I have to admit something: I haven’t watched a single episode of Game of Thrones. Of course, it’s not some sort of anti-popularity thing where I naively shun anything “hip” or “cool” with the masses, it’s because I don’t have HBO and couldn’t afford the blu-ray box set at the time Season 1 came out. That’s neither here nor there; what is is how massively popular Game of Thrones has become.

Because of this, the Iron Throne has come to be an iconic representation of the show. In fact, whenever Game of Thrones is mentioned, the image of the throne automatically enters my head. For those who may not have seen it, the show’s Iron Throne looks like this:

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Pretty intimidating, isn’t it? Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin loves it, but with a caveat. He explains:

“The HBO throne has become iconic. And well it might. It’s a terrific design, and it has served the show very well…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 forthcoming sixth Game of Thrones novel) 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 asymmetric…

The HBO throne is none of those things.”

What then, would his version of the Iron Throne look like? French artist Marc Simonetti painted Martin’s true vision of the throne, which you can see in full below. While the overall theme of a throne made out of swords is kept in tact (and rightfully so), the Simonetti throne is a lot more rough, intimidating, ugly, and raw when compared to the HBO Iron Throne. Again, this makes sense, considering production and marketing costs – would you rather have the HBO Iron Throne replica on your book shelf, perfectly shaped and proper, or the Simonetti replica, asymmetrical and ugly?

[via IGN]

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