Jason Momoa as Khal Drogo (Credits: ©2016 Home Box Office, Inc. All)
Game of Thrones creator George RR Martin criticised showrunners of the TV adaptation for changing a pivotal scene between Emila Clarke’s Daenerys and Jason Mamoa’s Khal Drogo.
In James Hibbard’s Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon, Martin explained that he remains displeased with the changes made between Daenerys and Khal Drogo’s wedding night.
In the books, the two characters share a consensual consummation, despite Daenerys being forced to marry the Dothraki warrior.
Interestingly, the unaired Game of Thrones pilot, which featured actress Tamzin Merchant in the role of Daenerys, held true to the book’s telling.
However, after reshoots and Clarke being brought in to play the role, the scene changed. Instead, Khal Drogo raped Daenerys.
Martin said in Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon, via Winter Is Coming: ‘Why did the wedding scene change from the consensual seduction scene that excited even a horse to the brutal rape of Emilia Clarke?’
‘We never discussed it. It made it worse, not better.’
In response showrunner, D.B. Weiss said: ‘[We] just didn’t have that amount of time and access to the character’s mind.
‘It turns too quickly. It was something the actors themselves felt wasn’t gelling. They weren’t able to find an emotional handhold.’
In the books, however, Daenerys is 14, and much younger than her on-screen persona, so both incarnations feature problematic aspects.
However, despite his gripes over the scene, Martin is said to be largely pleased with the work that Weiss and co-showrunner David Beinhoff did on the show. That extends past the fifth season too, when the show surpassed the narrative in the books.
While the original series has now concluded, fans still have plenty to look forward to as the prequel series, House of the Dragon just found its Viserys Targaryen in Paddy Considine.
The show will follow the origins of the Targaryen Dynasty and be set 300 years before Game of Thrones.
House of the Dragon is set to arrive in 2022.
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