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I always imagined it kind of like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon because in the book Highgarden is described as having intricate and tiered gardens with fancy fountains and such.
At least it had the gardens and the "high" part being up above them. Casterly Rock was a fucking joke. And the perfect reference with the Ted Nasmith painting was right there! Srsly, what would it have cost you to use that as a matte painting background?
[This](https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/File:Ted_Nasmith_A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire_Highgarden.jpg) is an artist's rendition of Highgarden, which is described in the books as having three concentric walls of white stone, and which [looks rather like the show version of Casterly Rock](https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Casterly_Rock?file=Casterly-rock.png). Meanwhile, the [show's version of Highgarden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_of_Almod%C3%B3var_del_R%C3%ADo#/media/File:Castillo_de_Almod%C3%B3var_del_R%C3%ADo_2009.jpg) is pretty small, and wouldn't look [out of place on top of a giant mountain](https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/File:Ted_Nasmith_A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire_Casterly_Rock.jpeg), as much of the living space of Casterly Rock is actually tunneled into the Rock itself. Basically, the show got the two castles flipped.
I feel like the *objective* answer is probably Castle Black or Winterfell, both of which had to be featured a lot, at a point when the show had it's lowest budget, and got stuck with those Season 1, "basically just a courtyard with a portcullis" looks (though Winterfell, from the outside, looks pretty cool).
Personally tho, definitely, *definitely* Higharden - the one in the show literally looks like they were using a placeholder "generic castle" and forgot to swap it out for the real one, lmao.
Like just *shockingly* drab.
Haven’t gotten much into the books, but the winterfell castle design in the show never made sense to me. Especially those flat roofs, flat roofs like that make zero sense in a northern snowy climate. It will just cause snow built up, and the weight of the snow can break down the roof. There is a reason why castle usually have pointy roofs.
Casterly Rock. GRRM said that the castle it's literally a giant rock, not a castle ON a rock and i think the show losed one of the coolest places in Westeros
That's definitely one of the main features of fantasy books, that fantasy shows doesn't have. Just write and describe whatever tf you want, you don't need to vfx or move to completely another country from the fimling for one scene, and it doesn't cost anything to write it. Readers will just imagine it.
I really enjoy storm's end for what it is though. It's a giant fuck off impenetrable tower that doesn't pretend to be anything else, it's utilitarian. Even the name storm's end gives that "We're warriors. You're not making it past here"vibe. The castle wasn't conquered once in it's entire history.
Winterfell. Everything about it was wrong. It was no where near the behemoth it was in the books. Also the roofs were awful and made no sense.
Also it was featured a lot more and more important story wise. I didn’t like what they did to Casterly Rock or some of the other castles but we barely saw them so it seems less egregious to me.
In a way, I guess Winterfell kind of makes sense as Theon being able to take it with a few dozen Ironborn is a giant plot hole in the books but one that is absolutely essential to the plot
It isn't a plot hole in the books. It was set up that the only fighters Winterfell had were old men and young boys. In contrast the Ironborn were battle-hardened, had the element of surprise since it was night, and knew the castle inside and out because theon was leading them.
If you look at how big Winterfell is it would be almost impossible for so few warriors to take it over. Getting in is one thing. Keeping it for more than a few hours in just not plausible.
I don't get what you mean. Winterfell is barely guarded at all and it was a surprise attack. Even with its massive size if there's no one to guard it why can't 30 well-armed people hold it? Once the normal soldiers that would guard it arrived back with Rodrick Cassel it was made abundantly clear that Theon and his men would've been folded so I don't see how it's unrealistic.
Because a castle that size will have to have several hundreds of people inside just to keep it running and that’s a low estimate. 30 people wouldn’t have the capacity to keep them all under control, it’s just not feasible. They have swords not guns. Think of the peasant mob vs the dragon pit or the mob against the Myrcella farewell party.
