Game of Thrones: The real Iron Throne, as George RR Martin imagined it, is not a nice place to sit

'Ofttimes I wonder why my brothers wanted it so desperately,' Stannis Baratheon once said

The Iron Throne in HBO's Game of Thrones

The Iron Throne as we know it in Game of Thrones is a fantastic, iconic piece of set design, not least because, while George R. R. Martin might have conjured it up in his head, the author stresses that HBO "actually MADE theirs".

Impressive though it is, "it's still not right," Martin confessed in 2013.

This piece of fan art is the closest Martin has found to what he sees in his head:

A painting of The Iron Throne by Marc Simonetti

GoT directors and crew will tell you that the show's Throne couldn't be so vast due to staging and shooting considerations (conversations between characters where one is so high up etc), marketers will point out how useful it is that the scaled down Throne can be toured at screenings, conventions etc, and sceptics might posit that HBO simply weren't willing to spend a vast amount of money building an enormous chair out of swords ahead of season 1 when it wasn't even clear if the show would be a success yet.

Whatever the case, "It's not the Iron Throne I want my readers to see," Martin said, describing the 'real' one as "huge, hulking, black, twisted...ugly and asymmetric."

But the Throne of the books wasn't just imposing in its monstrosity, it served as a metaphor for power.

Consider this quote from Stannis Baratheon in A Storm of Swords:

"Have you ever seen the Iron Throne? The barbs along the back, the ribbons of twisted steel, the jagged ends of swords and knives all tangled up and melted? It is not a comfortable seat, ser. Aerys cut himself so often men took to calling him King Scab, and Maegor the Cruel was murdered in that chair. By that chair, to hear some tell it. It is not a seat where a man can rest at ease. Ofttimes I wonder why my brothers wanted it so desperately."

The Throne cut Princess Rhaenyra when she first sat on it, rejecting her, and one can only think how insignificant it would have made King Tommen look in the show.

Made from a thousand swords by the Targaryens and forged by the fiery breath of fearsome dragon Balerion the Dread, it made this 'game of thrones' almost like the pursuit of a poisoned chalice.

"This Iron Throne is scary," Martin concluded. "And not at all a comfortable seat, just as Aegon intended."