Five Ways Game Of Thrones Season 5 Improved On The Books

3. Old friends return

Game of Thrones, like any show, should avoid spotlighting fan-favorite characters merely because they’re fan-favorite characters. That’s indulgent, and the producers may find that the fan-favorites are no longer so favored after being inserted where they don’t belong.

On the other hand, if the writers can find a logical way to bring beloved characters back into the narrative, it can make for good TV. Case in point: it was fun to see Diana Rigg back in action as Olenna Tyrell in Season 5, even if she wasn’t in King’s Landing during the corresponding events from A Feast for Crows. Her tête-à-têtes with Cersei in Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken and with the High Sparrow in The Gift were high points from those episodes. She gave a jolt to a plotline that tended to sag in the middle.

There’s a logical necessity to bringing back old characters on TV shows that’s doesn’t apply to books. For example, the show could have searched far and wide for an actor to play Arya’s mentor in the House of Black and White, but if she’s dealing with a group of people who can change their faces at will, why not just bring back Tom Wlaschiha as Jaqen H’ghar (or as someone who looks like him)? The show didn’t have to expend the resources to find a new actor*, and we all got to enjoy Wlaschiha bringing his blend of creepy stalker meets protective big brother back to the screen.

Even Bronn, a character the show bent over backwards to bring back into the fold, at least livened up the spotty Dornish plot with his renditions of “The Dornishman’s Wife.” All things told, it probably would have been better for everyone had Bronn remained offscreen following Season 4, but if he’s going to be around, at least the show got some use out of him.

*True, the production cast Cedric Henderson as a nameless Faceless Man in the second episode, but he was never meant to last a whole season. The search for an actor to play a new character with a robust role likely would have taken longer.