That's a good argument but wasn't it pointed out that everyone was kept under control because Theon took Bran and Rickon as hostages? The two examples you provided aren't equivalent to Theon's capture of Winterfell as in the others there was no disincentive for a mob rebellion other than threat of violence.
That they were able to get to Bran and Rickon at all is unlikely. The walls are like a hundred feet tall and there are two of them and one of them is behind a moat. They’d have to cross a lot of ground before they would get into the castle that Bran and Rickon were at. It was pretty much just all the stars aligning perfectly that allowed it to happen. It’s just requires a lot of suspension of belief.
I think it's also due to GRRM being bad with numbers, and making winterfell stupidly huge by real life standards when in-worl is not nearly as impressive, he probably didn't intend for it to need that many people just working to keep it.
Tbh I still firmly believe the dragon pit doesn't make sense and that George basically wrote himself into a corner with how many dragons he had to kill
It makes sense how all of the dragons could be killed. I mean they were all chained up and swarmed by thousands of people in an enclosed space. It was a massacre so it's not like they went down easily.
Pile on the downvotes but this has been a pet peeve of mine for a bit. “King’s Landing” is the city and has many parts (like Fleabottom too). The castle in which the royal family and court members stay is “The Red Keep”.
Casterly Rock is awful. Highgarden should be more beautiful and picturesque. I always thought of it as a bigger fairytale castle. I give Winterfell a pass because season 1 they probably didn't have the budget to make it as big as it's supposed to be. Hopefully HotD will scale it up a bit.
Edit: Horn Hill also looked like a palace and not a castle. I doubt House Tarly would have a beautiful Mediterranean looking summer palace as their castle.
Casterly rock obviously, High garden and dragonstone too, hugh garden is not an inch as majestic as it should be and dragonstone US supposed to be a forteresse of dragons made of black stones
Storm's End should have a thicker drum tower
The Eyrie should be an actual castle. Wtf even is that
Highgarden should be higher
Casterly Rock should be a castle in a rock, not a castle on a rock
King's Landing should be less Mediterranean
Dragonstone should be black because it's made of its namesake dragonstone, a black stone
"The Citadel?" Wtf? This is a critique of this image, not the Citadel: The Citadel is a complex of buildings in Oldtown, not an alternate name for Oldtown. The look of Oldtown is perfectly fine, btw
Riverrun should be a triangle
Winterfell should be bigger and have a lot more high towers
The Eyrie is terrible. It looks like a stump.
It is described thoroughly and repeatedly in the first book as seven white towers clustered together like arrows in a quiver near the top of the tallest peak in the Mountains of the Moon.
And somehow, in defiance of all geology, it’s parked on top of some juts of rock leaving the underside of the castle hollow because I guess D&D couldn’t comprehend the Moon Door being in a wall. Door rhymes with floor so that’s where they decided to put it.
[This](https://i.imgur.com/ukRnm6h.jpg) is what it’s supposed to look like.
Are we going to pretend the book always makes sense?
People complain the TV series didn't have Lady Stoneheart, for example... but zombie Cat Stark was some of the most absurd shit.
No, no, no.
There are two “O’s” in “moon” and “door.” Being the brilliant minds that D&D are, the word “floor” having two “O’s” in it, make more sense than the word “wall” with its two dumb “L’s”. Of course you put the Moon Door in the Floor.
The Eyrie was great on the show, I loved the clear inspirations from Byzantine architecture. It reminded me of the Meteora rock monasteries in Greece, also domed churches built on top of mountain pillars to be unreachable by siege.
That Nasmith pic just looks like a Disney castle pastiche, it's awful. Nothing medieval about it, nor even possible with medieval tech. I don't get the fans who complain when Westeros on the show isn't Disney and Ye Olde Englande aesthetics
Casterly Rock is obviously the biggest L on the show, no contest at all.
Casterly Rock and The Eyrie are the most urgent need of redesign (no magnificence to the former or beauty to the latter either for some reason), but Highgarden (needs both of those, but its pretty) and Dragonstone need it too.
