The aspects where David Benioff and D.B. Weiss deviated
As you all must know, David Benioff and D.B.Weiss are the creators of the worldwide phenomenon known to us all as "Game of thrones". The show is based on equally famous novel series "A song of ice and fire" written by George R.R. Martin. Now, the major difference between Game of thrones and any other movies or series that are based on a novel is that most of the movies or series based on the novels are made after the novel is completed. But that is not the case with the “Game of thrones” series. Out of the seven planned novels of the book series "A song of ice and fire", George R.R.Martin has been able to complete only five and two of the last remaining books are still in work. The series Game of thrones was started around the time when the fifth book was about to be published. The fifth book was published in July 12, 2011 while the first season of Game of thrones was originally released in April 17, 2011. So, you can see that the series had started around the time when the fifth book had already been completed. And now the TV series is already complete. It’s obvious that the series was bound to have some twists and turns from the original plot and some completely different storyline. Therefore, I am going to point out those major plot differences between the novel series and TV series. This is the first part of that comparision in which I am going to explain the difference between the plot of Game of thrones Season 1 and the book series. Also, as I am going to talk about specific points where the TV series deviated so there are going to be some spoilers for those who have seen the TV series but not read the books or vice-versa. So, SPOILERS ALERT!!! There are only five books published till date so I am going to compare the plot of series upto the point where the events of the series and fifth book coincides. There is no plot of book beyond that to compare so it would be unreasonable to make comparisions. Seasons six, seven, and eight were written when the show ran out of book material, so I’d expect all of them to be completely different compared to the books. The Battle of the Bastards, Daenerys landing at Dragonstone, Margaery and the Tyrells getting blown up by Cersei’s wildfire, are all huge plot deviations. I’d expect the books to be completely different from the show by this point.
The first major difference that comes to mind is the age difference between the characters of the novel series and TV series. Martin, while writting the books wanted to be true to that time when life expectancy was rather short. Thus, most of the major characters of the book are in their early teens while the same characters were much older in the shows. The book begins fourteen years after the Robert’s rebellion while the series starts seventeen years after the war. The age of the Stark childs in the book series are respectively 14,14,11,9,7 and 2 for Robb, Jon, Sansa, Arya, Bran and Rickon while in TV series are 18,18,13,11,10 and 7. Likewise, the Royal children are older: Joffrey is 16 instead of 12, Myrcella is 11 instead of 8 and Tommen is 10 instead of 7. The age was also increased in series as some of the scenes were too explicit for the child actors to act upon. For example, the consumation of marraige between Khal Drogo and Daenerys Targaryen could not have been shown if a 13 years old Daenerys Targaryen was shown in the show. Also we see during the first episode of TV series, Khal Drogo raping Daenerys during their wedding night while in the book he seduces Daenerys and asks her permisson to have sex and although she didn’t want to marry him earlier, the sex between them is totally consensual. The white walkers are mostly called others in the book, by the people of the seven kingdoms except the wildlings and old nan who calls them white walker even in the book. Both the book and TV series starts with three rangers from “Castle black” going out for investigation of forests beyond the wall and encounter white walkers during their journey. In the book, the white walkers have white skins and reflective armor; in the TV series, they have frozen grey skin, dark hair and a brutal face much like a skull and the armor they wear in later season is black and inreflective. In the TV series, Gared is the second one to be killed by the White Walkers and Will escapes. In the books, Will is strangled by Ser Waymar Royce’s wight and Gared escapes but is later executed by Ned for desertion. There is a major distinction in the fact that in the TV series the death is a beheading at the hands of a White Walker, as opposed to being murdered by a wight. In the book, Ned does not discuss with Bran what the deserter said, but only the aspect of the execution. Ned tells Catelyn later that the deserter was half-mad, something had so profoundly put a fear in him that Ned’s words could not touch him. Arya is shown to be a very precise archer able to get the bull’s eye in one try, while she doesn’t know how to fire a bow and wishes she could learn in the books. In all of the novels, she hadn’t fired a single arrow. Jon Snow doesn’t attend the feast at all in the TV series and encounters his uncle Benjen as he practises with a sword. He attends the feast in the book but is not allowed to sit down with the royal family at the main table. Instead, he sits with the squires and other noble-born boys of the same age, but is actually pleased with this, since he is free to drink as much wine as he is out of sight (and gets drunk as a result). As the book goes, this feast is one of the few times “when Jon Snow was glad he was a bastard”. Benjen then approaches him and they have their conversation inside the feasting hall.
