Years after the “Game of Thrones” Starbucks cup goof, eagle-eyed viewers have spotted a visual effects mistake in last Sunday’s “House of the Dragon” episode.
In Season 1 Episode 3, titled “Second of His Name,” a scene features King Viserys (Paddy Considine) handing a letter to a soldier. A Twitter user pointed out that the king’s fourth and fifth fingers are green in the episode — apparently a visual effects editor did not edit out the “green screen” effect on the digits.
In the series premiere, Viserys has cuts on his body from sitting on the Iron Throne. By the second episode, he slices his pinky finger and the maesters use maggots to preserve his remaining flesh. In the latest episode, it appears the two fingers were supposed to be edited to have wounds or just show up on screen as stubs. HBO is planning to update the error on its streaming platforms.
This is not the first time there’s been a visual effects gaffe in Westeros. Back in 2019, “Game of Thrones” Season 8 Episode 4 included a scene in which a takeout coffee cup — resembling the ubiquitous Starbucks containers — was clearly visible on a table in front of Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke). The out-of-time-and-place cup, which can be seen for about two seconds, was spotted by fans shortly after the episode aired.
Commenting on that viral moment, Hauke Richter, an art director for “Game of Thrones” Seasons 4-8, noted that it’s not uncommon for such misplaced elements to mistakenly end up in the final cut of TV shows and movies. “Things can get forgotten on set,” Richter wrote. He said the coffee cup error has been “so blown out of proportion [because] it has not happened with ‘Thrones’ so far.”