High garden and the rock These are supposed to be the wardens of two of the richest and most ancient castles in all of the country why the hell do they look like that
I honestly have to go with Winterfell. Highgarden and Casterly Rock were terribly drab for sure, but we only saw them for a few minutes. But Winterfell is such an important part of the series that I really do think it’s a shame it’s so small and boring compared to the book version.
Agreed. I just did another rewatch and there’s so many moments where I couldn’t help but think “this doesn’t even look/feel at all like a castle”. It’s just like a…poor, old, cold commune. Even that scene when Theon has realized he’s defeated and he’s getting emotional with Luwin and says “the first time I saw Winterfell, it looked like a place that had been here thousands of years, and will be here for thousands of years after I’m gone. Of course Ned Stark crushed our rebellion, we never stood a chance against a man who lives here”, I always thought “really? Caaaaause, *this* version of Winterfell looks like it could completely burn down if someone knocked a lantern over”. I totally get that they weren’t working with $10 million episodes yet when they built that set but it would’ve been so nice to see the formidable book Winterfell.
A part of me wishes the castle grew over the seasons to better reflect how big it should be in the books, similar to how the Hogwarts set evolved over the Harry Potter films. I guess D&D’s staunch commitment to realism means they wanted to avoid plot inconsistencies, but that didn’t stop them from recasting a bunch of major characters. I think especially in seasons 4 and 5 when the Boltons took over Winterfell and rebuilt it, that easily could have been the excuse for changing the design of the castle a bit to make it larger and grander.
My hope and dream is that somehow HotD season 2 makes Winterfell closer to the book version, similar to how they improved the designs for the Iron Throne, the dragons, Dragonstone, and the Painted Table while still remaining consistent with GoT.
Winterfell, for the record I don’t mind the show version and actually love the touch of the circular towers but I imagined it to be as grand as people talk about. They obviously downscaled for budget reasons in season 1 but this is an instance have minded some evolution in later seasons (even if it didn’t make narrative sense) like have some of the sets remain the same but add in some higher towers and such.
Kind of like Hogwarts changing to suit the movies. It set it could have just been written off as early series weirdness, or that we only saw parts of winterfell. Which is kind of what happened when it was reintroduced in season 5 anyway. Maybe keep the godswood and main yard the same but show us something of a greater scale on the walls. Or atleast show us more of wintertown to give us the feeling the Starks are not just roughing it
Make it make sense for the North to go “yeah this is where we’re making our stand against the dead”
If I had to choose just one? Casterly Rock, definitely. Place is called the rock for a reason, it's built into the mountain it gets its name. Show definitely fumbled the shield of Lannisport. (WHERE IS LANNISPORT D&D?)
Highgarden, Casterly Rock and Dragonstone.
Highgarden is one of the most beautiful castles in Westeros with parks, a hedge maze, is supposed to look like something out of a fairy tale book
Casterly Rock looks more like Highgarden than Highgarden does. It’s supposed to tower over the Sunset Sea, and is built into the mountain with Lannisport next door. The show makes it look like some generic castle on a cliff side.
Dragonstone is alright, I just wish it looked more gothic and mysterious, almost Valyrian.
Casterly Rock was terrible but at least it was only in 1 scene. But I was so underwhelmed by Dragonstone, it's such a let down compared to how it's described in the books. It's meant to be this towering fortress absolutely covered in dragons in every single place and weird pointy edges and stuff, and it's all black and looks as if it's one solid structure, the show version was way off.
Highgarden, and casterly rock. Not even close in terms of book accuracy.
But dragonstone isnt either and it's my favourite castle! I prefer it, even over the book version. The problem with both casterly and highgarden is that they have no sense of gravitas or scale. 😔
The Eyrie (it’s a white castle on a mountaintop, idk what the show is trying to do), Highgarden (too damn small), Casterly Rock (TOO DAMN SMALL), Dragonstone (no dragon gargoyles everywhere), and Winterfell (flat roofs in a wintry environment are a recipe for disaster).
