10 ways Game of Thrones improved on A Song of Ice and Fire

4. Arya and the Hound

It’s hard to remember due to how much Game of Thrones condensed plotlines in its later seasons, but there was a time where the show actually significantly expanded on events. I’m referring mostly to seasons 3 and 4, both of which mostly draw on A Storm of Swords, the third Song of Ice and Fire novel. Given the huge number of major events that happen in the book, it’s no surprise that the show’s writers decided to take their time with it.

One wonderful side effect of this mid-series stretch is that some of the iconic plotlines fans loved from the books got a whole lot more love in the show. Case in point: Arya Stark’s travels with the Hound. In A Storm of Swords, Arya and the Hound only get two chapters together after the Red Wedding, one where he takes her to the Eyrie and and then a seemingly fatal fight at an inn, where Arya ends up leaving him to head for Braavos.

In the show, we got a whole season of Arya and Sandor Clegane traveling Westeros. The mentorship that was hinted at in the book is so much more fleshed out. Of course, it helps that Maisie Williams and Rory McCann had fantastic chemistry and that the writing was top notch.

Aside from all the extra scenes Arya and the Hound got to share, the fact that the show decided to focus on their travels for an entire season also gave them have a much clearer arc together. It culminated in one of the most brutal fight scenes of Game of Thrones‘ entire run, when Brienne and the Hound faced off to decide who should get to protect Arya.

(Hint: Neither of them get to. Arya does what she wants.)