As Den of Geek notes it, House of the Dragon just fixed George R. R Martin’s biggest regret with Game of Thrones. This particular scene is not on any of the fans’ list of regrets from Game of Thrones (because there are certainly much bigger ones, especially from the last season).
James Hibberd, Game of Thrones reporter extraordinaire, wrote a book about the show called Fire Can not Kill A Dragon. Here he goes behind the scenes of the HBO production of Game of Thrones. In an interview he did with George R. R. Martin for the book, George mentions that his biggest regret was then King Robert Baratheon’s hunting party from season 1.
George R. R. Martin on his biggest regret with Game of Thrones
Martin explains, “Where we really fell down in terms of budget was my least favorite scene in the entire show, in all eight seasons: King Robert goes hunting. Four guys walking on foot through the woods carrying spears and Robert is giving Renly shit. In the books, Robert goes off hunting, we get word that he was gored by a boar, and they bring him back and he dies. So I never did [a hunting scene].”
GRRM continued:
“But I knew what a royal hunting party was like. There would have been a hundred guys. There would have been pavilions. There would have been huntsmen. There would have been dogs. There would have been horns blowing – that’s how a king goes hunting! He wouldn’t have just been walking through the woods with three of his friends holding spears hoping to meet a boar. But at that point, we couldn’t afford horses or dogs or pavilions.”
And that’s exactly how House of the Dragon showrunners, Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, fixed it. In episode 3 of the new series, we see the royal tents be the size of a comfortable house. Lords and ladies from honorable houses joined in on this special hunting ceremony.
When King Viserys finally goes hunting, there are several lords beside him on their horses. We see knights and vicious pit bulls and hunting dogs guarding the King as he skews through a CGI stag. We can thank this upgrade to the show’s mammoth budget of around $20 Million per episode.
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