When working on an adaptation, making changes to a beloved series of books is always a dangerous proposition. Fans have revolted against movies and shows they feel strayed too far from the core tenets of a beloved franchise — just check out the collective freakout and subsequent flopping of Jem and the Holograms for recent evidence.
But sometimes change is good, and sometimes leaving certain themes and characters completely out of your adaptation is a win for everybody. Game of Thrones has managed to do a pretty good job of toeing the line in this regard. Sure, with a fanbase as rabid as the readers of George R.R. Martin’s books, there’ll always be a contingent of people unhappy that their particular favorite element has been left out. But for the most part, people have been consistently surprised and pleased with how things are turning out.
In fact, we’d say the showrunners for Game of Thrones have made some pretty good choices when it comes to what is left behind in the books. Let’s take a look at some of them:
Penny
In Martin’s World of Ice & Fire series, there is no character more hated by fans than the dwarf Penny. In the books, she shows up after Jorah Mormont takes Tyrion as a prisoner, and the two end up being sold into slavery together, jousting on a pig and a dog for their masters.
It was a far cry from what readers expected Tyrion’s story to become after he left Westeros and headed east. Most were excited to see him team up with Daenerys and help her finally return to King’s Landing. Instead, he spends the majority of the book dealing with Penny the depressed dwarf.
Some will point out that Penny plays an important role in bringing Tyrion back from the edge after killing his father and lover, that Penny helps him rediscover his empathy and shows him how sheltered his life as a dwarf has been due to his Lannister lineage. But considering readers waited 11 years between Tyrion’s escape from the capital in A Storm of Swords and his return in A Dance With Dragons, it was extremely anti-climactic.
The show does everyone a favor by leaving Penny and most of Tyrion’s slave experiences behind, getting him side by side with Daenerys Targaryen as quickly as possible.
The Fools
Fortunately, the only fool we had to deal with in the show was Ser Dontos. In the A Song of Ice and Fire books, many of the major noble houses have fools who follow them around and perform for their amusement. Some sing, some dance, and some insert japes at every opportunity. It works well enough in the books, but how would Stannis’ scenes in the show be helped by his fool Patchface, who is half mad and regularly makes prophetic riddles that sound like nonsense like this:
“The shadows come to dance, my lord, dance my lord, dance my lord. The shadows come to stay, my lord, stay my lord, stay my lord.”
The fools of other houses are not much better. The main job of House Tyrell’s fool Butterbumps is to sing loud bawdy songs so Lady Olenna can talk privately with her allies without Varys’ little birds overhearing them. And when Catelyn Stark attempts to talk her way out of the Red Wedding, she seizes and kills Walder Frey’s mentally disabled fool Jinglebell instead of Walder’s new wife.
Fortunately for us, the producers of the show realized these fools would make every scene they appeared in foolish, so we were spared them all in the television show.
Daario’s Blue Beard
In the books, Daario Naharis is described as having blue eyes, blue hair, and a long blue beard cut into three prongs. If that wasn’t pirate enough, he also had a gold tooth. Possibly realizing that this look would make him look like a lazy alien race on Stargate, the show decided to go another route completely, making Daario into a smooth charmer with long blonde hair who wouldn’t look out of place in a Calvin Klein ad instead.
They then changed their minds and recast him in season four as the Daario we know and love now: a roguish mercenary with a normal black beard.
Quentyn
In the books, Prince Doran Martell of Dorne is weaving more plots than he does in the show. One of them involves sending his son Quentyn east to seek out Daenerys Targaryen in order to marry her. Quentyn is described as being short and stout with a wide nose and jaw, and the fact that his nickname was “Frog” certainly makes him sound far from handsome.
Quentyn’s secret weapon in trying to win over Daenerys was a secret pact signed by the knight who carried Dany and her brother out of Westeros and Oberyn Martell setting up an alliance between House Targaryen and Martell. But with both of those men dead and Dany marrying to keep Meereen from descending into chaos, not much stock is put into the letter.
Quentyn’s entire plotline is long and pointless, especially because it’s obvious from the beginning it’s doomed to fail. His one actual accomplishment in the books comes when he frees Daenerys’ other two dragons from under the great pyramid. Too bad he ends up getting burned to a crisp by dragonfire in the process.
Strong Belwas
In the books, Ser Barristan Selmy doesn’t reveal himself immediately to Daenerys Targaryen. Instead, he hides his true identity and plays the role of a squire to the former pit fighting champion Strong Belwas. In Ser Barristan’s words, he wanted to see whether Daenerys was mad like her father before deciding if he should serve her or not.
As for Belwas, he is another comic relief character who spends the entire series slapping his fat belly and declaring himself the greatest fighter in the world. And eating fried onions. Lots of fried onions.
He’s not the worst character in the series (Penny), but doesn’t add much to the story. As a TV series, Game of Thrones works better without Ser Barristan playing his squire, and by giving parts performed by Belwas like the slaying of Meereen’s champion to other characters like Daario.
So what do you think? Is Game of Thrones a better show for removing these characters and elements? Or did they screw up by not including more from the books? Tell us what you think, and share what else didn’t make it that either pleased or upset you.