Lysa, Catelyn’s sister, sends a letter to Catelyn suggesting Lannisters being the culprit in the killing of The Hand of the king, Jon Arryn, her husband. Lysa’s letter isn’t coded in the TV series and came by a messenger. It is encoded in the book, found in a box with a false bottom, and left by an unknown party in Maester Luwin 's room. In the book, Ned does not want to become the hand of King Robert, but Catelyn persuades him to do so, claiming that Robert will react very harshly to a rejection; Ned changes his mind reluctantly. Catelyn is terrified for him in the TV show, and begs him not to accept it. In the TV series, Tyrion is shown to be a drunken wretch being so drunk that he spends his night in the dog pen while in the book he spends his night sleeplessly in the library and comes out in the morning to encounter Prince Jeoffery and the Hound. In the last scene of the first episode, Bran is shown to have been thrown from high tower window by Jaime Lannister after he witnesses the incestuous relationship between him and his twin sister, the queen. In the TV series, when Jon comes to meet Bran for one last time before going to the wall, Catelyn’s behaviour towards him is overtly hostile while in book she is cold towards him only saying her parting words to him as “It should have been you”. During their journey through kingsroad Jeoffery and Sansa find Arya and a butcher’s boy, Mycah in a friendly spar. To boast his fighting prowess and position as the prince of the realm, Jeoffery threatens Mycah, enraging Arya and there is a clash between them. During the clash, Arya’s direwolf bites the hand of Jeoffery. Arya, Mycah and Nymeria flee the scene but are later found. Due to the Arya-Jeoffery clash, the final verdict from King Robert is that one of the direwolf should be punished and as Nymeria has fled the scene it should be Lady, Sansa’s direwolf. Ned carries out that sentence saying that he would not have a butcher kill a direwolf of the north. In the TV series, he executes the direwolf with a dagger while in the book he uses “Ice”, his great sword for the execution. Bran dreams about the three eyed raven, with one of the chapters devoted to that dream, in the book while there is no such dream shown in the TV series. In series, he wakes up, when Sansa’s direwolf is executed. The book does not indicate any connection between Lady’s death and Bran’s awakening.
After suspecting Lannisters behind the attempted murder of Bran, Catelyn, along with Ser Rodrik travels to King’s landing for finding out the truth. In the book, Catelyn and Ser Rodrik arrive ahead of Eddard Stark at King’s Landing. They also arrive at White Harbor by ship. They come onto the Kingsroad in series by riding horses and they arrive after Eddard. In the book, they enter an old inn once Catelyn and Ser Rodrik have entered King’s Landing. In the TV series, Ser Rodrik goes to visit Aron Santagar, and several Gold Cloaks take Catelyn to Littlefinger during his absence. Thus, Ser Rodrik is not present at the meeting between Catelyn, Varys and Littlefinger as opposed to the book. Jaime is called by various names like Kingslayer and oathbreaker as he killed the Mad King, Aerys Targaryen after his father entered and started sacking the city of King’s landing. In the TV series initially it was told that he stabbed the mad king in the back (unlike the book where it is told that he slit the king’s throat) and only in the later episode "Kissed by fire", it was mentioned that Jaime first stabbed Aerys in the back and then slit his throat to make sure that he died. After Eddard arrives to the King’s landing, a meeting of small council is arranged for which Eddard is summoned. In the books, when the Royal Steward summons Eddard to the Small Council, Eddard asks for and is provided with appropriate clothing; the Steward recommends this in the TV show, and Eddard ignores this. In the books, Lord Commander Barristan Selmy of the Kingsguard is present at the Small Council meeting, but he is absent in the TV series. This occured because the writers didn’t want Barristan to know that Jorah was a spy in the TV series. In Season 3 episode "Kissed by Fire", there was even an invented scene in which Barristan specifically explains that he should have been present on the Small Council, but he just avoided council meetings because he dislikes politics (this is actually why Jaime, not Selmy, seldom attends the council meetings). In the book, the saying about the hand is that “The king eats and the hand takes the shit” while in the TV series the saying is changed to “The king takes the shit and the hand wipes”. After their recruitment in the wall, the new recruits have to train. One of those recruits is Grenn, with whom Jon is arranged to fight by Ser Alliser Thorne. In the book during the fight, Jon breaks Grenn’s nose as opposed to the series where he breaks Grenn’s wrist. Also, in the book he is shown to fight only Grenn, while in the TV series he fights three recruits at the same time. For revenge, these recruits attack Jon in the weapons room. In the TV series, Tyrion Lannister is shown to break the fight between them but in the book, it is Donal Noye, the blacksmith who splits the fight between Jon, Grenn, Toad and two others (Rast and Pyp weren’t involved in the brawl), chides Jon for humiliating the other recruits and encourages him to befriend them.
