Current Events > Emilia Clarke rewrote GoT scene in Valyrian within minutes

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https://tinyurl.com/y48jgbbj

Throughout "Game of Thrones," star Emilia Clarke frequently spoke in the fictional language of High Valyrian while embodying the iconic character Daenerys Targaryen. By the fifth season of the show, her mastery of this invented language was so thorough that she was able to rewrite her own dialogue.

Entertainment Weekly's James Hibberd wrote a new oral history of "Game of Thrones," titled "Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon," and recently published an "outtake" interview with director Jeremy Podeswa. In the interview, Podeswa recounts a time when the showrunners (David Benioff and D.B. Weiss) asked if Clarke could change her dialogue from English to Valyrian for a scene.

"I went over to Emilia and I was like, 'I know this is a really big ask, but do you think you could figure out a way to do this in Valyrian?'" Podeswa said. "She went off and cobbled together things that [Daenerys] had said in the past that made sense. She came back in 10 minutes and had this whole monologue down."

The scene Clarke was rewriting took place in season five, in Daenerys' then-residence of Meereen. The Mother of Dragons was confronting a group of nobles after Ser Barristan was killed by a violent rebelling faction. She needed to intimidate them, hoping to draw out a betrayer, and the showrunners clearly thought her speaking Valyrian would make for a greater show of power.

In the books, Martin mentions when characters are speaking in non-English languages, but hadn't written out the phrases in alternate prose. The Valyrian language heard in "Game of Thrones" was created from scratch by linguist David J. Peterson, author of "The Art of Language Invention." Normally he would prepare scenes in Valyrian or Dothraki well in advance, to give the actors time to practice.

Clarke was one of the few "Game of Thrones" actors who spoke Valyrian in the show regularly, given Daenerys Targaryen's familial connection to Valyrian culture.

When Clarke underwent brain surgery for an aneurysm, she said she would run lines from "Game of Thrones" in her head to help her focus more, including snippets of the fictional languages.

"I just had to hand it to Emilia for taking on the challenge and making it completely credible," Podeswa told EW. "Every single take, every intonation, and the way she phrased everything, you completely understood what she was meant to be saying."

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I say this with outmost sincerity:

Yaaaaaas queen! We stan a linguist star.

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BalanceLost posted...

I say this with outmost sincerity:

Yaaaaaas queen! We stan a linguist star.

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That's pretty cool actually

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BalanceLost posted...

I say this with outmost sincerity:

Yaaaaaas queen! We stan a linguist star.

I dont think you know what a linguist is

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Impressive

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Sad the writers didn't put as much soul into it as she and other actors did.

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that's awesome also lol at D&D realizing at the last second to change the literal language of an entire important scene

hacks

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DuranOfForcena posted...

there's nothing incorrect about the way linguist was used there

Theres literally nothing at all correct about the way it was used there. A linguist is not someone who speaks a language or memorizes some vocab of a conlang.

Thats like calling someone an astronomer for pointing out the big dipper.

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sometimes i feel like a fancy hairdresser when i brush my hair, so...

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BalanceLost posted...

I say this with outmost sincerity:

Yaaaaaas queen! We stan a linguist star.

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Cool story.

A) I dont give a fuck what the general public might think it means, being misinformed about it. This is one thing I will take a prescriptive stance on.

B) Valyrian is not a foreign language, or a language at all for that matter, so even by your example its used wrong.

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g0ldie posted...

When Clarke underwent brain surgery for an aneurysm, she said she would run lines from "Game of Thrones" in her head to help her focus more, including snippets of the fictional languages.

Damn, I didnt know she went through that. Mustve been rough.

Anyway, always liked Emilia Clarke. I think they did her character dirty at the end, but you cant please everyone every time, I guess.

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Phynaster posted...

Cool story.

A) I dont give a fuck what the general public might think it means, being misinformed about it. This is one thing I will take a prescriptive stance on.

As a linguist I can provide a translation for this: I dont give a fuck if dictionaries dont agree with my personal definition of a word, Im correct and no one else could be.


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DuranOfForcena posted...

jesus fucking christ, why are you like this

Id rather not know why he is like this about everything and anything.

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DuranOfForcena posted...

jesus fucking christ, why are you like this

Rebel comes from the Broseph and ILT style of being toxic

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2SweetforTurtle posted...

As a linguist I can provide a translation for this: I dont give a fuck if dictionaries dont agree with my personal definition of a word, Im correct and no one else could be.

If you were a linguist youd know how a dictionary works

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Tolkien set the precedent for creating fantastical languages, but that was his academic specialty. Iirc this tongue was just made by some guy the show hired.

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BalanceLost posted...

I say this with outmost sincerity:

Yaaaaaas queen! We stan a linguist star.

I cringed

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For some reason this reads like she made up gibberish pretty quick and no one actually gave a fuck enough to verify if it was "accurate" lol which would totally fit the M.O. of the rest of that last season.
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Smashingpmkns posted...

For some reason this reads like she made up gibberish pretty quick and no one actually gave a fuck enough to verify if it was "accurate" lol which would totally fit the M.O. of the rest of that last season.

Yeah that was how I read it. Cobbled together makes it sound like she just smashed together past lines regardless of what they mean

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DuranOfForcena posted...

David J. Peterson is not just "some guy the show hired", he is a professional linguist and language creator who has created literally dozens of languages for all kinds of entertainment media

This is true, but Valyrian still doesnt come close to Tolkiens languages in terms of development

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She's my queen.

Unironically.

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