"Game of Thrones" is currently television's most awarded show, topping the list of having the most number of nominees in award giving bodies annually. But it has also been known to many that the series' showrunners, David Benioff and Dan Weiss, do not listen to critics about the direction that the show is taking. In fact, the two have famously ignored online comments and criticisms to focus their efforts to tell their story that best way possible.
But in a report from Entertainment Weekly, the release of a deleted sequence from "Game of Thrones" season 6 showed that the team behind HBO's production behemoth had the opportunity to reflect on online reactions of the show. The deleted scene showed Arya, the revenge seeking Stark sibling, watching the theater troupe in Braavos that is portraying some of the King's Landing palace intrigues that has been chronicled during the show's earlier seasons.
In the said scene, a conversation has broken out among two of the other viewers watching the play with Arya. "Violence and profanity," one of the theater-goer said. "How original."
Arya then shot back to them and said, "Why don't you just leave, then?" This was followed by the appearance of an actress on stage who has gone topless. The critical audience then left but without quipping additional slams like "utterly gratuitous" and "disgusting and unacceptable."
In an interview, "Game of Thrones" co-executive producer Bryan Cogman spoke with EW about the released sequence and said, "Being able to comment on the show and the reactions to the show through the players were so much fun. The show is often accused of being gratuitous in all kinds of way - the violence and the bigness of the characters. It's a huge operatic story. We're able to lovingly spoof ourselves but also play with ideas about how audiences view the show, good and bad, and how a perspective of a story changes."