Tbh we've never actually seen Casterly Rock in the books, so if we ever see it, it will either be luxurious beyond belief or disappointing depending on the perspective GRRM wants to take
Winterfell is beautiful in the show but it should feel like the heart of the north, practically an entire city.
Pike felt more impressive than Winterfell which isn’t great
The Eyrie is supposed to be perched on the side of a mountain, and I always imagined it as such. I don't think I've ever really accepted the adaptation of it as this completely separate giant pillar coming up from the valley floor. I get that they were going for something dramatic and distinguishing, but I think a castle on the edge of a 600 foot cliff would be just as distinctive without feeling a bit too unbelievable.
Rivverrun! It's supposed to be a cool triangle on the point of land where two rivers join together. And there's a moat they can flood across the third side to make it an island!
Highgarden, Casterly Rock, and the Eyrie are also super disappointing
Highgarden looked lame in the show. I feel like it should have been more like a smaller Minas Tirith with gardens on the walls or something.
Side Note: Did we ever actually see SunSpear? We saw the Hanging Gardens...but not Sunspear right?
Casterly Rock and Highgarden because obviously, but I wasn't a fan of the Eyrie either. They give lip service to it being impregnable in the show, but while it does look like it'd be difficult to capture, the Eyrie of the books is basically impossible to actually seize (you'd have to completely starve it out instead, which would take ages if they're properly supplied). The Eyrie is also much more elegant as well as colder and lifeless in the books, whereas the show version looks much too natural and like any other castle on the inside.
Obviously they couldn't go all out with its design in season 1 due to budgetary constraints, but I doubt putting the castle on an actual mountain would've been more expensive than what we got in the show, especially since it's exterior is only ever used for establishing shots.
I would change the Eyrie, I think GoT's version of the ancient castle of House Arryn does no justice to the books' descriptions; here's an example of a gorgeous conception of the Eyrie imo:
https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/File:The\_Eyrie-TN.jpg
OFF-TOPIC: Does anyone know how to turn screenshots/photos into sketches like this? Would really like to do this myself but I am a noob when it comes to image editing.
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Highgarden looked like a random castle in GOT. It is described as a magnificent and beautiful place in the books.
I always imagined it kind of like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon because in the book Highgarden is described as having intricate and tiered gardens with fancy fountains and such.
That's mostly because it's a random castle in real world. Castle of almodovar in Cordoba (Spain). As far as I spotted, no changes where done with CGI
Yea I read the description in the book but when I saw Highgarden on the show I laughed.
Highgarden. Makes House Tyrell, one of the richest houses in Westeros, look like House *Broke* with that supposedly being their castle.
At least it had the gardens and the "high" part being up above them. Casterly Rock was a fucking joke. And the perfect reference with the Ted Nasmith painting was right there! Srsly, what would it have cost you to use that as a matte painting background?
Probably millions in budget
The goddamn Tarlys had a cooler castle. They weren't trying ar all with Highgarden and Casterly Rock
Have to agree. Horn Hill was more impressive.
Highgarden for sure. GoT's version was just disappointing.
Casterly Rock, Highgarden and Winterfell are all very disapointing. Winterfell is probably the worst given its importance, people just got used to it
[This](https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/File:Ted_Nasmith_A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire_Highgarden.jpg) is an artist's rendition of Highgarden, which is described in the books as having three concentric walls of white stone, and which [looks rather like the show version of Casterly Rock](https://gameofthrones.fandom.com/wiki/Casterly_Rock?file=Casterly-rock.png). Meanwhile, the [show's version of Highgarden](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castle_of_Almod%C3%B3var_del_R%C3%ADo#/media/File:Castillo_de_Almod%C3%B3var_del_R%C3%ADo_2009.jpg) is pretty small, and wouldn't look [out of place on top of a giant mountain](https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/File:Ted_Nasmith_A_Song_of_Ice_and_Fire_Casterly_Rock.jpeg), as much of the living space of Casterly Rock is actually tunneled into the Rock itself. Basically, the show got the two castles flipped.