In the book, the Lord Commander Mormont has his own personal raven which is not the case in TV series. Across the narrow sea, while traveling, Daenerys is awed to see the Dothraki sea and orders the Khalasar to stop. In the TV series, she does so as she felt bad for the slaves. This enrages Viserys and he attacks Daenerys but is immediately tamed by a dothraki soldier. In the TV series, Jhogo on whom the TV character Rakharo is based, attacks and captures Viserys and insist on him walking on foot. In the book, it is Daenerys rather who insist on him walking after Viserys attacks her. Ned (Eddard) arranges for a Braavoshi swordsmaster, Syrio Forel, to train Arya on seeing her practicing with her pointy sword "Needles" on her own. Syrio Forel is bald in the book while in the TV series he is shown to have brown, curly hairs. In the book, Littlefinger specifies the key creditors of the Crown, in addition to the Lannisters: the Iron Bank of Braavos, House Tyrell, everlasting Tyroshi trading cartels, and the Faith.
Castle Black is shown to have walls and a doorway in the series. In the novels, it has none, so the Night’s Watch can only defend itself against enemies coming from the North, and not rebel against the Seven Kingdoms. Samwell Tarly’s introduction is slightly different in the series because of omitted recruits of the Night’s Watch. In the book, Halder attacks Sam first. When Jon is defending him, Ser Alliser Thorne orders Halder, Rast and Albett to fight against him. Grenn and Pyp interfere and take sides with Jon. In the series, Samwell is targeted by Rast. Jon then alone takes the fight against Rast, Grenn and Pyp. In the TV series, Sam tells Jon about his father ordering him to join the Night’s Watch. In the book, Sam refers to a scene where his father skins a deer. This situation was used for the potrayal of Tywin Lannister, when he is talking to Jaime about living up to his destiny in the episode ("You Win or You Die").
While investigating the death of Jon Arryn, Eddard comes to know about an armorer, Tobho Mott, who Jon Arryn frequently visited. It is later revealed that Mott was the master of Gendry, King Robert’s bastard. In the book, Tobho Mott tells Eddard Stark that a mysterious lord paid him Gendry’s apprentice fee. Also in the book, both Mott and Gendry tell Eddard that Jon Arryn was accompanied by Stannis Baratheon. In the show, Stannis is not mentioned in relation to Arryn’s investigations. Like other characters, Gendry’s age is also advanced in TV series. In the books, he is shown to be 16 while in the TV series he must be at least 20. When Eddard arrives at the King’s landing, the Tournament of Hand is organized in his honour. In the book, the tournament comprises jousting, archery and melee but in the TV series only Jousting is shown and it is a lot shorter in comparison to the book where jousting alone runs over the course of two days. The only notable participants are Ser Gregor, Ser Hugh, Ser Loras and partly the Hound. The only shown confrontations are the jousts between Ser Hugh and Ser Gregor, Ser Gregor and Ser Loras, and the duel between the Hound and Ser Gregor. During the tournament, Sansa comes to know about the past of the Hound, Sandor Clegane and the truth about his burnt face. In the TV series, Littlefinger tells Sansa the story of the Clegane brothers. In the book, Sandor himself tells the story. He warns Sansa that he will kill her if she tells anyone. In the TV series, Arya accompanies Sansa in the tournament while in the book, Jeyne Poole attends the tournament with her.
