Pivotal scenes were removed from the episode.
Game of Thrones fans in China were left frustrated yesterday after realising that six minutes of the season eight premiere had been cut from the broadcast.
The first episode of the final season of the show was streamed by tech corporation Tencent after HBO was blocked across China last year.
However, viewers soon noticed that the episode ran only for 48 minutes instead of 54, meaning that parts of the episode has been censored ahead of time.
Sky News reports that the scenes removed from the broadcast included nudity and violence – which is hardly surprising considering much of the show is built around such scenes.
It’s therefore likely that pivotal shots key to the episode’s narrative weren’t included, meaning that fans watching the season eight premiere in China were left feeling short changed.
“Game of Thrones is censored and s**** here,” said one person on Twitter.
Another person using Chinese social media site Weibo said that the censorship felt like “the deletion of a century.”
This isn’t the first time in recent months that broadcasters in China have been accused of censoring a TV show or film.
Earlier this year, references to homosexuality and AIDs were removed from screenings of Bohemian Rhapsody.
Most mentions of Freddie Mercury’s sexuality were edited out from the release, as was the entire scene where he comes out to his girlfriend.
