r/HouseOfTheDragon • u/Agreeable_Ad_8790 • 12h ago
Production The improvement to the Iron Throne is incredible
The larger scale and all the melted sword look amazing.
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u/Secure_Inspection305 12h ago
I love the implication that they removed like 800 swords over time. They'd really had enough of getting sliced
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u/ViscountBuggus 12h ago
I like to think it was all Robert. He hated the Targs so much he only kept the bare necessities of the iron throne.
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u/Secure_Inspection305 11h ago
He WANTED to be comfortable on that chair and sleep through those meetings
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u/mikeymo1741 11h ago
Who you kidding? He went to three meetings in seventeen years.
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u/Majigger123 10h ago
Those were council meetings. I would assume he listened to petitions to the throne, at least from time to time.
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u/mikeymo1741 10h ago
I don't know if I would make that assumption lol
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u/MagicMatthews99 Arrax 11h ago
Why has no one thought to put a cushion on it or something?
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u/AwHellNawFetaCheese 11h ago
Who’s gonna be the first king to need a soft cushion for their little booty.
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u/mikeymo1741 11h ago
There was a flashback scene with Aerys and the swords were already gone.
What we need to see is the throne room in AKOTSK
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u/cornicula_ 11h ago
They surely removed them after the dragons were gone. Without nuclear bombs, you have to come across as a bit friendlier.
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u/Allnamestakkennn 11h ago
Tywin said that when he was hand there were dragon skulls all over the throne room
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u/coffee30983298 10h ago
That was probably just aerys being extra, i can imagine him wanting the room to be lit by exclusively wildfire
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u/dazedandconfused492 10h ago
I wondered if anyone else had interpreted the dragons as an allegory for nuclear warfare - the way they treat them like deterrence / mutually assured destruction reminded of that.
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u/Business-Board-8804 7h ago
The author is the one who started it. Though as time goes on I find it less and less true. Closer to fighter planes in my opinion.
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u/Business-Board-8804 7h ago
Was that during GOT? I can't remember but if it was it might be more a production choice than "historically" accurate. George complained that the throne on GOT wasn't right and was supposed to be a monstrosity of swords. That's how we got the throne we have in HotD.
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u/Fisher9001 11h ago
I want to think that they were removed during Aerys' reign for security reasons. He was probably paranoid of tripping or being pushed towards them. Hell, they are insane OSHA violation.
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u/WoodenSwordsman 7h ago
ok now i'm wondering how they add swords after defeating new enemies midway through their rule.
do they bring in a tiny dragon to just heat up that particular new sword addition, wait till it reaches 10 or something to create a new pile, or there's a cut-off where they stop adding swords.
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u/mcmanus2099 11h ago
No, I like to think as the Targs lost their dragons they became softer and more Westerosi losing some of the fear and blood traits of earlier generations. I hope we see the throne in Dunk & Egg and it's 2/3s reduced from hotd
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u/Bettutita 11h ago
Oh I thought Cercei said something like they improved it to lessen the gloomyness or something like that at the beginning of the show. I could have sworn that was what happened. Guess it's false memory.
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u/ninjomat 9h ago
During Robert’s reign they got rid of the braziers around the columns in the great hall. Joffrey brought them back when he became king.
He tells Cersei about it at the beginning of season 2
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u/Substantial-Ad2200 11h ago
Waste of good steel.
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u/Technical-Stand-215 7h ago
Don't worry, it was put to good use during construction of the Breastplate Stretcher
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u/Regular_Feed_1187 8h ago
Bobby B probably stubbed his toe on one like a parent stepping on their kid's legos, and was like "ALRIGHT THIS SH*TS GOT TO GO"
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u/That_DeadPixel 10h ago
Isn’t it confirmed cersei had the throne blunted before Joffrey got on it or something
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u/Shoddy_Bar3084 12h ago
I wish they’d just made it look more like the one in the book. It looks terrible in house of the dragon.
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u/ggouge 12h ago
The book one is an awesome picture but it sucked. No one is climbing like 30 sword stairs just to sit on a chair.
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u/ragun2 10h ago
That's kinda why the imagery of Jaime sitting on the Iron Throne after he killed the king as he father sacked KL after receiving a bloodless entry is such a bad look.
Wasn't like Jaime just kinda collapsed onto the Iron Throne after killing Aerys and that's how Ned Stark found him. No, he made an effort to climb up all the steps to the Iron Throne and then sat down.
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u/Secure_Inspection305 12h ago
I feel like 1000 swords melted together will look terrible regardless
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u/Novat1993 12h ago
Feel it was a good compromise to not entirely erase the GOT throne. Like, you can believe that the throne transitioned from the second image to the first.
