Game of Thrones viewers in China were left frustrated after six minutes was cut from the finished episode.
The HBO series returned for its eighth and final season on Sunday with an episode heavy on reunions and the instalment was streamed by tech corporation Tencent in China.
However, viewers – who pay to use Tencent due to the HBO website being blocked – noticed the episode clocked in at 48 minutes despite the official running time being 54 minutes, concluding that censors blocked more than just the one sex scene featured in the opener.
Furious with being forced to watch a “castrated” version of the episode, that was titled “Winterfell”, people expressed their anger on Twitter.
“It is a bit uncomfortable watching the censored version,” user Wang Bubb said. “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.”
The series’ returned featured a hilarious reference to last season’s controversial Ed Sheeran cameo as well as a terrifying death at the hands of the Night King.
The final season of Game of Thrones continues every Sunday. You can watch the brand new season eight opening title sequence here and catch the trailer for next week’s second instalment here.
We've compiled the 13 Eater eggs, callbacks and book references you might have missed from the season eight premiere – find them here.
You can find our extensive ranking of every character – from worst to best – below.
The show will be available on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in the UK.
