You think the Iron Throne looks like this? YOU KNOW NOTHING!

Game of Thrones creator, George R.R. Martin is blogging again, and this one is a doozy. Turns out the impressive Iron Throne HBO created for the television series is but a step ladder to the behemoth Martin originally envisioned. Martin penned a kind, but honest note (on his personal Livejournal) explaining exactly where HBO got it wrong:

The HBO throne has become iconic. And well it might. It's a terrific design, and it has served the show very well. There are replicas and paperweights of it in three different sizes. Everyone knows it. I love it. I have all those replicas right here, sitting on my shelves.



And yet, and yet... it's still not right. It's not the Iron Throne I see when I'm working on THE WINDS OF WINTER. It's not the Iron Throne I want my readers to see. The way the throne is described in the books... HUGE, hulking, black and twisted, with the steep iron stairs in front, the high seat from which the king looks DOWN on everyone in the court... my throne is a hunched beast looming over the throne room, ugly and assymetric...



The HBO throne is none of those things. It's big, yes, but not nearly as big as the one described in the novels. And for good reason. We have a huge throne room set in Belfast, but not nearly huge enough to hold the Iron Throne as I painted it. For that we'd need something much bigger, more like the interior of St. Paul's Cathedral or Westminster Abbey, and no set has that much room. The Book Version of the Iron Throne would not even fit through the doors of the Paint Hall.


Ok, ok so what does it look like? Well according to the author it looks exactly like THIS painting by Marc Simonetti.


This is the giant, lumbering throne Martin always imagined. And we agree with him 100% it's much more grand in scale but not practical in the slightest for television shooting. Ah well, it's still a lovely version of a now classic image.