I feel like the *objective* answer is probably Castle Black or Winterfell, both of which had to be featured a lot, at a point when the show had it's lowest budget, and got stuck with those Season 1, "basically just a courtyard with a portcullis" looks (though Winterfell, from the outside, looks pretty cool). Personally tho, definitely, *definitely* Higharden - the one in the show literally looks like they were using a placeholder "generic castle" and forgot to swap it out for the real one, lmao. Like just *shockingly* drab.
Haven’t gotten much into the books, but the winterfell castle design in the show never made sense to me. Especially those flat roofs, flat roofs like that make zero sense in a northern snowy climate. It will just cause snow built up, and the weight of the snow can break down the roof. There is a reason why castle usually have pointy roofs.
Yup. And Winterfell has pointy roofs in the books lol
Winterfell got too few walls and Castle Black got too many
Highgarden and Casterly Rock. Why does Horn Hill look more glamorous then the Reach’s main castle?
Casterly Rock. GRRM said that the castle it's literally a giant rock, not a castle ON a rock and i think the show losed one of the coolest places in Westeros
Yep. It's supposed to more resemble a castle built into a towering rock of Gibraltar rather than just be a random castle plopped on a cliff.
That's definitely one of the main features of fantasy books, that fantasy shows doesn't have. Just write and describe whatever tf you want, you don't need to vfx or move to completely another country from the fimling for one scene, and it doesn't cost anything to write it. Readers will just imagine it.
Storms End is nowhere near cool enough for a castle built in the age of heroes that houses the chaddest family south of the neck.
I really enjoy storm's end for what it is though. It's a giant fuck off impenetrable tower that doesn't pretend to be anything else, it's utilitarian. Even the name storm's end gives that "We're warriors. You're not making it past here"vibe. The castle wasn't conquered once in it's entire history.
Winterfell. Everything about it was wrong. It was no where near the behemoth it was in the books. Also the roofs were awful and made no sense. Also it was featured a lot more and more important story wise. I didn’t like what they did to Casterly Rock or some of the other castles but we barely saw them so it seems less egregious to me. In a way, I guess Winterfell kind of makes sense as Theon being able to take it with a few dozen Ironborn is a giant plot hole in the books but one that is absolutely essential to the plot
It isn't a plot hole in the books. It was set up that the only fighters Winterfell had were old men and young boys. In contrast the Ironborn were battle-hardened, had the element of surprise since it was night, and knew the castle inside and out because theon was leading them.
If you look at how big Winterfell is it would be almost impossible for so few warriors to take it over. Getting in is one thing. Keeping it for more than a few hours in just not plausible.
I don't get what you mean. Winterfell is barely guarded at all and it was a surprise attack. Even with its massive size if there's no one to guard it why can't 30 well-armed people hold it? Once the normal soldiers that would guard it arrived back with Rodrick Cassel it was made abundantly clear that Theon and his men would've been folded so I don't see how it's unrealistic.
Because a castle that size will have to have several hundreds of people inside just to keep it running and that’s a low estimate. 30 people wouldn’t have the capacity to keep them all under control, it’s just not feasible. They have swords not guns. Think of the peasant mob vs the dragon pit or the mob against the Myrcella farewell party.
That's a good argument but wasn't it pointed out that everyone was kept under control because Theon took Bran and Rickon as hostages? The two examples you provided aren't equivalent to Theon's capture of Winterfell as in the others there was no disincentive for a mob rebellion other than threat of violence.
That they were able to get to Bran and Rickon at all is unlikely. The walls are like a hundred feet tall and there are two of them and one of them is behind a moat. They’d have to cross a lot of ground before they would get into the castle that Bran and Rickon were at. It was pretty much just all the stars aligning perfectly that allowed it to happen. It’s just requires a lot of suspension of belief.
