Take a look at letters from Season 1, storyboards of Ned Stark’s execution scene

With the recent release of the Game of Thrones trailer, the hype train for Season has officially left the station, and HBO is chugging forward with a number of promotional efforts. There the Hall of Faces website, which allows users to insert their own faces alongside the many dead ones hanging in the House of Black and White’s basement, and an upcoming event in New York City that may or may not involve dragons. HBO is also pushing the #GOT50 campaign on Twitter, which encourages people to share their favorite Game of Thrones memories between now and the season premiere on April 24.

In honor of the #GOT50 campaign, the network has put up some interesting content on its Making Game of Thrones blog, including a collection of 50 fun facts to know and tell about the show’s first season. There’s some neat tidbits on there, but one of the highlights has to be a close look at some of the prop letters featured during the year. Have a look:

This is the letter Sansa wrote Robb asking him to come to King’s Landing and bend the knee, all of it composed under Cersei’s helpful guidance. Sansa probably looks back on this and screams.

Varys the spider has informers everywhere, including in Essos, where Jorah Mormont sent him secret communications about Daenerys and Viserys Targaryen. Looking back, you have to wonder how much of this information Varys used and how much he ignored. We know now that he was plotting for a Targaryen restoration all along, but he had to keep some faith with the Small Council, so it must have been quite the tightrope walk.

Come one, come all to a tournament in honor of Ned Stark, the new Hand of the King. Never mind that surly northern fellow complaining about how much it cost.

To see the rest of the letters, head here.

Later in the same post, HBO threw up some storyboard frames for the most important scene of Season 1: the execution of Ned Stark. As you can see, the final version ended up being a bit different.

All in all, I’m glad we didn’t have to see Ned Stark’s headless body. Good call on changing that. See the rest of the storyboards here.

You can also see a couple of sigils for the lesser houses of Westeros, like the one for House Clegane…

…at the link above.

h/t Uproxx