards the end of October 2010 in
Malta, at the farming town of
Manikata. For the exterior of the Red Keep where Arya recovers her sword Needle,
San Anton Palace was used.
Dedication The episode was dedicated to the memory of Ralph Vicinanza. He had been one of the co-executive producers attached to
Game of Thrones, and died in his sleep from a
cerebral aneurysm on September 25, 2010. Vicinanza was the literary agent who handled George R. R. Martin's foreign language rights, and (with
Vince Gerardis) one of the co-founders of the management company
Created By, which aimed at developing feature films and television shows based on the works of Vicinanza's clients. He was instrumental in bringing Martin's work to the screen, recommending the books to
David Benioff and
D. B. Weiss, and leading the negotiations with HBO. He died a few days after HBO greenlighted the series. ==Reception==