Catelyn goes to King’s landing to investigate, who the valyrian steel dagger belonged to, with which the attempted murder of Bran was done. Little finger tells her that the dagger belonged to him in past and he lost it to Tyrion Lannister in a wager. When they accidently meet Tyrion on the Kingsroad, thinking Tyrion was behind the attempted murder of Bran, she captures him with the help of her subjects. Catelyn tells Tyrion that Littlefinger said the dagger belonged to him, and he lost it to Tyrion in a wager when Jaime Lannister was defeated in a joust by Loras Tyrell. Tyrion explains to Catelyn why Littlefinger is lying: he [Tyrion] never bets against his family. Catelyn does not disclose to Tyrion who set him up in the TV series. There are actually two sellswords accompanying Catelyn’s party into the Vale: Bronn and Chiggen. On the way to the Vale, Catelyn 's party suffers from more than one ambushes by the hill clans and most of their party is killed. Chiggen is severely injured, and Bronn cuts his throat to stop him from making noises and trigger further ambushes. Catelyn, Tyrion, Ser Rodrik, Bronn, Marillion, and Ser Willis Wode are the sole survivors. In the show the clansmen killed just a handful of their party. In the TV series, Tyrion only uses shield to fight while in the book, he uses axe for the battle. In addition to the hill tribe ambushes, Catelyn’s party also suffers from hunger in the long road, and they have to kill horses to feed themselves.
As part of her swords training, Arya has to chase cat. While chasing a cat she gets lost in the Red keep and it is in the process of the escape that she comes to overhear the conspirators, as well as finding the dragon skulls. In the TV series, Arya finds only one dragon skull in the Red Keep’s dungeons (probably the skull of Balerion because of its size) rather than finding several (as in the book). The two men in the dungeons are clearly seen in the series (Varys and Illyrio). In books, they are not identified (Illyrio can be identified because of his visual description. Varys is much harder to identify because he probably wears makeup - "scared face and stubble of dark beard". His sentence is the easiest way to identify him - "...I must have gold and 50 birds..."). In the novel, Arya returns from Red Keep to surface miles away. She is also covered in sewage and has to bathe in a river before returning to the Keep. In the show, she exits the dungeons through the tunnel below Aegon’s Hill where the Red Keep is located. The appearance of The Eyrie in the series is distinctive. In the novels, it is a small traditional castle made up of seven towers situated on a very tall mountain 's shoulder- the Giant’s lance. Three smaller towers guard the path too. The castle in the series is situated on the top of a much smaller mountain and the towers don’t seem to guard its direction. Catelyn’s way from the foot of the mountain to the Eyrie isn’t shown in series. She makes the climb riding on the back of a mule. In the series Mya Stone, King Robert’s bastard daughter, whose task is to escort people to the Eyrie, is absent. Catelyn reaches the Eyrie alone in the book first, and meets her sister in her chambers. Tyrion is then taken after her, winched up in a basket the next day. Catelyn and Tyrion enter the Eyrie together in the series and both confront Lysa in the main hall before all the significant residents. Lysa’s appearance is different. She is shown as a very skinny woman in series, rather than being overweight with pale and bloated face as in the book.
