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Game of Thrones Trivia Quiz
Game of Thrones is set in the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, where noble houses — Stark, Lannister, Targaryen, Baratheon, and more — scheme and wage war for the Iron Throne. Meanwhile an ancient threat stirs beyond the Wall in the frozen north, and across the sea Daenerys Targaryen raises three dragons and builds an army to take back her family's crown.
Q1. Who composed the music for Game of Thrones?
Answer: Ramin Djawadi. Djawadi wrote the first season's score about ten weeks before the premiere and gave each major house and some characters their own theme. Daenerys's theme started on a single cello and grew more complex each season. He was nominated twice for a Grammy for the show.
Q2. Which Croatian city stood in for King's Landing from season two onwards?
Answer: Dubrovnik. Season one's southern scenes were shot in Malta, but production moved to Dubrovnik for its walled coastal old town. The show's popularity caused such "over-tourism" that the mayor imposed limits on visitor numbers; Hotels.com reported bookings up 120 percent there between 2014 and 2016.
Q3. Where was the show's main studio base?
Answer: Belfast, Northern Ireland. The producers first considered filming everything in Scotland but chose Northern Ireland for its studio space and tax credits, starting at the Paint Hall Studios in Belfast. By 2019, around 350,000 visitors a year, one in six tourists, came to Northern Ireland because of the show.
Q4. How many Primetime Emmy Awards did Game of Thrones win?
Answer: 59. That is the record for a scripted series, beating Frasier's 37. It also holds the record for most Emmy nominations for a drama, with 161, and won Outstanding Drama Series four times: 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019.
Q5. Who created the Dothraki and Valyrian languages for the show?
Answer: David J. Peterson. The novels contain only a few words of each language, so the producers hired the conlanger, who wrote 300 pages of Dothraki material before filming began. Duolingo later launched a High Valyrian course in 2017, and 1.2 million people signed up by 2020.
Q6. Which question did Benioff and Weiss answer correctly to win George R. R. Martin over?
Answer: "Who is Jon Snow's mother?". They met Martin for five hours in a restaurant on Santa Monica Boulevard. Martin had called the books "unfilmable" as movies, and Benioff agreed a studio film would need a PG-13 rating. Martin was pleased with the HBO idea and said he had "never imagined it anywhere else".
Q7. Who played Daenerys in the original, unaired pilot?
Answer: Tamzin Merchant. HBO disliked the pilot after a private screening and had about 90 percent of it reshot, with cast and director changes. Emilia Clarke replaced Merchant as Daenerys and Michelle Fairley replaced Jennifer Ehle as Catelyn. Peter Dinklage and Sean Bean were the only actors the writers wanted from the start.
Q8. Which real conflict was a main inspiration for the Lannister–Stark rivalry?
Answer: The Wars of the Roses. The fight between the houses of Lancaster and York, 1455 to 1485, is echoed in Lannister and Stark. Other borrowings include Hadrian's Wall for the Wall, Greek fire for wildfire, Damascus steel for Valyrian steel and the Colossus of Rhodes for the Titan of Braavos.
Q9. Which Maltese city played King's Landing in the first season?
Answer: Mdina. Season one moved its southern scenes from the pilot's Moroccan sets to Malta, using Mdina and several forts and palaces for the Red Keep, and the Azure Window on Gozo for the Dothraki wedding. Morocco returned in season three for Daenerys's scenes in Essos.
Q10. Which season eight episode drew heavy criticism because viewers could barely see what was happening?
Answer: The Long Night. The show's dark lighting had been criticised since season six. Cinematographer Robert McLachlan called it a naturalistic artistic choice, but complaints peaked minutes into "The Long Night" as viewers took to social media saying they could not follow the battle.
Q11. Roughly how much of the original pilot did HBO have reshot?
Answer: About 90 percent. The pilot, "Winter Is Coming", was shot in 2009 and reportedly cost $5 to $10 million. After a poor private screening HBO demanded an extensive reshoot. The first season's budget came to an estimated $50 to $60 million, and by season six episodes cost over $10 million each.
