A WHOLE BUNCH OF SCENES WERE ADDED
It wasn’t all cuts. Robinson mentions several scenes that were on the show but not in Martin’s original drafting, including this awkward moment between Cersei and Brienne, this uncomfortable moment between Jaime and Loras Tyrell, and this incredible four-way shade fest featuring Cersei, Tywin, Oberyn Martell and Ellaria Sand:
Why were they added?
These scenes are all good — I particularly love the last one — and they all have something in common: they’re character-building conversations that don’t cost a lot of money. In short, they’re TV-friendly. The stuff cut from Martin’s draft mostly includes mythology-building moments, plot set-up and stuff that just couldn’t be done on a TV budget. The new scenes read more like traditional television conversations, which isn’t a bad thing when they’re this sharply written and performed. It’s possible Martin added these scenes in later drafts of his scripts, but they feel like Benioff and Weiss additions to me.