Jason Momoa Stole A Truly Disturbing Game Of Thrones Prop

If you've watched "Game of Thrones," you know it was one of the bloodiest television shows in recent memory ... which means the prop department was probably full of some pretty gross items. Think about all of the show's goriest scenes: there's probably, for example, a fake version of Oberyn Martell's (Pedro Pascal) head after his eyes were gouged out in a duel in Season 4, and we know for sure that Sean Bean kicked Ned Stark's decapitated head around like a football on set.

Apparently, Jason Momoa — who played Khal Drogo in the show's debut season — took something especially gross. Specifically, he kept the tongue and throat of a fellow Dothraki that he removed by hand in Season 1, Episode 8, titled "The Pointy End." Back in 2019, Momoa told Entertainment Weekly, "I'm a big fan of taking the things that I worked with. So I have the souvenir of the tongue and the throat. That's just on my desk. I called up Dan and David. I think it was one of the first scenes that was never in the book, and George called me out on it, I think while we were doing the [Comic-Con] panel." Some people have paperweights or other tchotchkes, but Momoa prefers something a little different, clearly.

Wait, what exactly happened in Season 1 of "Game of Thrones" that required a fake throat and tongue? It's been a while, so here's a refresher: Drogo's wife Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) forbids a Dothraki soldier from harming a woman, and the soldier responds with insults and insubordination. Drogo stands up and promises to kill the man himself. The soldier slashes Drogo's chest, but after a short battle, Drogo slits the soldier's throat and removes his tongue through the newly opened airway. 

In that same Entertainment Weekly oral history, Jason Momoa described how the scene came about — and why he was relieved that he didn't have to memorize a ton of complex moves.

"I always wanted to see [Drogo] go to battle," Momoa revealed. "I didn't want to do some elaborate fight scene. I think it's [just as] intimidating to whisper in someone's ear and go, 'Stop that.' You can just parry; I don't need to do any fight moves. Then you just take the guy's sword and slice his throat out. I was like, 'We can get a chicken breast, and we'll just cover my hand in blood, and that'll do it.' And then within days they had this f***ing throat and tongue attachment, and it looked amazing."

Drogo defeats his opponent by making sure he can't eat, breathe, or be alive anymore, but that chest scratch doesn't bode well for the Dothraki horse lord. Long story short, that cut develops a nasty blood infection, which may or may not be made worse by a witch Daenerys turns to for help. Drogo ends up completely catatonic, at which point Daenerys mercy-kills him with a pillow, causing the powerful warlord to die at the end of Season 1. Even with all the blood, gore, and tragedy, though, Jason Momoa also told Entertainment Weekly that his small children joined him on set and saw him in all sorts of disturbing states.

"My daughter was with me on set," Momoa revealed. "I love taking [my kids] everywhere, but I'm covered in blood, and she's sitting there knitting with the wardrobe department. She's so cute. I'm like, 'Hi, baby!' [She's like,] 'I love you, Papa!' Then I'd go and be like, "Raaa!' She was, like, 4 years old. 'Papa's just playing' — not fazed by it at all. It was a very memorable moment."

Nothing that heartwarming really ever happened on "Game of Thrones," so it's definitely nice that Momoa made a core memory with his daughter ... and took home a souvenir to boot.