Q12. Who was the only woman to direct episodes of the series?
Answer: Michelle MacLaren. MacLaren directed four episodes. Alan Taylor directed the most, seven, and Neil Marshall was brought in for two battle-heavy episodes, "Blackwater" and "The Watchers on the Wall". Tim Van Patten directed the first two episodes of the series.
Q13. The adolescent dragons' muscle and wing movements were largely based on which animal?
Answer: A chicken. Pixomondo, the German studio that became the lead visual effects producer from season two, kept a team of 22 to 30 people working only on Daenerys's dragons. The show won the Emmy for visual effects in seven consecutive seasons and had more than 10,000 effects shots in total.
Q14. Which girl's name jumped from 711th to 413th place in the US in one year thanks to the show?
Answer: Arya. BBC News described fans' devotion as a phenomenon, from fan fiction and themed burlesque shows to parents naming children after characters. Vulture ranked the fans the most devoted in popular culture in 2012, ahead of Harry Potter and Star Wars fans.
Q15. Benioff and Weiss directed two episodes together. How did they decide who got credit for which?
Answer: A coin toss. Each was credited for one episode after the toss. They are credited together as writers and directors of the series finale, "The Iron Throne". For season eight, David Nutter and Miguel Sapochnik directed the first five episodes.
Q16. Which actress originally played Catelyn Stark before she was recast?
Answer: Jennifer Ehle. Ehle appeared in the original pilot before Michelle Fairley took over for the first season. Other pilot castings kept for the series included Kit Harington as Jon Snow, Jack Gleeson as Joffrey and Mark Addy, whom the writers called the easiest actor to cast.
Q17. Which studio created the famous clockwork-map title sequence?
Answer: Elastic. Creative director Angus Wall and his team won the 2011 Emmy for Main Title Design. The map is projected inside a sphere lit by a small sun, with cities rising from it, and the locations change as the story moves. Entertainment Weekly called it an "all-inclusive cruise of Westeros".
Q18. Which actress led the cast of the prequel pilot that HBO ultimately passed on in 2019?
Answer: Naomi Watts. Jane Goldman's prequel was set in the Age of Heroes, about 10,000 years before the series, and Martin suggested the title The Long Night. Watts was to play "a charismatic socialite hiding a dark secret". House of the Dragon followed in 2022 and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms in 2026.
Q19. About how many illegal downloads did the season eight premiere, "Winterfell", get?
Answer: 55 million. That compared with 17.4 million legal viewers on HBO platforms. TorrentFreak named it the most pirated TV show from 2012 to 2019, and the season five finale became the most simultaneously shared file in BitTorrent history. Executives said the piracy did not hurt the show much.
Q20. Which singer's Alexander McQueen dresses inspired Margaery Tyrell's funnel-neck outfit?
Answer: Björk. The costume designs drew on many sources, from Japanese and Persian armour to Bedouin dress for the Dothraki. Every costume was aged for two weeks to look real in HD, and Emilia Clarke spent about two hours having each platinum wig fitted and braided.
Game of Thrones quiz answers and explanations
Every question from the quiz above with its correct answer, the story behind it, and where the fact comes from.
-
Who composed the music for Game of Thrones?
Answer: Ramin Djawadi. Djawadi wrote the first season's score about ten weeks before the premiere and gave each major house and some characters their own theme. Daenerys's theme started on a single cello and grew more complex each season. He was nominated twice for a Grammy for the show.
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
-
Which Croatian city stood in for King's Landing from season two onwards?
Answer: Dubrovnik. Season one's southern scenes were shot in Malta, but production moved to Dubrovnik for its walled coastal old town. The show's popularity caused such "over-tourism" that the mayor imposed limits on visitor numbers; Hotels.com reported bookings up 120 percent there between 2014 and 2016.
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
-
Where was the show's main studio base?
