CREDIT: STEPHANIE LAI
Fans of the HBO smash hit tuned in April 6 to catch the first episode of season four. The show has garnered much attention since its premier in 2010.

[SPOILER ALERT] HBO's Game of Thrones made a recordsetting return to our screen last week, kicking off another 10 weeks of dragons, swordplay, and boobs (mind you it took 12 minutes for them to make an appearance in the premiere, standards are clearly slipping).

As clocks struck 9 p.m. last weekend, viewers were treated to one of the most powerful opening scenes of the entire series, as Tywin Lannister melted down Ice, the ancestral sword of Ned Stark (Sean Bean, remember him?), so he could re-forge the rare metal into two swords for his crippled son and his petulant incest-bastard nephew.

As the camera panned over the shots of ancient metal work with the sombre “Rains of Castemere” playing in the background, I realized that this could go forward being one of the best advantages of the television medium, the ability to show things far beyond the scope of what is in front of a character.

For those unfamiliar with the books, each chapter is told from the point of view of one of a select few characters, so much of what has been portrayed onscreen over the last three seasons is merely hinted at, leaving the reader to connect the dots as to what really happened.

The destruction of Ice is one of these moments, with George R.R. Martin providing readers only with the shocked reaction of Ned's daughter at the destruction of the last piece of her house (as far as she knows). I remember as a book reader being angry at Tywin for melting it down, but seeing it portrayed onscreen felt like I was watching another beloved character die.

There are a few moments such as these that have been enhanced by their portrayal on screen, and there are some further that have been created especially for the show to great effect, allowing the show runners to give their audience a greater insight into the characters than the author was originally able.

One particular scene back in season one comes to mind as a perfect example of this, it wasn't loud or action packed, but a quiet conversation between King Robert and his wife Cersei, discussing the process of their loveless marriage, even sharing a laugh at the thought that it may have actually worked out. Neither of these characters have POV chapters in the first book, blocking readers away from interesting character facts that this scene revealed, I can't imagine being the only reader shocked to hear that Cersei actually had loved her husband at one point.

As Game of Thrones continues to dominate ratings in every market on earth, the exponential growth of not only the show's scale, but also its budget is set to continue, opening the doors for even more moments that serve to set the show apart from the books. With thousands of pages of material left for the show to cover, there are a multitude of situations, characters and stories that the show still needs to tell, and all of it is ripe to be expanded upon, fleshing out the already rich world of Westeros even further.