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  ===Writing===
  The episode was written by ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' author George R. R. Martin. 
  The episode was written by George R. R. Martin, the author of the book ''A Game of Thrones'' on which the series is based. Content from this episode is derived from chapters 43, 51-54, 55-58, and 61(Tyrion VI, Arya IV, Sansa IV, Jon VII, Bran VI, Catelyn VIII, Tyrion VII, Sansa V, the early part of Eddard XV, and Daenerys VII). Martin has extensive experience in television writing, but it had been a decade since he had produced a teleplay. He said that he found writing this episode very easy because of his familiarity with the characters and the story, and that the hardest part was "getting used to the new screenwriting software that he had to use."
  Martin delivered the first draft of the script to the show's executive producers David Benioff and D. B. Weiss on May 1, 2010, admitting that it was probably "too long and too expensive." In fact, one scene that Martin wrote – Robb Stark calling his father's Northern bannermen, with a montage of eight different castles receiving the summons and riding out – was deemed impossible to film.
  The first scenes depicting Tyrion descending with Bronn from the Mountains of the Moon and encountering the clansmen were not written by Martin. Since they were originally intended to be part of episode seven, they were written by that episode's authors, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. As often happens in TV production, the scene was moved from one episode to another during editing.
  The scene where Drogo fights Mago was not in the original script, but Momoa suggested it after realizing that Drogo, supposedly a great warrior, had never had his fighting prowess shown onscreen.