14 Game of Thrones characters who were better in the books
12. Mance Rayder
Mance Rayder isn’t just a rebellious king beyond the Wall in the books. He’s a man capable of making intricate plans and deploying diplomatic skill. You get to see him in his full complexity, especially when it comes to dealing with Winterfell. Remember when we witnessed Sansa Stark being abused by the personification of evil that is Ramsay Bolton? In the books, a fake Arya Stark is sent to marry him instead, and there is a rescue mission mounted to save her. In the books, Mance is the mastermind behind that operation. He disguises himself as a bard and walks among the enemy.
In Game of Thrones, Mance Rayder (portrayed brilliantly by Ciarán Hinds) commands the room and earns a lot of respect from wildlings and viewers alike, but his strategic brilliance is never truly shown. His character arc closes very quickly when he refuses to bend the knee to Stannis Baratheon, being burned alive at the stake only to be given mercy by one of Jon Snow’s arrows. While that moment is powerful, it closes a chapter that is still ongoing in the books. The cunning schemer, the undercover bard, the one and only man who could unite clans that had been enemies for centuries; all these things are pretty lost in translation from page to screen.
13. Sansa Stark
In the books, Sansa Stark undergoes a slow-burning transformation. Her character growth doesn’t come in huge, dramatic spurts, but in a series of small, often heartbreaking lessons learned in the harsh classrooms of King’s Landing and the Vale. In the books, she adopts the alias “Alayne” while in the Vale not just as a disguise, but as a whole new identity. Under the ever-watchful (too watchful, in my humble opinion) eye of Petyr Baelish, Sansa learns to how to meddle in politics, picking up skills in diplomacy and deceit. These Alayne chapters give readers a closer look at her internal struggles and her gears turning as she learns the art of survival in a world that’s often cruel to women.
The HBO series certainly gave us a Sansa who grows stronger over time, but her development often happens with big moments, like her unfortunate marriages and her return to Winterfell. While these are definitely pivotal moments for her, the show doesn’t get to explore her subtle growth the way the books do. In the series, she’s more often acted upon by others, making her appear more as a victim of circumstance rather than a young woman learning how to survive and manipulate. I’m not saying her portrayal in the show is bad, but the book version of Sansa offers insight into her character that we don’t get to in the show.
