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Whether you loved or loathed the finale to Game of Thrones, you’re probably still unpacking what happened and wondering if things could have somehow ended differently.
Author George R R Martin told the showrunners the “major points of the ending” years ago, but with the final two books still not released, that common ending might still go down a little differently.
*SPOILER WARNING* This article assumes you’ve watched all of Game of Thrones and includes major spoilers from the books. If you don’t want the books to be spoiled then leave now.
As any reader of A Song of Ice and Fire knows, the show did depart (in some cases dramatically) from the source material, leaving a lot of room for Martin to tell a tale that’s not quite how show watchers know it.
These are some of the biggest changes that you missed out on if you’ve never read the books.
Lady Stoneheart is a big deal
This is probably the most dramatic omission and something booklovers waited years for in vain.
Catelyn Stark returns from the dead.
It’s a jaw-dropping plot bomb that takes place at the very end of book three, A Storm of Swords.
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In the books, Catelyn’s body is dumped in the river after her throat is slit at the Red Wedding. Arya’s free-roaming direwolf Nymeria finds it a few days later.
The wolf drags it from the water and then runs off when it sees Lord Beric Dondarrion and his Brotherhood Without Banners approaching.
Beric, who has been brought back to life multiple times by this point, kisses the dead Catelyn and entreats the Lord of Light to bring her back. Beric falls dead, having traded his life for Catelyn’s.
Catelyn, with her throat slit and unable to speak more than a rasp, becomes ‘Lady Stoneheart‘ — the cruel and vengeful leader of the Brotherhood. Her only driven purpose is to ambush and kill Freys, Lannisters and anyone else who played a role in the Red Wedding.
She’s not the Catelyn we used to know and is entirely consumed with revenge — she even captures and seriously threatens Brienne with hanging for her perceived closeness to Jaime Lannister.
Book Jaime has redemption. Show Jaime? Not so much
A point of much consternation for booklovers is the show’s constant flip-flopping on whether Jaime Lannister has reformed and rid himself of Cersei.
On the show, Jaime is not able to help himself and returns to Cersei, again and again.
This culminates in the ultimate bad-taste scene where on the show he rapes Cersei while the two view Joffrey‘s body in the sept.
This scene plays out a little differently in the books, making it seem consensual, and later Jaime reflects on his shame for loving Cersei and resolves to cut himself off from her.
At one point in the books, Jaime is leading the Lannister army in a siege at Riverrun against the Black Fish and he receives a raven from King’s Landing.
We learn that Cersei is to be tried by the church for her adultery and she needs a champion to fight for her.
“Help me. Save me. I need you now as I have never needed you before. I love you. I love you. I love you. Come at once,” Cersei tells Jaime in the note.
The old Jaime would have immediately left the siege and returned to Cersei. But asked if he wanted to reply, Book Jaime hands the note back to the maester and tells him “No. Put this in the fire”.
There’s a final prophecy about Cersei omitted from the show
A young Cersei Lannister is given a prophecy by a witch in both the books and the show.
Cersei gets to ask three questions about her future and learns she’ll marry a king, someone else younger and more beautiful will take everything from her, and she’ll have three children who will die before her.
But in the books, the witch has one more thing to say after mentioning the gold shrouds that will cover her children: “And when your tears have drowned you, the valonqar shall wrap his hands about your pale white throat and choke the life from you.”
This never featured on the show and likely reveals a different fate for Cersei because “valonqar” is High Valyrian for “little brother”, meaning either Tyrion or Jaime will kill her.
There’s another Targaryen… maybe
It’s alleged in the books that Varys switched one of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen‘s two young children before they were killed during the sacking of King’s Landing when Robert won his rebellion and seized the throne.
The baby Aegon Targaryen (not to be confused with Jon Snow) was *allegedly* given to a man called Jon Connington, a former Hand to the King and friend of Prince Rhaegar, who was exiled to Essos.
Connington, under the pseudonym ‘Griff’, works for the Golden Company mercenaries (the same ones Cersei hires on the show) and raises the boy, who he calls ‘Young Griff‘.
He mentors the white-haired boy, preparing him to be king one day — and their secret identities are kept from the wider Golden Company.
Later on, Connington plans to travel to meet Queen Daenerys and marry the young Aegon to her so that they can claim the throne together. But he is dismayed to learn that Daenerys is still in Meereen with no plans to sail for Westeros.
Instead, he reveals Young Griff’s identity to the rest of the Golden Company and they, fed up with current commander Harry Strickland, form around Connington and the young Aegon and sail for Westeros, intent on placing him upon the throne without Daenerys.
Where the books currently end, the Golden Company has invaded Westeros and captured a few small holds with plans for greater conquest.
It’s hinted fairly strongly, however, that the boy isn’t actually Aegon and might be a child of the Targaryen bastard line, known as the Blackfyres.
Varys and Connington are playing a political game and want to place a wise and just king upon the throne that they can select and raise themselves.
Cersei gains the support of the Golden Company on the show, but in the books they’re fighting their own war against her.
Ramsay doesn’t marry Sansa, he marries an Arya imposter
Remember when Sansa Stark gets married to Ramsay Snow and suffers horrific abuse? It never actually happens in the books. In the books, Sansa is still with Littlefinger and the Knights of the Vale.
