While HBO viewers were abuzz about Game of Thrones Season 4 Episode 2 due to the concluding scene of Joffrey being poisoned to death, a very different kind of scene grabbed their attention on Game of Thrones Season 4 Episode 3:

Jaime raped Cersei.

Yes, she eventually seemed to get into the dastardly act with her brother.

But there can be no denying that Jaime forced himself on Cersei alongside the corpse of their dead son, an event that was depicted as consensual in George R.R. Martin's novel.

On the comments section of his blog, Martin has now replied to the controversial change made by showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss.

"I think the 'butterfly effect' that I have spoken of so often was at work here,” Martin writes. “In the novels, Jaime is not present at Joffrey's death, and indeed, Cersei has been fearful that he is dead himself, that she has lost both the son and the father/ lover/ brother.

"And then suddenly Jaime is there before her. Maimed and changed, but Jaime nonetheless. Though the time and place is wildly inappropriate and Cersei is fearful of discovery, she is as hungry for him as he is for her."

So that's how the books set it up. But Jaime has been back for weeks on the TV series when Joffrey finally gets his.

"The setting is the same, but neither character is in the same place as in the books, which may be why Dan & David played the sept out differently," Martin added. "But that's just my surmise; we never discussed this scene, to the best of my recollection."

The beloved author concluded:

"Also, I was writing the scene from Jaime's POV, so the reader is inside his head, hearing his thoughts. On the TV show, the camera is necessarily external. You don't know what anyone is thinking or feeling, just what they are saying and doing.

"If the show had retained some of Cersei's dialogue from the books, it might have left a somewhat different impression - but that dialogue was very much shaped by the circumstances of the books, delivered by a woman who is seeing her lover again for the first time after a long while apart during which she feared he was dead. I am not sure it would have worked with the new timeline.

"That's really all I can say on this issue. The scene was always intended to be disturbing… but I do regret if it has disturbed people for the wrong reasons."

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.