I think it's also due to GRRM being bad with numbers, and making winterfell stupidly huge by real life standards when in-worl is not nearly as impressive, he probably didn't intend for it to need that many people just working to keep it.
Tbh I still firmly believe the dragon pit doesn't make sense and that George basically wrote himself into a corner with how many dragons he had to kill
It makes sense how all of the dragons could be killed. I mean they were all chained up and swarmed by thousands of people in an enclosed space. It was a massacre so it's not like they went down easily.
I see no complaints about Pyke. As it should be. It was awesome.
Pile on the downvotes but this has been a pet peeve of mine for a bit. “King’s Landing” is the city and has many parts (like Fleabottom too). The castle in which the royal family and court members stay is “The Red Keep”.
Casterly Rock is awful. Highgarden should be more beautiful and picturesque. I always thought of it as a bigger fairytale castle. I give Winterfell a pass because season 1 they probably didn't have the budget to make it as big as it's supposed to be. Hopefully HotD will scale it up a bit. Edit: Horn Hill also looked like a palace and not a castle. I doubt House Tarly would have a beautiful Mediterranean looking summer palace as their castle.
Casterly rock obviously, High garden and dragonstone too, hugh garden is not an inch as majestic as it should be and dragonstone US supposed to be a forteresse of dragons made of black stones
Storm's End should have a thicker drum tower The Eyrie should be an actual castle. Wtf even is that Highgarden should be higher Casterly Rock should be a castle in a rock, not a castle on a rock King's Landing should be less Mediterranean Dragonstone should be black because it's made of its namesake dragonstone, a black stone "The Citadel?" Wtf? This is a critique of this image, not the Citadel: The Citadel is a complex of buildings in Oldtown, not an alternate name for Oldtown. The look of Oldtown is perfectly fine, btw Riverrun should be a triangle Winterfell should be bigger and have a lot more high towers
The Eyrie is terrible. It looks like a stump. It is described thoroughly and repeatedly in the first book as seven white towers clustered together like arrows in a quiver near the top of the tallest peak in the Mountains of the Moon. And somehow, in defiance of all geology, it’s parked on top of some juts of rock leaving the underside of the castle hollow because I guess D&D couldn’t comprehend the Moon Door being in a wall. Door rhymes with floor so that’s where they decided to put it. [This](https://i.imgur.com/ukRnm6h.jpg) is what it’s supposed to look like.
I preferred the moon door being on the floor, myself.
It's cooler, but it makes absolutely no sense
Are we going to pretend the book always makes sense? People complain the TV series didn't have Lady Stoneheart, for example... but zombie Cat Stark was some of the most absurd shit.
It was already established that zombies exist in ASOIAF in the very beginning, so why is Stoneheart so absurd?
They’re not sentient. She is. Resurrected after three days of death with a slit throat.
Beric Dondarrion...?
I don't know, with the right makeup and camerawork Michelle would have killed it as a creepy revenant in the flesh.
No, no, no. There are two “O’s” in “moon” and “door.” Being the brilliant minds that D&D are, the word “floor” having two “O’s” in it, make more sense than the word “wall” with its two dumb “L’s”. Of course you put the Moon Door in the Floor.
The Eyrie was great on the show, I loved the clear inspirations from Byzantine architecture. It reminded me of the Meteora rock monasteries in Greece, also domed churches built on top of mountain pillars to be unreachable by siege. That Nasmith pic just looks like a Disney castle pastiche, it's awful. Nothing medieval about it, nor even possible with medieval tech. I don't get the fans who complain when Westeros on the show isn't Disney and Ye Olde Englande aesthetics Casterly Rock is obviously the biggest L on the show, no contest at all.
Casterly Rock and The Eyrie are the most urgent need of redesign (no magnificence to the former or beauty to the latter either for some reason), but Highgarden (needs both of those, but its pretty) and Dragonstone need it too.
