Five Ways Game Of Thrones Season 5 Improved On The Books
By Dan Selcke
1. “Hardhome” reveals the real stakes of the series
By and large, most fans agree that “Hardhome” was the high point of Season 5, in large part because the massive battle between the living and the dead that took up the back half of the episode was a thrill to watch.* However, we’d seen expertly staged battle scenes before in “Blackwater” and “The Watchers on the Wall.” Those episode have a lot to recommend them, but neither quite inspired the enthusiasm that the Massacre at Hardhome did.
What’s the difference? White Walkers. The Massacre at Hardhome wasn’t just a electric piece of action television—it was the payoff to over four years of frightened whispers about mysterious creatures we’d all been told represented a huge threat to Westeros. Finally, we saw them in action, and came to understand exactly why the people of the Seven Kingdoms should be so afraid of them. “Hardhome” made the danger real.
And for all their virtues, that’s something the books haven’t really done yet, which may well be by design. George R.R. Martin could have sent Jon Snow to Hardhome to witness the terrible power of the White Walkers first hand, as happens on the show. But he didn’t, perhaps because he wants to keep them in the shadows until the time is right. That’s a valid strategy, but the long slow tease can be grating.
There’s much to be said for the show’s more direct approach. “Hardhome” let us get up close and personal with the real enemy—not the various factions squabbling for the Iron Throne, but the race of otherworldly creatures who threaten to stomp them all out of existence. That gives the show a bold new direction as it heads into its endgame.
Giving the White Walkers this much face time ahead of the books was a gamble, but one that paid off handsomely.
*It’s worth noting that the rest of episode was pretty great, too. The conversations between Daenerys and Tyrion, Sansa learning that Bran and Rickon were alive, Cersei slurping water off the floor of her cell…this episode fired on all cylinders.