When Jaime comes to know about Tyrion’s capture by Catelyn, he confronts Eddard and a brawl is ensued between them. In the show the brawl between Jaime and Eddard is significantly different. In the book, when confronted by the Lannisters, Eddard and his guards are on horseback and away from the brothel; Jaime wants only to scare Eddard and commands his men to kill the Stark guards; Eddard does not duel with Jaime, and he is not injured by a Lannister guard, but when his wounded horse falls on him, his leg is shattered; Jory Cassel’s killer is not named; Jaime is not involved in the brawl; the scene takes place at night, when a heavy rain is falling. Wyl is not speared in the book. The Lannister guardsmen pull him off his horse and kill him with their swords. After Ned comes to his senses, he attends a meeting of the small council, which King Robert attends and is mainly focused on the assassination of Daenerys Targaryen. Varys supports the attempt, as in TV series, to have Daenerys assassinated, even though he is apparently in league with her in secret. This is explained in the fifth book “A Dance with Dragons”, where Varys reveals that he is in fact a Targaryen supporter, though it is not Daenerys he is supporting, but a young man who claims to be Aegon Targaryen, Rhaegar’s son who was thought to have been killed by "The Mountain" as a baby in the Sack of King’s Landing. The plotline with Aegon was completely cut off from the television series and Varys' support in season 5 was revealed to be for Daenerys, leaving it unclear why Varys should plan for Daenerys to be assassinated, although in the "Hardhome" episode, Tyrion quips to Daenerys that Varys "had done what he had to do to survive". This is one of the biggest plot twist that the creators of TV series made, not showing the other white blonde heir, Aegon Targaryen, who is waiting for a return. Tyrion comes across him after he flees Westeros and makes his way to Meereen. He later finds out that Aegon is the son of Rhaegar Targaryen, thus making him Daenerys’s nephew, who is rumoured to be murdered during Robert’s rebellion. Tyrion convinces Aegon to not unite with Daenerys and attack on Westeros with his small army of sellswords.
While Bran is in the woods with Robb and Theon, Bran is attacked by wildlings. When Bran falls into an ambush while on the ride, four attackers are seen in series: Stiv, Wallen, Osha, and an unnamed man. There are six attackers in books-the former four, another unidentified man and a small fat woman named Hali. The direwolves (Summer and Grey Wind) don’t get involved in the fight in the TV series. In the book, the wolves arrive with Robb and kill several of the wildlings. Tyrion is taken as a prisoner in Eyrie by Catelyn. While in prison, the TV series also shows a failed attempt by Tyrion to catch Mord 's attention by offering gold. In the book, by his first attempt, he convinces him and men come to Tyrion’s cell to affirm his willingness to confess, allowing him to get them to make Mord return Tyrion’s shadowcat skin coat. In the book, Joss and the other villagers report that the Mountain sacked not only the Mummer’s Ford, but also the holdfast of Sherrer and Wendish Town. They are accompanied by Ser Karyl Vance, Ser Raymun Darry and Ser Marq Piper. After hearing about this Loras Tyrell volunteers to capture “The Mountain” but is denied by Eddard. Instead, Ned commands Thoros of Myr, Ser Gladden Wylde, and Lord Lothar Mallery to assemble 20 men each and join Beric Dondarrion in his mission. Neither of these three is mentioned in the TV series. After Tyrion is brought in front of Lysa, he cleverly demands a trial by combat. There are several changes in Tyrion’s trial by combat: In the series, it takes place in the Eyrie’s High Hall by the opened Moon Door, immediately after Tyrion’s confession. In the book, it takes place in the Eyrie garden, the next morning. Catelyn attempts to dissuade Lysa from going ahead with the trial by combat beforehand, saying that Tyrion is no good to them dead. She also worries that Bronn will beat the champion of Lysa, having seen him battle the hill tribes. Ser Vardis' death, in the TV series, is more dramatic. He’s stabbed in the chest in the book when a statue dropped on top of him by Bronn stuck him to the floor. He is wounded several times in the TV series, stabbed in his neck and finally thrown through the Moon Door. Bronn gets slightly wounded in the book and loses a tooth during the duel. He is completely unharmed in the TV series. The Moon Door is an opening in the Eyrie 's High Hall floor, in the TV series. The Moon Door is a weirwood door in the novels, positioned between two pillars in the High Hall of the Eyrie.
