George R.R. Martin has been one of the finest storytellers in the entire entertainment industry, and it’s only understandable why. Not only does he have one of the most iconic imaginations from which has stemmed truly magical creatures, but he has also been credited for giving birth to one of the most fantastical fantasy worlds of all time.
But not everything that he has curated in his imagination found the perfect way to make its way to the screens through the Game of Thrones television series. For one, the author described that the most iconic symbol of power in the series, the Iron Throne, was supposed to be “a symbol of conquest and triumph” before it was badly butchered by the series.
George R.R. Martin originally designed the Iron Throne as “a symbol of conquest and triumph”
Although there are a lot of iconic elements in his fantasy lore, George R.R. Martin really did take it to the next level when it came to the Iron Throne. To say the least, he designed it as one of the most powerful symbols in the entire fictional saga, with the on-page depiction of it exuding nothing short of true magnificence, power, and triumph.
As the author explained in his interview with Vanity Fair, a lot of people had tried their hands at bringing out the perfect description of the throne — which was all wonderful, but quite failed to live up to the writer’s imagination. This is because the image of the same that he had pictured in his mind was a much better “symbol of conquest and triumph.”
The throne in the books, there’s a point made that it was hammered together by blacksmiths, not by furniture designers. It was meant to be a symbol of conquest and triumph, and, you know: ‘Look. I took the swords from these people and hammered them in. Now I park my a— on top of them.’ It has a message there,” as Martin explained.
That said, it’s unarguable that the picture he had drawn in his own mind about the throne was so grandeur and glamorous that very few could be able to actually bring it to life with that same level of brilliance. But with that being emphasized, it also can’t be denied that the Game of Thrones series pretty much did butcher that very element brutally.
Game of Thrones TV series really did butcher the Iron Throne brutally
During the same interview, George R.R. Martin also admitted that the difference between the Iron Throne he had envisioned and the one that the TV series brought to life was actually significant. As he explained, the main difference was the “scale” because “the Iron Throne that’s described in the books is gigantic. It’s huge.”
He continued to say about the show, “There’s actually a scene in the show where Littlefinger talks about the thousand swords of Aegon’s enemies, and says, ‘Well, there’s not really a thousand swords. That’s just a tale we tell ourselves.’ And David and Dan made a brilliant speech of that because there clearly are not a thousand swords in that one.”
Comparing this to the one in the books brought about a grander look as Martin continued to explain, “But in the real one, the one in the books, there really are a thousand swords! Maybe two thousand swords! You have to climb a steep set of steps, and it’s ugly, and it’s asymmetric. This one, it looks dangerous, with the spikes, but it has a certain beauty and a symmetry to it.”
With that being put out there, we don’t think anything more needs to be said about how the Iron Throne ended up being yet another one of those things about Game of Thrones that the series really failed to pull off as perfectly as the mastermind author had envisioned it. But, then again, it only adds to the long list of disappointments from the live-action adaptation, so that’s that too.
Game of Thrones can currently be streamed on HBO.
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