Among the many, many panels at last weekend’s Con of Thrones was one spotlighting the results of an incredibly thorough survey measuring how Game of Thrones fans of all stripes felt about the changes, additions, and subtractions HBO made to George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire novels when adapting them for TV. The survey was developed by fansite Watchers on the Wall, which has posted a breakdown of the results, with the help of many helpful graphs and charts. There’s a lot of interesting stuff in there — let’s see what the fans sampled had to say!
All told, 2,532 people completed enough of the survey to be counted in the results. The demographics were pretty varied: for gender, there was a 53%-43% male-female split, with 1% of respondents identifying as non/binary/other and 3% preferring not to say. As for age, 49% were 34 and under, 32% were aged 35 to 49, 18% were aged 50 and up, and %1 don’t think it’s your business, thank you very much.
But the most important demographic date involved respondents’ relationship to the books, which laid out like this:
- Fans who read the books before watching the show: 23%
- Fans who watched the show and then read the books: 55%
- Fans who only watch the show: 22%
I’m in that second category, as are most people, it like. Man, Martin must have made a killing off the show…
Anyway, let’s dive into the results:
Fans rate 10 Game of Thrones plotlines
One of the points of this survey is to find out what fans thought of plotlines made up specifically or the show vs ones adapted from the books. To that end, it asked them to rate 10 different storylines, must of which were altered significantly from their book counterparts or made up entirely (with the caveat that some of these storylines may yet appear in the books in some form, but we don’t yet know how). They are as follows:
1. Sansa returns to Winterfell and marries Ramsay Bolton, who rapes her; she later plays a significant role in his defeat.
2. Jaime and Bronn travel to Dorne, where they spar with the Sand Snakes. They retrieve Myrcella, but she is poisoned by Ellaria Sand as they depart.
3. Tyrion is kidnapped by Jorah and taken to Dany, who bonds with him and eventually makes him her hand.
4. Jon and others go north of the Wall in hopes of capturing a wight to prove their existence to Cersei; Dany and her dragons fly to their rescue.
5. Theon is tortured physically and psychologically by Ramsay, but eventually recovers his identity and aids Sansa in her escape.
6. Arya travels to Braavos, where she learns the ways of the Faceless Men, who later try to have her killed.
7. Littlefinger tries to play Sansa and Arya against each other, but with assistance from Bran they realize his ruse and kill him.
8. Tyrion is falsely accused of poisoning Joffrey, demands a trial by combat and is sentenced to death when his champion, Oberyn, is killed.
9. Jon is elected Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, but his charges grow uneasy with his decisions regarding Wildlings and several conspire to kill him.
10. A desperate Stannis, with encouragement by Melisandre, burns his daughter alive in hopes of victory at Winterfell, but he is defeated and later slain.
What did people think of these? Pass the chart:
So what we’re seeing is that the plots on the show that got a lot of flack when they aired — Jon Snow and company going north of the Wall to capture a wight, Littlefinger playing Arya and Sansa against each other, and Jaime going to Dorne — aren’t particularly well-liked among the fans. Those plots, importantly, were mostly made up for the show. On the other hand, plots that were adapted from the books more faithfully, like Tyrion’s trial and Jon’s tenure as Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, were received better.
Things get more interesting still when you break down which fans liked/disliked which stories based on whether they’d read the books before seeing the show, did it the other way around, or have only ever watched the show. This chart dives into that aspect of it:
While all respondents seem to have roughly the same opinion on these plotlines, show-only viewers are clearly more forgiving, particularly on the three most commonly disparaged plot lines. (And interestingly, they enjoyed Tyrion’s plotline in season 4 a little less than other respondents, although everyone still liked it a whole lot.) That makes sense to me. If show-only viewers have fewer preconceived notions of who a character is and how they’d act in a given situation, they’d probably be more open to decisions that may leave long-time book readers scratching their heads.
Or at least, that’s how I interpret it. Feel free to leave your insights in the comments.
There’s a difference between show-only viewers and the rest of the respondents when it comes to rating the seven seasons of the show thus far, too. Have a look:
That looks about right to me. If anything, I’m a little surprised that everyone agreed that season 5 is the weakest. People really did not like that Dorne plot, did they?
Getting emotional
The survey also measured fans’ emotional reactions to various plotlines, asking them to rate their reactions on a scale from Very Displeased to Very Pleased. Bring on the chart!
Again, this is about as expected, with vast numbers of people very upset over things like Ned’s beheading, the Red Wedding, and Sansa’s wedding night to Ramsay Bolton, while people cheered at the conclusion of the Battle of the Bastards, Jon’s resurrection, and Daenerys’ maiden flight on her dragon. I’m a little surprised to see so many people pleased by the outcome of the Loot Train Attack; love them or hate them, I felt for Jaime in that one.
Cut But Not Forgotten
Finally, the survey asked people to write in which characters cut from the novels they missed most. These are the characters who got at least 10 write-ins:
Lady Stoneheart – 338
Arianne Martell – 281
Victarion Greyjoy – 74
Young Griff – 64
Strong Belwas – 58
Jon Connington – 49
Val – 35
Patchface – 21
Quentyn Martell – 13
Garlan Tyrell – 10
Along the same lines, the survey asked respondents to vote on which book-to-show changes displeased them the most. The results, please:
Lady Stoneheart does not appear – 825 votes
Arianne does not appear; Doran’s revenge plot is left out; etc. – 780
Sansa returns to Winterfell and marries Ramsay – 643
Bran is the only major character shown able to warg – 632
Mance Rayder’s storyline ends at an earlier point than in the books – 367
Young Griff and his entourage do not appear – 355
Victarion Greyjoy does not appear – 182
Yara/Asha’s storyline is substantially different – 140
Missandei and Grey Worm fall in love – 130
I may be pilloried for this, but I’m one of the eight or so fans who thought Lady Stoneheart was a bad idea the second I read about her in A Storm of Swords, so I wasn’t too perturbed that she was cut. (Other writers on this site disagree vehemently.) I can’t say I was sad to see the Young Griff plotline go either, but I agree that the Doran Martell I knew from the books deserved much better.
There are even more breakdowns, and more beautiful charts, at Watchers on the Wall. All praise to them for putting this survey together!
I know a lot of these results have to do with things people didn’t like, but it pays to remember that everyone who took this survey took it because they watch and enjoy Game of Thrones. As a fandom, we can be critical while still being respectful. With that said, what do you guys make of these results?
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