The appearance of Tywin is described in the book as bald, bushy golden side whiskers and green eyes flecked with gold, very different from how he appears in the TV series. In the book, Tywin tells Tyrion, not Jaime, that although he does not care much about Tyrion - he has to go to war, because no one insults the Lannisters with impunity. After much investigation, Eddard comes to find a book of lineage through which he discovers that Jeoffery, Myrcella and Tommen are the offsprings from incestuous relationship between Jaime and Cersei. Thus, he arranges a meeting with Cersei to spare her from the wrath of Robert. In the book, as he explained, Eddard arranges his confrontation with Cersei about Jaime in the godswood of the Red Keep "so that the gods can see" In the series, instead, the scene takes place in an outside courtyard. Cersei also tries to seduce Eddard in the book and slaps him when he spurns her advances. Cersei reveals she never gave birth to any of Robert’s babies, and the only time she got pregnant with him-she had an abortion. Robert did not comprehend both the pregnancy and the abortion. When Eddard warns Cersei in the book about his plans, he clearly advises her to leave for the Free Cities, or even further to the Summer Isles or the Ibben Harbor. She calls his mercy of exile a "bitter cup to drink from" but he counters that it’s a "sweeter cup than your father served Rhaegar’s kids and more than you deserve." In the series, Eddard does not mention any of those places, nor does he bring up the Targaryen children. Each recruit in the TV series is passed off training and becomes a Night’s Watch man (Ser Alliser listed that in "Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things"). In books only eight recruits (Jon, Halder, Grenn, Pyp, Toad, Matthar, Albett and Dareon) are passed on by Ser Alliser. Sam was thought to remain as a recruit . In the book, Jon Snow is worried that Sam might not be initiated with the other recruits and is afraid Ser Alliser Thorne will hurt or kill Sam in training without himself and their friends to protect Sam. Jon talks to Maester Aemon about Sam’s literacy abilities, in hopes Aemon will make Sam his steward; most applicants are lowborn, mostly offenders, and none can read-although Sam is not only able to read but is well-educated, so he can be useful to help the blind Aemon manage rookery messages . Aemon says that he will think about it, and eventually does as Jon asked. In the TV series, Sam graduates without incident with his fellow recruits and leaves the training automatically although he is still assigned to work with Aemon.
After the ultimatum from Ned, Cersei plans an attack and imprisonment of his family to make him vulnerable. In the TV series, during the attack, Septa Mordane asks Sansa to go and lock herself in their quarters, as she goes to the Lannister soldiers coming down the hall to confront them. In the novel, when the massacre takes place Sansa and Septa Mordane aren’t together. Sansa, disturbed by the fact that her father breaking her engagement and moving to Winterfell, goes to Cersei to get her to speak to him and change his mind. This encourages Cersei to accelerate her efforts to thwart Ned. Cersei makes the Kingsguard escort Sansa to a tower room and then quickly imprison her there before the massacre takes place. When the Kingsguard come to capture Arya, she is training with Syrio Forel and he protects her from them and helps her to flee the scene. In the novel, the soldiers battling Syrio are more poorly armed and Syrio with a wooden sword is doing much greater harm to them, killing them with stabs through their neck and arms. He merely disarms and injures them in the series. When Jon enters the common hall after hearing the news about his father, there is no awkward silence. Instead, Jon’s friends encourage him and assure him, they know the allegations against Ned are all lies. While Jon is on his way to the Lord Commander’s quarters, he finds the body of a guard who was killed by Othor the wight, his head had been twisted completely around. When Jon cuts off the hand of the wight the severed limb doesn’t just drop down to the floor, but keeps fighting independently. It catches Jon’s calf, and Jon barely succeeds in prying it off. In the show, Jon kills the wight by throwing a lantern at it, severely burns his arm while doing so. It heals painfully, and he has very bad scars left over. In the book, Jon throws burning curtains over the wight.
Tyrion tells Bronn about his first wife Tysha, while making their way through the mountain. This does not occur in the TV series until they reach Tywin Lannister’s camp. Bronn asks how Tyrion knew that he would champion for him. Tyrion claims he didn’t, but anticipated that as a sellsword, Bronn would do it for gold, the reason he originally helped escort Tyrion to the Eyrie was in the hope of a reward from Catelyn Stark. In the book, on their way back from Vale, at least a dozen clansmen encounter Tyrion and Bronn, and report their names. The first is Gunthor son of Gurn, the chief of the Stone Crows, and it is him that speaks the TV-series line of Shagga: "When you meet your gods, say it was Gunthor son of Gurn of the Stone Crows who sent you to them." Shagga son of Dolf is actually the second. Gunthor is not identified in the TV series, only his name is mentioned in "Baelor". The clansmen ambush Tyrion and Bronn because Bronn captures a goat they say to be theirs for food: "Our mountain, our goat." When Tyrion teases the Stone Crows for their cowardice in the novel, it is not Shagga but another clansman, Jaggot, who uses a spear to injure him. Shagga roars and threatens to harm Tyrion, but Gunthor silences him and allows Tyrion to continue talking and he successfully convinces the clansmen. In the book, when Tyrion, Bronn and the clansmen arrive at the Lannister camp, Tywin and Kevan are not in a tent; they are in a common room at the Inn at the Crossroads. Shagga doesn’t quietly enter the room where the Lannisters are in the book; a guard tries to stop him but Shagga forces his way inside, throws the guard across the room and destroys his sword, startling Tywin and Kevan. He is followed by Bronn and other clansmen.