Answer: Belfast, Northern Ireland. The producers first considered filming everything in Scotland but chose Northern Ireland for its studio space and tax credits, starting at the Paint Hall Studios in Belfast. By 2019, around 350,000 visitors a year, one in six tourists, came to Northern Ireland because of the show.
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
-
How many Primetime Emmy Awards did Game of Thrones win?
Answer: 59. That is the record for a scripted series, beating Frasier's 37. It also holds the record for most Emmy nominations for a drama, with 161, and won Outstanding Drama Series four times: 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019.
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
-
Who created the Dothraki and Valyrian languages for the show?
Answer: David J. Peterson. The novels contain only a few words of each language, so the producers hired the conlanger, who wrote 300 pages of Dothraki material before filming began. Duolingo later launched a High Valyrian course in 2017, and 1.2 million people signed up by 2020.
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
-
Which question did Benioff and Weiss answer correctly to win George R. R. Martin over?
Answer: "Who is Jon Snow's mother?". They met Martin for five hours in a restaurant on Santa Monica Boulevard. Martin had called the books "unfilmable" as movies, and Benioff agreed a studio film would need a PG-13 rating. Martin was pleased with the HBO idea and said he had "never imagined it anywhere else".
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
-
Who played Daenerys in the original, unaired pilot?
Answer: Tamzin Merchant. HBO disliked the pilot after a private screening and had about 90 percent of it reshot, with cast and director changes. Emilia Clarke replaced Merchant as Daenerys and Michelle Fairley replaced Jennifer Ehle as Catelyn. Peter Dinklage and Sean Bean were the only actors the writers wanted from the start.
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
-
Which real conflict was a main inspiration for the Lannister–Stark rivalry?
Answer: The Wars of the Roses. The fight between the houses of Lancaster and York, 1455 to 1485, is echoed in Lannister and Stark. Other borrowings include Hadrian's Wall for the Wall, Greek fire for wildfire, Damascus steel for Valyrian steel and the Colossus of Rhodes for the Titan of Braavos.
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
-
Which Maltese city played King's Landing in the first season?
Answer: Mdina. Season one moved its southern scenes from the pilot's Moroccan sets to Malta, using Mdina and several forts and palaces for the Red Keep, and the Azure Window on Gozo for the Dothraki wedding. Morocco returned in season three for Daenerys's scenes in Essos.
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
-
Which season eight episode drew heavy criticism because viewers could barely see what was happening?
Answer: The Long Night. The show's dark lighting had been criticised since season six. Cinematographer Robert McLachlan called it a naturalistic artistic choice, but complaints peaked minutes into "The Long Night" as viewers took to social media saying they could not follow the battle.
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
-
Roughly how much of the original pilot did HBO have reshot?
Answer: About 90 percent. The pilot, "Winter Is Coming", was shot in 2009 and reportedly cost $5 to $10 million. After a poor private screening HBO demanded an extensive reshoot. The first season's budget came to an estimated $50 to $60 million, and by season six episodes cost over $10 million each.
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
-
Who was the only woman to direct episodes of the series?
Answer: Michelle MacLaren. MacLaren directed four episodes. Alan Taylor directed the most, seven, and Neil Marshall was brought in for two battle-heavy episodes, "Blackwater" and "The Watchers on the Wall". Tim Van Patten directed the first two episodes of the series.
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
-
The adolescent dragons' muscle and wing movements were largely based on which animal?
Answer: A chicken. Pixomondo, the German studio that became the lead visual effects producer from season two, kept a team of 22 to 30 people working only on Daenerys's dragons. The show won the Emmy for visual effects in seven consecutive seasons and had more than 10,000 effects shots in total.
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
-
Which girl's name jumped from 711th to 413th place in the US in one year thanks to the show?
Answer: Arya. BBC News described fans' devotion as a phenomenon, from fan fiction and themed burlesque shows to parents naming children after characters. Vulture ranked the fans the most devoted in popular culture in 2012, ahead of Harry Potter and Star Wars fans.