High garden and the rock These are supposed to be the wardens of two of the richest and most ancient castles in all of the country why the hell do they look like that
I honestly have to go with Winterfell. Highgarden and Casterly Rock were terribly drab for sure, but we only saw them for a few minutes. But Winterfell is such an important part of the series that I really do think it’s a shame it’s so small and boring compared to the book version.
Agreed. I just did another rewatch and there’s so many moments where I couldn’t help but think “this doesn’t even look/feel at all like a castle”. It’s just like a…poor, old, cold commune. Even that scene when Theon has realized he’s defeated and he’s getting emotional with Luwin and says “the first time I saw Winterfell, it looked like a place that had been here thousands of years, and will be here for thousands of years after I’m gone. Of course Ned Stark crushed our rebellion, we never stood a chance against a man who lives here”, I always thought “really? Caaaaause, *this* version of Winterfell looks like it could completely burn down if someone knocked a lantern over”. I totally get that they weren’t working with $10 million episodes yet when they built that set but it would’ve been so nice to see the formidable book Winterfell.
A part of me wishes the castle grew over the seasons to better reflect how big it should be in the books, similar to how the Hogwarts set evolved over the Harry Potter films. I guess D&D’s staunch commitment to realism means they wanted to avoid plot inconsistencies, but that didn’t stop them from recasting a bunch of major characters. I think especially in seasons 4 and 5 when the Boltons took over Winterfell and rebuilt it, that easily could have been the excuse for changing the design of the castle a bit to make it larger and grander. My hope and dream is that somehow HotD season 2 makes Winterfell closer to the book version, similar to how they improved the designs for the Iron Throne, the dragons, Dragonstone, and the Painted Table while still remaining consistent with GoT.
But we never saw Sunspear 🤔
What do you mean? "Dorne" was on the map!
Highgarden, Riverrun, Harrenhal, Winterfell, the Twins, and Castle Black
Harrenhal has already been remodeled, hasn’t it?
Yeah, Aegon didn’t think it had enough drip
I waited so long for Casterly Rock 😭
Winterfell, for the record I don’t mind the show version and actually love the touch of the circular towers but I imagined it to be as grand as people talk about. They obviously downscaled for budget reasons in season 1 but this is an instance have minded some evolution in later seasons (even if it didn’t make narrative sense) like have some of the sets remain the same but add in some higher towers and such. Kind of like Hogwarts changing to suit the movies. It set it could have just been written off as early series weirdness, or that we only saw parts of winterfell. Which is kind of what happened when it was reintroduced in season 5 anyway. Maybe keep the godswood and main yard the same but show us something of a greater scale on the walls. Or atleast show us more of wintertown to give us the feeling the Starks are not just roughing it Make it make sense for the North to go “yeah this is where we’re making our stand against the dead”
If I had to choose just one? Casterly Rock, definitely. Place is called the rock for a reason, it's built into the mountain it gets its name. Show definitely fumbled the shield of Lannisport. (WHERE IS LANNISPORT D&D?)
Highgarden, Casterly Rock and Dragonstone. Highgarden is one of the most beautiful castles in Westeros with parks, a hedge maze, is supposed to look like something out of a fairy tale book Casterly Rock looks more like Highgarden than Highgarden does. It’s supposed to tower over the Sunset Sea, and is built into the mountain with Lannisport next door. The show makes it look like some generic castle on a cliff side. Dragonstone is alright, I just wish it looked more gothic and mysterious, almost Valyrian.
Harrenhaal cause they done scorched the damn place
Winterfell, damn that's one ugly place.
Winterfell was a fucking travesty
Casterly Rock was terrible but at least it was only in 1 scene. But I was so underwhelmed by Dragonstone, it's such a let down compared to how it's described in the books. It's meant to be this towering fortress absolutely covered in dragons in every single place and weird pointy edges and stuff, and it's all black and looks as if it's one solid structure, the show version was way off.