After the attempt on life of Daenerys, Khal Drogo vows to help her capture the Iron Throne. On their way to Westeros they plunge and pillage various villages and have a battle with several Khalasar. On seeing their cruel ways, Daenerys denies the Dothrakis to rape women and tries to save them. In the book, when she denies the blood-rider Mago, he doesn’t speak directly to Drogo ; he complains to Haggo about Daenerys and the latter tells Drogo that. Mago doesn’t challenge Drogo 's authority after his claim is verbally denied, and there’s no subsequent fighting between them. During a later chapter Mago is seen still alive. Drogo is wounded in an off-screen battle with a rival khalasar, led by Khal Ogo. It is not Mago who injures Drogo but Khal Ogo’s bloodrider. In order to get full control, Cersie convinces Jeoffery to dismiss Ser Barristan Selmy and promote Jaime to the position of Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. Ser Barristan throws his sword at Joffrey 's feet after being dismissed, and tells him to add it to his throne. He suggests that Stannis will soon arrive, anyway, to depose the "boy king." Joffrey decides after the old knight leaves that his last words were treasonous and commands the Gold Cloaks to follow Selmy and apprehend him. Barristan has to kill two members of the city watch and escapes from the city. In the series, he is simply allowed to leave.
For moving forward in their attack on Lannisters, Robb has to secure a route through the bridge of Twin towers falling under the dominion of Lord Walder Frey. In order to negotiate a deal with Walder Frey, Catelyn is sent to the crossing. He imposes some conditions in order to let the army move through the crossing. The conditions shown in the show are that Arya be betrothed to one of the sons of Walder Frey (Waldern Frey in the TV series while Elmar Frey in the book). Also Robb is betrothed to one of the daughters of Walder Frey. In the book, Walder Frey places a further condition on the Starks: Two of his young grandsons, "Big" Walder and "Little" Walder, will be taken as wards to Winterfell. Catelyn agrees, thinking Bran needs company of children of his age. After fleeing from the Red keep, Arya has to make her way to survive in King’s landing on her own. Arya is seen in the series at King’s Landing, trying to trade the dead pigeon to the baker for bread. The baker has tarts in the books and Arya asks for a lemon one first. This is an interesting choice as lemon is often referred to be Sansa’s preference. When Arya was invited into Queen’s wheelhouse to have lemon cakes, she couldn’t care less. Now she likes them. Arya drops the pigeon when the crowd draws her attention to the Sept of Baelor for Eddard’s execution, in the series. Arya takes the pigeon with her to the docks in the book, where she finds out that the Wind Witch, her father’s ship had hired to take her back to Winterfell, was still on the dock, with men dressed in Eddard 's colours. She knows at the last minute this is a trap. She loses the pigeon, which is on her belt, as she is getting away, but, whether it fell or was stolen by a pickpocket, she is unsure. The tale about Tysha in the book is somewhat different from that in the series: Tysha was a crofter’s orphaned daughter, not a wheelwright’s daughter; Tyrion was thirteen when he met her, not sixteen; Tywin forced him to be the last after she was gang-raped by the soldiers. Tywin’s soldiers paid her with a silver coin each. Tyrion was ordered to give her a gold coin, as Lannisters are worth more. Tyrion’s contribution in the battle against the Starks is different in the book and TV series. Tyrion is depicted in the book giving a speech in the battle, before riding in the vanguard and fighting a knight to whom he eventually yields. He is also identified as wearing a mish mash of a armor instead of his custom TV suit, since his armor is still in Casterly Rock. This causes the audience to miss him spear a horse with a unicorn helmet, the only thing that fits his head. In the show, Tyrion is knocked out before the battle even begins with an errant warhammer and wakes when all is over. In the book, Aegon V and Maester Aemon are respectively the Mad King’s grandfather and great-uncle rather than his father and uncle. Jaehaerys II, the son of Aegon V and father of Aerys II in the book, was excluded from the show.
