Ask any of the Freefolk for one thing they’d change about HBO’s Game Of Thrones, and they’d probably reveal a litany of issues. The White Walkers’ finale. The coffee cups. The lighting. Some would prefer to just redo the whole final season. But Game Of Thrones’ former showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss, who have a history of looking at the show very differently from the fans, are pretty clear about where they screwed up: Not enough Mord the Jailer.
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Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter while promoting their new show 3 Body Problem, Benioff and Weiss were clear about a dearth of Mord. “One thing I know I wish we could have done is there’s the character Mord the Jailer,” Benioff said. Weiss agrees, calling it a “mistake” not to bring the character back, even though they “always talked about doing it.”
Ultimately, their plans for Mord the Jailer were the stuff of Monday morning quarterbacking. Weiss said they had a tavern scene with either Brienne or The House that would’ve been perfect for old Mord. “But we realized too late that Mord could have owned the tavern,” Weiss continued. “We could have had that actor in the background acting exactly the way he did as a jailer, except now as a small business owner. It was just such an obvious, no-brainer, day-after idea.”
So, just to clear it all up, The problem with their show wasn’t the gratuitous depictions of sexual abuse, Daenerys’ rushed heel turn, the murky, underlit cinematography, or the whimpering end of the White Walkers. It was a distinct lack of Mord the Jailer, played by Ciaran Bermingham for two episodes in 2011, as a small business owner, treating his bar patrons and employees like an imprisoned Tyrion Lannister. Yeah, that would’ve fixed things.