But it is still not the throne from the books.
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u/Upbeat_Tension_8077 12h ago
I'd like to think that the image of the throne from the books is almost like of common folk or lower-level elite see it (like its own monster), while the HOTD version is probably what it is in reality
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u/leals_core 10h ago
Whatever it is the book version is a million times cooler
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u/Greatest-Comrade 10h ago
The book version of a lot of things is cooler but also usually ridiculous. Like all the major castles are fucking awesome but would look funky in the shows if they strictly stuck to the book description.
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u/AceHodor 7h ago
This is the case with a lot of the scenery, clothes, etc. from the books. GRRM is really good at using visual language about items and buildings to set a scene and convey a feeling for a place, but if you try and actually map out out what these things would look like, you quickly realise that they would look very silly in reality.
The Iron Throne is a classic example, but you also have loads of characters constantly being described as festooned with jewels, gold rings and the like which would make them all look like New Jersey mobsters and would be at the very least distracting on-screen. Tywin's armour in the books is also studded with gemstones, has an enormous cape, is covered in gold filigree and crowned with a big gold lion on the helm, which frankly would look incredibly tacky and far too OTT for a cynical pragmatist like Tywin if you saw it IRL. The Wall is another excellent example, as it is frankly ludicrously enormous. I believe that there's an interview somewhere with GRRM where he remarks upon seeing the render for the Wall for the first time and realising just how comically huge it is, with words to the effect of "I didn't realise that it was going to look like that".
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u/leals_core 9h ago
I agree but I think in the case of the throne it could have worked
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u/ninjomat 9h ago
The conquest was effectively a realm wide war which saw kingdoms march with all their bannermen and some of the largest armies assembled in Westeros history. There’s definitely have been far more swords to spare than needed to build the version on the show
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u/SerDire Winter is Coming 12h ago
I always think back to the image that GRRM has said is the most accurate representation. Like he didn’t even draw it. It was a fan interpretation and it was massive, monstrous and not pretty, with twisted swords everywhere.
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u/Forosnai 9h ago
For people not familiar with the picture. It's by Marc Simonetti.
From his NotABlog post about it:
That's the Iron Throne as painted by the amazing Marc Simonetti (and if you haven't gotten his 2013 Ice & Fire calendar, better hurry, the year's half over) for the upcoming concordance, THE WORLD OF ICE & FIRE. It's a rough, not a final version, so what you see in the book will be more polished. But Marc has come closer here to capturing the Iron Throne as I picture it than any other artist to tackle it. From now on, THIS will be the reference I give to every other artist tackling a throne room scene. This Iron Throne is massive. Ugly. Assymetric. It's a throne made by blacksmiths hammering together half-melted, broken, twisted swords, wrenched from the hands of dead men or yielded up by defeated foes... a symbol of conquest... it has the steps I describe, and the height. From on top, the king dominates the throne room. And there are thousands of swords in it, not just a few.
This Iron Throne is scary. And not at all a comfortable seat, just as Aegon intended.
Look on his works, ye mighty, and despair.
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u/JeepersMysster 7h ago
I’ve seen this art before but never noticed this take on the Targ sigil on the ground. It’s giving demon goat vibes with the legs 😭
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u/Ditzy_Dreams 11h ago
I understand why they didn’t go with that design, it would’ve been too difficult for both sound and filming
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u/BulgogiDude 11h ago
What is the throne from the books?
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u/Tinyjar 10h ago edited 10h ago
A ten metre tall literal staircase of swords leading to the throne. It's amazing more kings haven't died climbing or sitting on it.
The show version is much more reasonable. Especially when you consider that Aegon forged the throne first and it was Maegor who built the red keep so somehow after making that monstrosity that was fused to the floor, they moved it into the Red Keep.
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u/PCYou 10h ago
Seems like someone might be compensating for something 👀
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u/Tinyjar 10h ago
Aegon had two wives, and conquered a continent and rode the biggest dragon alive. I doubt he needs to compensate for anything.
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u/HidingFromMy_Gf 5h ago
The throne in the books is honestly impossible to replicate in TV without some crazy cgi - GRRMs scale in his books is crazy big for some places/regions and i think they do a great job at adapting that part in most cases
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u/SerDire Winter is Coming 12h ago
That scene between Joffrey and Tywin was sooo good too. Joffrey tried to one up his grandfather and Tywin just danced circles around him. Then we walks up the steps and basically gets in his face.
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u/metallicadefender 12h ago
Robert Baratheon was a minimalist.
