House of the Dragon Finally Makes Up for George R.R. Martin's "Least Favorite" Game of Thrones Scene

George R.R. Martin, who authors A Song of Ice and Fire and created the world of Game of Thrones, really disliked one major scene in the first season of HBO's hit series. Now, more than a decade later, the franchise is making up for that scene with its record-breaking new prequel series, House of the Dragon. The third episode of House of the Dragon aired on HBO this past Sunday, and it finally delivered on Martin's dreams of a king's hunt in Westeros.

Martin sat down with author and Game of Thrones reporter James Hibberd to talk about the making of the series for the 2020 book Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon. In the book, Martin opens up about his least favorite scene in the series, which takes place in the first season and follows Robert Baratheon on a hunt. According to Martin, Game of Thrones didn't have the budget in its first season to shoot a real hunt, so the series simply showed King Robert heading out into the woods with a spear and a couple of other men. The action of a wild boar attacking Robert happened off-screen, only to be discussed when he returned.

"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 Hibbert (h/t Insider). "In the books, Robert goes off hunting, we get word he was gored by a boar, and they bring him back and he died. So I never did [a hunting scene]."

House of the Dragon has a much, much bigger budget in its first season, and it made up for the lack of a hunt in Game of Thrones with an extravagant hunt of its own. King Viserys is surrounded by hundreds of people out in the woods in an expensive camp. He doesn't even have to hunt the stag he's after, as a bunch of his men tie it up and hold it still while he makes the move to kill it. This is the kind of hunting experience Martin always had in mind.

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

New episodes of House of the Dragon air on HBO and HBO Max on Sunday nights.