Chinese ‘Game Of Thrones’ fans angry as censorship “castrates” new episode

Six minutes was cut from the first Season 8 outing

Chinese Game of Thrones fans have expressed their anger at the season premiere being censored in their country.

The huge HBO series returned to screens for its eighth and final season on Sunday (April 14). Episode 1 was broadcast simultaneously across multiple networks, with many fans staying up until the early hours to watch.

In China, the premiere was also broadcast at the same time via streaming platform Tencent. However, six minutes were removed from the episode due to Chinese censorship rules – cutting it from a 54-minute runtime to 48.

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Many fans aired their frustration over the “castrated” version online, which removed fighting as well as sex scenes.

Kit Harington as Jon Snow in ‘Game of Thrones’

“It is a bit uncomfortable watching the censored version,” wrote one viewer. “If those scenes are not worth seeing, why would the writer write them? Why would the director shoot them? People who like Game of Thrones don’t like it for the porn and violence but for the whole thing. I don’t want to miss even one second.”

Another said that they “thought the censored version meant only cutting the bed scenes”, adding: “When I was watching I wasn’t even a little worried about my dad being there, even the fighting scenes are cut, with even those cut, why bother watching!”

A third fan hit out at the streaming giant host, posting: “Tencent is making us pay to see a castrated version of Game of Thrones.

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Although some viewers have found methods to get around China’s blocking of HBO, many have no choice but to watch the edited versions on Tencent.

Meanwhile, the staggering numbers of what went into making GoT 8 have been shared – ranging from the amount of fake blood to the number of wigs used.

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