Arya is rescued by Yoren from the gold cloaks. In the books, Yoren tells Arya that the man (Varys) who brought Gendry to him was the same man who told him to delay his departure and be at the Sept of Baelor, because Eddard Stark’s trial was supposed to have sentenced him to take the black and he would go to the Wall with Yoren. In the novel, before Jeoffrey orders Sansa to watch Eddard 's head with him, he handles a series of disputes and cases with the Small Council: he leaves nine out of ten cases (which seems to bore him) to the Small Council and makes decisions on the others in a willful manner. The bard depicted in the series, who performs the song about King Robert and the boar and lions and is then punished for that, is in fact the accused in the books in the last case. An additional scene from the novel "A Clash of Kings", when Arya meets Gendry, Hot Pie and Lommy Greenhands, is shown in the series. In the book, the brawl between Arya and Hot Pie is very violent: Arya breaks the nose of Hot Pie and, when she turns to Lommy, Hot Pie assaults her with a jagged rock, Arya beats Hot Pie until he soils his pants. Arya only threatens Hot Pie with Needle in the series. In the book, she beats him with a wooden sword before Yoren punishes her. This took place during their journey instead of the streets of King’s Landing. When Jon hears about the execution of his father Eddard, knowing about the impending war between Starks and Lannisters he deserts the Night watch and rides towards Robb so that he can be by his side during the war. In the book, Sam does not ride out with Grenn and Pyp, after Jon who is deserting the Night’s Watch. Sam informs the others, and seven recruits ride out. Ghost gives away Jon’s position, who hides from the recruits.
After Daenerys has lost both her husband and child in a single night she has nothing left except her Khalasar and the three dragon eggs with her. In the book, before Daenerys steps into the pyre, she asks Rakharo, Jhogo and Aggo to be her bloodriders and assigns them as her kos. All the three riders refuse at this point, declaring that only a male can lead a khalasar and have bloodriders, but she is a khaleesi. They only promise to accompany her back to Vaes Dothrak and to protect her on her way until she securely joins Dosh Khaleen there (according to the tradition of Dothraki). However, the three Dothraki warriors recognize her as "blood of my blood" after she emerges unharmed with three hatched dragons from the pyre. These are omitted from the TV series. It is later revealed in Season 2 that Daenerys’s bloodriders in the TV series are Kovarro, Rakharo and Aggo - slightly different from in the books. When Daenerys is found in the fire’s smoldering remains in the book, the dragons are nursing mother’s milk which she has as she was pregnant. Even though her skin is unburnt, her whole hair has burnt away (it gradually grows back at a regular rate). In the TV series, her hair is shown to be intact and also the dragons are only shown as lingering on her body without being nursed with mother’s milk. After being fooled by Robb in the "Battle of the Green Fork", Tywin is bitter and he orders Tyrion to go to King’s landing and serve as "The hand of the king" temporarily in his stead while he will continue the war against Robb stark. He is unhappy with decisions of Jeoffery and his council and asks Tyrion to rule and keep them in line. In the TV series he is only shown to be angry about Eddard’s execution. However, in the book,Tywin expresses his anger not only in respect of Eddard’s execution, but also about other extremely foolish acts of Jeoffrey:
(1)Granting Janos Slynt the title of Lord of Harrenhal; Tywin considers it an insult to give the son of a butcher a castle which once was the seat of kings.
(2)Dismissing Ser Barrsitan Selmy as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard; although he was an old man, his name still has meaning in the realm, and he honored any man he served, as opposed to the Hound.
(3)Naming the Hound to the Kingsguard, since he is not a knight and refuses to be anointed as one. Tywin says that "You feed your dog bones under the table, you do not seat him on a high bench beside you".
So, there you have it. I have pointed out all the major twists made in the first season of the television series from the book and also stated how these twists affect the whole plot. I will give out the twists made between next book and other seasons based on the response I get on this blog. To find out the twists made in plot of next seasons, tune in to next part of this blog. Cheerio....