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
-
Benioff and Weiss directed two episodes together. How did they decide who got credit for which?
Answer: A coin toss. Each was credited for one episode after the toss. They are credited together as writers and directors of the series finale, "The Iron Throne". For season eight, David Nutter and Miguel Sapochnik directed the first five episodes.
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
-
Which actress originally played Catelyn Stark before she was recast?
Answer: Jennifer Ehle. Ehle appeared in the original pilot before Michelle Fairley took over for the first season. Other pilot castings kept for the series included Kit Harington as Jon Snow, Jack Gleeson as Joffrey and Mark Addy, whom the writers called the easiest actor to cast.
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
-
Which studio created the famous clockwork-map title sequence?
Answer: Elastic. Creative director Angus Wall and his team won the 2011 Emmy for Main Title Design. The map is projected inside a sphere lit by a small sun, with cities rising from it, and the locations change as the story moves. Entertainment Weekly called it an "all-inclusive cruise of Westeros".
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
-
Which actress led the cast of the prequel pilot that HBO ultimately passed on in 2019?
Answer: Naomi Watts. Jane Goldman's prequel was set in the Age of Heroes, about 10,000 years before the series, and Martin suggested the title The Long Night. Watts was to play "a charismatic socialite hiding a dark secret". House of the Dragon followed in 2022 and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms in 2026.
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
-
About how many illegal downloads did the season eight premiere, "Winterfell", get?
Answer: 55 million. That compared with 17.4 million legal viewers on HBO platforms. TorrentFreak named it the most pirated TV show from 2012 to 2019, and the season five finale became the most simultaneously shared file in BitTorrent history. Executives said the piracy did not hurt the show much.
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
-
Which singer's Alexander McQueen dresses inspired Margaery Tyrell's funnel-neck outfit?
Answer: Björk. The costume designs drew on many sources, from Japanese and Persian armour to Bedouin dress for the Dothraki. Every costume was aged for two weeks to look real in HD, and Emilia Clarke spent about two hours having each platinum wig fitted and braided.
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
Game of Thrones by the numbers
- Seasons
- 8
- Episodes
- 73
- First aired
- 17 April 2011
- Last aired
- 19 May 2019
- Primetime Emmys
- 59 (record for a drama)
- Emmy nominations
- 161
- Filming countries
- 7
- Finale viewers (HBO platforms)
- 19.3 million
Source: Wikipedia: Game of Thrones
About the Game of Thrones quiz
Game of Thrones grew from a pilot so troubled that most of it had to be reshot into one of the most-watched and most-pirated shows of its time. Along the way it invented languages, turned Northern Ireland into a tourist destination and changed baby-name charts. Fans who know every house motto may still not know any of that, so the production makes a sharper test than the plot.
Questions cover all eight seasons — the great houses and their sigils, the Iron Throne, the Night's Watch and the Wall, Daenerys and her dragons, and the major battles, betrayals, and deaths.
What this Game of Thrones quiz covers
The quiz skips the questions every Game of Thrones quiz repeats and focuses on how the show was made and what it did to the world around it: the restaurant meeting that won George R. R. Martin over, the reshot pilot and recast roles, the real places behind King's Landing and Winterfell, the invented languages, the dragons, the records it set and the prequels that followed. Each answer below explains the story behind it and links to the source.
How to play
Tap an answer to see the right one straight away, with the story behind it, and check your score at the end. Play Again resets the quiz.
Game of Thrones quiz — frequently asked questions
Is this based on the show or the books?
The show. Questions are about the HBO series and how it was produced. George R. R. Martin appears as part of that story, but no book knowledge is needed.
Do I need to know every house and character?
No. There are no questions about family trees or sigils. The quiz covers casting, locations, music, effects, directors, records and the prequels.
Does it cover House of the Dragon?
Only in passing. One question concerns the prequel pilot HBO dropped, and the facts box mentions what came after. The quiz itself is about the original series.