This is one of the few moments they skipped that I wanted to see
What story beats did you most mourn having to skip given the accelerated timescape of the season?
There are little moments that would have been great to be able to dramatize, but I feel none of the beats that were left out would change anything dramatically about what you’re seeing happen as a result on screen.
There are great moments of Daemon dueling the Sea Lord of Braavos’ son for Laena’s hand and winning her over, and seeing Laena claim Vhagar — wouldn’t that be great? But we were also going to see Aemond claim Vhagar, and it felt like that because of the overall narrative, it was more important to see him do it. There are moments like that: Wouldn’t that be great? Yes, it would. But what does that actually change? Does it change that much in your understanding of the story or where it goes? I think we had to make some some harder decisions. But we worked really long and hard on structuring that first season and I’m really happy with where we landed with it.