The actor behind Game of Thrones’ Beric Dondarrion has revealed that those are real flames engulfing his sword.
This week on Game of Thrones was an epic affair and saw Jon and his motley crew fighting against the Night King’s armies. One of the heroes involved was Beric Dondarrion, a follower of the Lord of Light who has died and been resurrected multiple times.
Beric is particularly notable for the flaming that he wields, a weapon put to great use this past week. One would think this was pulled off with a little CGI but Richard Dormer (Beric) has revealed that those flames are very real.
“The sword is not CGI,” he told Variety. “That’s real flames every single time. It lasts about two minutes, so I could only use it for two minutes and then it would start to go out so we had to start all over again…Also, I had to slow my sword arm down by about 20%. So if I was doing a move, I would just do it quick with the sword. But with the sword on fire, you can’t move that fast otherwise the flame will go out. So you’ve got to move just slightly slower but more effort, you know? Also it weighs three times as much as a normal sword, so it’s just this big club really.”
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Beric has been one of the lesser seen characters on the show, only showing up sporadically throughout the years but surviving all this time none the less.
If he has to die at some point, looking likelier after this week’s events, Dormer has some thoughts on how it should go down and on who he would like to fight before he’s done.
“It’s so weird because at Comic-Con back in 2012 or 2013, someone asked me ‘What would you most like Beric Dondarrion to do in the final season?’ And I said, ‘I want him with his flaming sword riding on the back of a dragon.’ And it came true! So that was pretty cool,” Dormer said. “What I would love to do is fight one of two people: The Mountain or The Night King. And I know I would definitely be killed by The Night King, but I might have a chance against The Mountain.”
SEE ALSO: Follow all of our Game of Thrones coverage here
Games of Thrones season 7 airs on Sunday in the US and on Monday in the UK.