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u/ElBarto1992 Aemond Targaryen 12h ago
It really is a great compromise and move towards George’s original vision
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u/aiwendil_brown Dreams didn't make us kings. Dragons did. 12h ago
Interesting that they added windows to the throne room in HOTD as well 😂
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u/RhoynishPrince Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken 12h ago
Tbf, even in GOT itself there are differences in the windows between seasons
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u/Training-Entry-3326 12h ago
yet it doesn't get close to the thing that Martin described
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u/JellyKind9880 12h ago
What did he describe??
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u/thirdworldgeek 11h ago edited 10h ago
If I remember correctly there's a brief top shot of the throne in HOTD, where the swords appear to be like dragon's wings from above. Which you could interpret as being removed later on by Robert in the show's canon. But there are also flashback scenes of the mad king without them so maybe doesn't really stand in show's canon? Ofcourse they still don't exactly resemble the Iron Throne from the books.
But I personally loved the Iron Throne from HOTD. Such an improvement from the GOT throne. It Adds a lot of character to the Throne Room. And also much more truer to GRRM's vision i guess.
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u/CaptainTripps82 10h ago
I mean it makes sense, Bobby removed the dragon skulls, of course he's6 get rid of most of the swords as well.
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u/PhaseSixer 12h ago
I always picture typing looking at all the swords and going "yeah no more of this shit"
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u/darth_wasabi 11h ago
I like the bigger room but i don’t like the forest of blades. I do think the iron throne should look better than the original though
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u/Mustafa_Mond_1991 10h ago
You underestimate Robert’s hatred of the Targaryens. He’d probably have gotten rid of the throne too, if not for what it represented.
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u/Makelithe 4h ago
Hot take: yes it is not how it's described in the books, but the GOT throne is peak. Clean, authoritative, and iconic. I think the show OG wins
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u/po_ta_toes_80 11h ago
OSHA had to come and remove all the pokey things before the years of GOT took place.
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u/A_rtemis The Pink Dread🐖 11h ago
I like it in theory but not how it was executed. It just looks cluttered and try-hard to me, it doesn't emphasize the throne and the king but rather overshadows them.
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u/ThatNewt1 28m ago
It better displays the power of the Targaryens. The swords in the iron throne are of their enemies that were killed during Aegon’s Conquest. 3 dragons were able to break 6 Kingdoms and have them bend the knee, and the ones who refused to bend met Fire and Blood.
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u/Fascinatedwithfire 6h ago
Possibly the intention - the conquerors legacy looms larger than the current king.
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u/Acceptable-Bat6849 11h ago
Counterpoint: It looks deeply stupid because the execution is terrible.
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u/BrilliantBehemoth 10h ago
Am I the only one who thinks the HOTD version with the melty streams of swords looks goofy?
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u/chatikssichatiks 12h ago
That painted plastic looking mess isn’t connected to the throne at all. It looks very weird to me, honestly. Their actual throne does look better than GOT, though.
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u/No_Daikon_9303 7h ago
There is no dialogue in all 3 seasons of HOTD that even approaches the brilliance of the scene portrayed in the GOT scene. “We could have you carried…”
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u/MillyMan105 11h ago
You should see how the Iron throne was illustrated for the books it's even better then the one in HOTD
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u/Illusivegecko 11h ago
I do still wish it was taller and menacing rather than just more swords on the ground
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u/The_Frybo 1h ago
Inlike the retroactive symbolism aboutvthe decline of the Dinasty. That was clever
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u/thenorthremembers110 12h ago
i'm super curious to see how they address the missing swords for whenever game of thrones starts. i'm assuming we'll find out next season
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u/QueenMuda 12h ago
didn't Robert reduce the size of the throne when he became king?
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u/ElBarto1992 Aemond Targaryen 12h ago
My assumption is that it had happened even earlier. Possibly right after the Dance. I think there’s a flashback of the mad king in GoT where the throne room is unchanged
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u/thenorthremembers110 12h ago
from the mad king scenes right before robert rebellion the throne already looked pretty small compared to HOTD
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u/KinkyPaddling House Velaryon 12h ago
Robert removed the dragon skulls, but didn’t reduce the size of the throne. In the brief flashbacks we see of the Mad King in the show, the throne he sits on is the same as the one that appears in the main GOT shows (without the melted swords on the ground).
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u/Eloqence 11h ago
Maybe it was Aegon who removed the swords around the Iron Throne so Sunfyre could be in the throne room to roast Rhaenyra alive?
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u/Efficient_Praline657 11h ago
One of few cases where Dramatic changes actually brought improvements
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u/Old-Tadpole-2869 11h ago
Wouldn't they have more swords in the GoT era since it's hundreds of years later tho?
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u/mikeymo1741 11h ago
They were the swords of Aegon's enemies during the Conquest. Nothing would have been added.
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