What actually happens is Sansa’s best friend Jeyne Poole, who was a captive at King’s Landing, is sent north to Winterfell to marry Lord Bolton’s illegitimate son Ramsay. With the real Arya missing since Ned’s beheading, presumed dead, the Lannisters pretend Jeyne is actually Arya Stark. Her marriage to Ramsay would cement his hold on Winterfell and the north.
Jeyne is the one who suffers abuses at the hands of Ramsay and eventually flees with Theon Greyjoy‘s help, jumping from the walls of King’s Landing into the fresh snow outside.
It’s unlikely that Theon and Sansa will have a close relationship like they do on the show because it’s not her he’s saving.
King Beyond the Wall Mance Rayder escapes execution
Remember this guy? It’s been a while.
In the show, the de facto leader of the wildlings gets put to death by Stannis at the Wall because he refuses to kneel. We see him burn on a pyre until Jon Snow gives him mercy by way of an arrow to the heart.
But it was all a ruse in the books.
Melisandre helps the real Mance escape death by using magic to make him appear to be one of the wildling chiefs — Rattleshirt.
In his place, the real Rattleshirt is burned to death while glamored to look like Mance.
After the trick is revealed, Jon Snow entreats his friend Mance to travel to Winterfell on a secret mission to free ‘Arya’ (actually Jeyne, but Jon doesn’t know that).
The mission succeeds, with Theon and Jeyne escaping, but Mance is captured by Ramsay.
A Dornish prince tries to marry Daenerys. It doesn’t go well
Quentyn Martell, the second son of Dornish ruler Prince Doran Martell, is sent on a secret mission in the books to travel across the narrow sea and make an offer of marriage to Daenerys in exchange for Dorne’s help in taking the Iron Throne.
After Quentyn meets Daenerys, she politely declines the marriage proposal and explains she will shortly marry a local noble, Hizdahr zo Loraq, to cement her rule in Meereen.
While Quentyn is put up in rooms at the palace, Daenerys invites him to see two of her dragons, Rhaegal and Viserion, which are locked up in the dragon pit (Drogon has escaped and is roaming around the lands). Seeing the dragons creates a big impression on the normally cautious and insecure Quentyn.
He fears returning to his father without accomplishing his mission and so hatches a plan to tame at least one of the dragons and fly it back to Dorne. He believes that some Targaryen ancestry in his bloodline will allow him to get close to them.
After sneaking into the dragon pit in disguise, nothing goes to plan. Rhaegal decides to roast Quentyn in dragonfire and both dragons escape the pits.
Quentyn, horribly disfigured, dies of his wounds in the palace several days later. Prince Doran’s secret master plan for a Targaryen alliance to overthrow the Lannisters is in shambles.
Night King, Greyjoys and pigs
The above points are just some of the many, many differences between the books and the show. There are others, including:
- The Night King isn’t in the books at all — at least not yet. We don’t know if the White Walkers (The Others) have a leader
- There are two magic horns — one that can supposedly destroy The Wall and another that can tame dragons
- All the Stark children can warg into their direwolves. Bran is not the only one with this ability
- Tyrion loses the end of his nose in the Battle of Blackwater — he’s even uglier now
- Dany’s handsome side-piece Daario Naharis, while still being described as being very handsome, has blue hair, a long blue beard and a gold moustache. Really
- Tyrion has a dwarf friend called Penny — they go on an adventure together in Essos and joust atop pigs (yes, really)
- Jaime never goes to Dorne to bring back Myrcella, instead there’s a complicated Sand Snake plot to marry Myrcella in Dorne to get the throne
- Yara Greyjoy is still a badass but is called Asha in the books and gets married off by her uncle Euron to one of his supporters
- Euron Greyjoy has a warrior brother called Victarion Greyjoy who commands the Iron Fleet and sails to Daenerys in Meereen in order to ferry her army to Westeros in exchange for marrying Euron. In the books, Euron is cunning and wicked but not a great fighter — Victarion fills that role.
Where are the books up to?
The fifth book — A Dance With Dragons — ends with Jon Snow being stabbed and killed by the other members of the Night’s Watch.
Without getting too deep, Jon’s death is tied up with Mance Rayder and Ramsay Snow. As Lord Commander, Jon decides to march the Night’s Watch to take back Winterfell from Ramsay. Remember the Watch is sworn to never interfere in the affairs of the realm.
For breaking his vows, Jon cops the same knife in the heart as he did in the show. Not from Olly though, who is a show-only character. In fact, none of the main conspirators of the show have a hand in the deed in the books.
As for Danerys, she’s been spending a lot of time ruling in Mereen. The last we hear of the Mother of Dragons is just after the disastrous re-opening of the fighting pits.
She’s escaped the Sons of the Harpy attack on the back of Drogon, but is seriously ill and wandering the Dothraki Sea, trying to find her way back.
She has hallucinations and talks to the grass about re-discovering the Targaryen words — Fire and Blood. In the final moments of the chapter, she’s found by some of the Dothraki who abandoned her when Khal Drogo died.
Yes, the books are that far back in the story.
Martin seems to be most of the way through writing the sixth book, to be titled Winds of Winter, but it has been eight years since the last book and there is no release date in sight.
He has yet to start the final book, A Dream of Spring.
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