We all know that HBO made changes to George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire when adapting it for the small screen. Sorry, George, there’s probably not enough time for the story of the new Aegon Targaryen in Essos. Lady Stoneheart was dropped. Lots of characters from Dorne and the Iron Islands were jettisoned, and so on.
But it wasn’t just the story that got whittled down. In Martin’s books, the castles of Westeros — Winterfell, Harrenhal, Storm’s End and the rest — are massive structures beyond anything in our real-world history, nearly as fantastical as the dragons. As spectacular as the locations on Game of Thrones were, they were definitely a step down from what’s on the page, because there’s only so much you can do before things start to look impossible/be prohibitively expensive.
That’s where YouTuber Shadiversity comes in. A medieval enthusiast (guy designs his own castles), Shadiversity has all sorts of interesting videos, including several about Game of Thrones. His latest, wherein he models the castle of Winterfell as it’s described in the Song of Ice and Fire novels, is pretty spectacular. Check it out below!
It took Shadiversity 100 hours of work to make this castle, and every minute paid off. I love how he points out obvious things I never thought of, like how the roofs of Winterfell would have to be sloped so snow would run off them. If anyone ever remakes Game of Thrones, I hope they use this as a guide for Winterfell.
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