House of the Dragon Fixed George Martin's Least Favorite GoT Scene
You're probably never going to guess what scene in the entire eight seasons of Game of Thrones was George Martin's least favorite.
Certainly, there were lots of scenes, which deviated from Martin's books in ways which could have angered him. However, as it happens, the scene he liked the least, was never in the books at all!
It is the scene of King Robert on a hunt. It does not exist in the books – Robert goes hunting, with no point-of-view character to accompany him and returns fatally wounded by a boar. But it does exist in the TV series, and it is one of those scenes that just scream about budget constraints: "Four guys walking on foot through the woods carrying spears and Robert is giving Renly shit."
Not exactly as spectacular as it should have been, according to Martin himself:
"But I knew what a royal hunting party was like. 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! He wouldn't have just been walking through the woods with three of his friends holding spears hoping to meet a boar." (via EW)
That said, quite a few people found that scene in Game of Thrones funny, if only because how mismatched characters in it were. But it certainly fell short of what logically should have been happening on screen.
House of the Dragon, however, did right what the first season of Game of Thrones could not. Much of its third episode happens during a royal hunt, and that hunt is exactly as lavish, as it should be, with pavilions, huntsmen, dogs, food and wine, great nobles attending, political intrigue, and everything you might expect. The two hunts do have something in common, though – someone of royal blood gets attacked by a wild boar during them, though the outcomes are quite different.
By the way, another scene from the first season of Game of Thrones which Martin felt was too badly hurt by lack of budget was the jousting tourney scene, which looked like a Renaissance fair – and not a particularly high-profile one. And what do you think, House of the Dragon also presented its own, and superior-looking tourney version, even if the difference was not quite as striking as with the royal hunt.