When you think of Game of Thrones, you definitely think of the Iron Throne in all of its beauty sitting inside the Red Keep. However, the author of the critically acclaimed series says that no one ever gets the iconic throne correct.

The throne is forged from 1,000 swords and the person who sits there is the Ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. Many fans have recreated their own versions of the throne and HBO was even selling a version of the chair for $32,000!

At the event for Martin’s new book The World of Ice and Fire, he explained:

Nobody ever got it right. There were comic book versions, and there were versions in the card game and the board game, and there were versions on the cover [of books], and there were versions that were done for conventions. The very first…there was a wooden one that I sat on in 1996…but none of them were ever really right.

Martin did continue by saying that a French artist named Marc Simonetti did come close to a depiction of the throne and Martin enjoyed it so much that he and Simonetti collaborated for The World of Ice and Fire.

This is how the real Iron Throne should look. This image appears in “The World of Ice and Fire” and was painted by Marc Simonetti.

With this being how the throne should look, Martin described why:

I said repeatedly the Iron Throne is huge. It towers over the room like a great beast. And it’s ugly. It’s asymmetric. It’s put together by blacksmiths not by craftsmen and experts in furniture manufacturing. You have to walk the iron steps, and when a king sits on it he’s like 10 feet above everybody else…He’s in this raised position looking down on everyone.

However, with this being said, Martin does know that HBO cannot replicate the actual Iron Throne he had in mind because of its massive scale. He even says he loves the version HBO has because of how well it has served the show but its still not the throne he sees when writing his novels. He also knows that the throne he has in mind won’t fit into the sound stage the show uses for the Red Keep.

I think that the Iron Throne that Martin envisions is amazing…terrifying, but amazing. However, I’m also glad that he knows that it’s not possible and that he does not have have a huge deal with the throne used on the show. The actual Iron Throne is too massive! It also looks rather painful to sit on. But, can you just imagine Joffrey sitting on the throne Martin originally envisioned? Oh my, that would have been quite the sight!

You can check out the full article HERE and see what else Martin had to say about the Iron Throne.