George R.R. Martin’s Least Favorite ‘Game of Thrones’ Scene Probably Isn’t What You’d Think

Helen Sloan, HBO

Though A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin has more than a few gripes with the HBO adaptation of his series, Game of Thrones, his least favorite scene out of the entire show isn't what fans might guess it is. No, it's not the infuriating scene where the Mad Queen rears her ugly head. Nor is it the scene in which Jamie ditches his entire character arc and leaves Brienne of Tarth for Cersei. (We're still emotional over here.) Actually, Martin's least favorite scene isn't in the last season of Thrones at all—it's actually all the way back in Season 1 before all hell breaks loose in Westeros.

In his new behind-the-scenes tell-all book, Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon, James Hibberd talks to Martin about his experience working with David Benioff and Dan Weiss, the duo behind the HBO empire. For the most part, the pair, under Martin's guidance, did an okay job with the material they were given.

However, the budget was tight at the beginning, and because of that, Martin ended up being wholly disappointed with King Robert Baratheon's hunting scene.

“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," Martin told Hibberd, referring to a scene Season 1, Episode 6, "A Golden Crown," per Den of Geek. "Four guys walking on foot through the woods carrying spears and Robert is giving Renly shit."

Martin explained that he never wrote a hunting scene for Robert in the books. Instead, word simply reached King's Landing that Robert had been gored and he later dies upon his return.

"But I knew what a royal hunting party was like," Martin clarified.

"There would have been a hundred guys," he said. "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.”

Although this isn't the juicy gossip most of us would want from Martin, this is pretty much the most ~George R.R. Martin~ response one could possibly expect. The budget couldn't allow for fantastic accuracy, and that really grinds his gears. We have to remember that this is the man who previously described the process of adapting his novels for television as "traumatic" due to the endless list of limitations, with one the largest ones being budget. So, this all checks out.