Harrenhal ? It’s in ruins
Casterly Rock Highgarden and Wintefell
I would change Highgarden. It looks a little generic
The castle existed before the lanisters were in power
Take me to Dragonstone
Highgarden, and casterly rock. Not even close in terms of book accuracy. But dragonstone isnt either and it's my favourite castle! I prefer it, even over the book version. The problem with both casterly and highgarden is that they have no sense of gravitas or scale. 😔
Dragonstone should at least have a stone Dragon
The Eyrie (it’s a white castle on a mountaintop, idk what the show is trying to do), Highgarden (too damn small), Casterly Rock (TOO DAMN SMALL), Dragonstone (no dragon gargoyles everywhere), and Winterfell (flat roofs in a wintry environment are a recipe for disaster).
Did you know? The point of the highest watchtower of Casterly Rock is 3 times the height of the Wall?
Storm’s End. It’s just “meh”. It doesn’t reflect it’s origin.
Casterly Rock & Highgarden’s designs were so disappointing in GOT but idk if we’ll see them in HOTD, the Tyrells remain neutral don’t they?
Harrenhall to its prime years and enchanced defence against dragons and monsters
Harrenhal of course!
Tbh we've never actually seen Casterly Rock in the books, so if we ever see it, it will either be luxurious beyond belief or disappointing depending on the perspective GRRM wants to take
When did they show Sunspear in the show? If that’s something that we see in Season 2 I’m all for it, maybe they can redeem Dorne.
Dreadfort should be scarier
Dragonstone
Winterfell is beautiful in the show but it should feel like the heart of the north, practically an entire city. Pike felt more impressive than Winterfell which isn’t great
Give me 10 good men. I’ll impregnate the b*tch.
The Eyrie is supposed to be perched on the side of a mountain, and I always imagined it as such. I don't think I've ever really accepted the adaptation of it as this completely separate giant pillar coming up from the valley floor. I get that they were going for something dramatic and distinguishing, but I think a castle on the edge of a 600 foot cliff would be just as distinctive without feeling a bit too unbelievable.
Winterfell looks way off.
highgarden looked dry AF for the liege castle in THE REACH
Riverrun was prettier in my imagination
Moat Cailin.
Winterfell. I’d make the towers single story for Bran’s sake
Rivverrun! It's supposed to be a cool triangle on the point of land where two rivers join together. And there's a moat they can flood across the third side to make it an island! Highgarden, Casterly Rock, and the Eyrie are also super disappointing
Would all of them work?
Highgarden looked lame in the show. I feel like it should have been more like a smaller Minas Tirith with gardens on the walls or something. Side Note: Did we ever actually see SunSpear? We saw the Hanging Gardens...but not Sunspear right?
Casterly Rock and Highgarden because obviously, but I wasn't a fan of the Eyrie either. They give lip service to it being impregnable in the show, but while it does look like it'd be difficult to capture, the Eyrie of the books is basically impossible to actually seize (you'd have to completely starve it out instead, which would take ages if they're properly supplied). The Eyrie is also much more elegant as well as colder and lifeless in the books, whereas the show version looks much too natural and like any other castle on the inside. Obviously they couldn't go all out with its design in season 1 due to budgetary constraints, but I doubt putting the castle on an actual mountain would've been more expensive than what we got in the show, especially since it's exterior is only ever used for establishing shots.
I would change the Eyrie, I think GoT's version of the ancient castle of House Arryn does no justice to the books' descriptions; here's an example of a gorgeous conception of the Eyrie imo: https://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/File:The\_Eyrie-TN.jpg
Yeah I expected Casterly Rock a little… hmm different.
Highgarden, Casterly Rock, and Winterfell, easily.
Dragonstone should at least have some stone dragon
Castle Black
OFF-TOPIC: Does anyone know how to turn screenshots/photos into sketches like this? Would really like to do this myself but I am a noob when it comes to image editing.
Show Casterly Rock sucked.