By Staff Writer Ben Pfeffer.
You could have sat on the Iron Throne. Well… one of the six Iron Thrones placed around the world.
HBO’s widely popular series Game of Thrones is premiering its final season of the show on April 14th. It’s catch-up time for those of you that are behind and remind yourself what happened time for the others.
To promote the release of the final season, Game of Thrones had hidden 6 Iron Throne replicas around the world for fans to find. The goal of the scavenger hunt was to take a picture on every Iron Throne in all six locations around the world, but to be realistic, people will only find one or two at most. The thrones are debuted by the release of a 360-degree video.
The first one was called the Throne of the Forest. This one was found on March 20th in the Forest of Dean in Puzzlewood, Gloucestershire, England by Alex Bowring and Tom Maullin-Sapeyn.
They had travelled there after getting two clues, 1: ‘Seek the Weirwood in this Kingdom on Earth’ and ‘Find it amongst the children of the forest’ and 2: ‘Put together the puzzle pieces to go find this Godswood.’ Alex and Tom were “knighted by the guardians of the realm” and got to keep the crown and be named the children of the forest.
The second throne was called the Throne of the North. This throne was found on March 21st in Björkliden, Sweden by Josefin Vallenå. Josefin recognized the northern lights from the release video and drove through the night and went directly to within the arctic circle (the wall) to claim the throne and be named the Queen of the North.
The third throne was called the Throne of Joy. This throne was found in a different location from what was expected. After watching the release video, people expected this throne to be in the same place is was filmed, Guadalajara, Spain, but it was actually near Madrid in a similarly looking location, at Castillo de Atienza.
The fourth throne was released at the same time as the Throne of Joy. This one was called the Throne of Valyria. This throne was found on March 24th at Coliseum Beach in Beberibe, a municipality in the Northeastern Brazilian state of Ceará. This throne location resembled an area that Daenerys Targaryen gave a rallying speech in.
The fifth throne was called the Throne of Ice. The release video for this showed the throne surrounded by snow and ice, but with a white-walker’s sword planted in the ground next to it. This throne was found on March 26th at the Babcock Seeps in Tumbler Ridge, B.C. Canada by a woman named Birgit, who was named Queen of Ice.
The sixth and final throne was found 10 minutes after the release video. The throne was named the Throne of the Crypt. This throne was found on March 28th in Torpedo Battery in Fort Totten Park in Queens, New York by 22-year-old Melanie Joaquin. After finding the last and final throne, Melanie was named Queen of Queens. This throne was shut down “due to a very high turnout” for the safety of the visitors. It had the longest line of all of the thrones.
On April 3rd, a surprising seventh throne appeared. It was a massive Iron Throne and was placed outside Rockefeller center for the Game of Thrones World Premiere. The throne stands 35 feet tall and weighs 20,000 pounds, so it could not be sat in. It has since been removed but drew the attention of millions.
After being found, most of the thrones had hours-long waits to sit in them. Everyone wanted to sit in the Iron Throne. This, along with the massive iron throne, was a perfectly creative promotion for the final season of a groundbreaking show.