Game of Thrones: What book-to-show change do fans like best?

HBO has made a lot of changes to George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books when adapting them for TV. We talk a lot about how the changes hurt the story, but are there some that were beneficial? According to our poll, fans were pretty united in saying that Jon Snow’s personal journey to Hardhome, which doesn’t happen on the page, was a good move by producers.

Jon Snow, caught in the middle of a full-body sneeze.

Most people probably saw this result coming from a mile away, as “Hardhome” was far and away the most successful episode from Season 5. Commenter “Decker” put it best:

"If there’s any sort of poll that involves “best” and “Hardhome”, expect them to go hand in hand together."

Yeah, that sounds about right. Not that other choices didn’t get votes.

[polldaddy poll=9350639]

To this day, the choice to pair up Tywin and Arya at Harrenhal stands the test of time as a brilliant one, and fans clearly remember it fondly. As Galen Firestone said, “Maisie and Charles together were an amazing combination, immensely capable, and made for wonderful TV.” Also, note that those scenes paid dividends later when Littlefinger played coy with Sansa about whether he’d recognized Arya during his stop-off in Harrenhal.

Also, several commenters pointed out positive changes that weren’t included on the poll, such as Tyrion and Daenerys meeting ahead of schedule. Also, from Mag: “The best change was to make the characters older than in the books, it would suck otherwise.” I dunno about the sucking, but it definitely would have weirder to watch a 15-year-old in Robb’s role, among other things.

I was surprised by the number of people who agreed that Lady Stoneheart’s absence from the show was a good thing. Here’s King Crow on the topic:

"If the show does not use LSH, to me that suggests that GRRM never provided a good enough reason to use her…Count me in the group that is glad the show chose not to use her character while allowing the gravity of the Red Wedding to sink in."

Of course, everyone is entitled to their opposing viewpoints. Quoth Crusty Crabby Craster: “Anyone saying they are happy about LSH not being in show is a book reading Lannister or Frey lover.”

Dave had an interesting comment about how the show can provide clues about the books by cutting something.

"The Young/Old Griff plot in the books is Exhibit 1 in the critique of the latter books as being complex for the sake of complexity and for the overall plot stagnation. Glad the show cut it, although it kind of gives away the fact that Griff is a fraud/mummer’s dragon. If he was the real deal, can’t see how the show could cut it as an ancillary plot point."

Then again, now that Benioff and Weiss have all but admitted that the show and the books are heading in different directions, all bets may be off.