The first season of Game of Thrones is known for being incredibly faithful to the first novel in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, following nearly all the same events with several scenes' dialogue coming word-for-word from the book. This is not something that can be said for later seasons, where the writers had to cut out several plots for time and merged characters' arcs to keep the story more concise.
Despite its laudable faithfulness, there were several elements from the book that simply could not be fit into the TV series. Some of these were deliberate choices from the writers while others were made for the sake of time or were negligible changes in details. But a few were incredibly significant moments that helped readers understand the characters and world better.
Here, we break down the six best scenes (and one character) from A Game of Thrones that did not make it into season 1 of the television adaptation. For each, we detail what happened in the book, what its significance was, and what it meant for the show not to include it.
Tyrion and Jon's conversation about hard truths
As I mentioned in my breakdown of the first episode's deviations from the source material, Tyrion Lannister probably suffers the most regarding his characterization in the first book/season. One of the best examples of this is his mentor role for Jon and a scene they shared about a sixth of the way through the book.
While on the way to the Wall, Jon and Tyrion discuss what life is like as members of noble houses that are not fully accepted. Tyrion pokes at Jon's insecurities by mocking the Night's Watch, telling him that it is "a midden heap for all the misfits of the realm." Although Jon tries to deny it, he eventually accepts his situation and earns Tyrion's respect because, "Most men would rather deny a hard truth
than face it."
In the book, this does a lot to build the bond between Jon and Tyrion, but it's more important for what it tells the readers. While Jon might seem more optimistic and naive than Tyrion, he is willing to accept a bad situation and make the best of it. This pragmatism is what helps him thrive at the Wall, and Tyrion's words come back to him when he befriends Samwell Tarly and has to decide between Robb and the Night's Watch.
This scene isn't necessary for the plot of the story, but it does add a lot to both Tyrion and Jon's characters. They are already on parallel arcs because of the circumstances of their births, a connection further highlighted by their similar perspectives on life. In the show, they don't meet again for six seasons, at which point they clearly still view each other favorably. This would feel more earned if one of Jon's core values came from Tyrion, as it does in the book.
Bran chooses to live
After Bran is pushed out the window of the Broken Tower (but before waking up from his coma), book readers get a chapter from Bran's perspective, which helps to establish his future as the Three-Eyed Crow/Raven and gives him more agency in his survival. He has a dream or vision in which he's falling. He is warned that, if he hits the ground, he will die. A crow appears, telling him that he must choose to fly instead.
By choosing to look down, Bran learned to fly and began the process of becoming a warg. He also saw the state of the world, from his sisters in King's Landing to the Dothraki in the East and Jon in the North. With that information, he chose to live and was chosen as the greenseer needed to save the world from the coming winter.
In the context of the first book, this scene does little more than give Bran the choice of whether or not to survive his fall. But it has incredible significance in the broader story, because his role as the Three-Eyed Crow is vital to the survival of Westeros. It is a much stronger character arc because it doesn't happen by chance. Jaime pushing Bran out the window was not what decided the fate of the realm. Bran choosing freedom and sight, despite the limitations to his physical body, was.
The show does provide a few scenes with Bran dreaming about the Raven, but they are all passive. A similar scene eventually comes at the end of season 4, but by that point the audience has accepted that Bran is a chosen one, which isn't really the point. With everybody else making active choices to drive the fate of Westeros, Bran becomes little more than a plot device. This loss of agency is part of why it's considered so laughable in the finale that he has the 'best story.'
Daenerys stands up to Viserys for the first time
One of the ways in which Daenerys took advantage of a bad situation in the beginning of A Game of Thrones was by learning as much as she could about the Dothraki culture. She learned what their values and traditions were and used that knowledge to gain back some control and earn the respect of the khalasar. Her brother Viserys didn't bother, which lead to his downfall. But even before then, Daenerys was able to use her knowledge against him.
A scene exists in both the book and the show where Viserys screams at and hurts Daenerys for giving him a command. In both cases, a member of the Dothraki stops him, and Daenerys asks that they not hurt her brother. But while Rakharo tells Viserys that he will be walking from now on in Game of Thrones, in the book it's Daenerys who makes that decision, fully aware of what it means.
While this might seem like a small change, it was incredibly important to Daenerys' character journey. It was the first time she saw her brother as "a pitiful thing," the first time she stood up to him, and the first time she truly earned the respect of the Dothraki. It also resulted in a conversation with Jorah about the right to rule that was depicted in part onscreen, but while book Daenerys realized for herself that Viserys could never win Westeros back, show Daenerys had to be told by Jorah.
At the end of the day, the pieces all fall into place in both the book and the show. Daenerys grows into her own person, and Viserys falls to the very people he felt certain he was above. But the show does so in a way that minimizes Daenerys' intellect and agency, a baffling decision especially given that she is older in the series than she was in the books.
How Sansa learns about the Hound's backstory
When Sansa first meets the Hound, she is terrified of him, seeing his outward appearance and gruff manner as signs that he is as far from a knight as a person could be. But they have several conversations in both the book and series that help to expand on that relationship. One of their first and most important conversations was given to another character in the series, completely changing its function.
While walking Sansa back to her room, the Hound forces her to look at his burned face and tells her the story of how it happened. While it's not a gentle scene, it is a vulnerable one where Sansa begins to learn that knights are not inherently chivalrous. In the show, the story of Sandor's burns is told by Littlefinger as a way to frighten Sansa and make her rely on him more in the future.
This scene does a lot of work to deconstruct both Sansa and the reader's idea of a traditional hero, which sets the stage for their dynamic moving forward. Sandor Clegane is fascinated with Sansa, who is from a completely different world than him. She was sheltered and naive, and he wanted to change that, hence telling her about his brother's brutality. Instead, she changed him by offering him compassion, which led to him subtly rebelling against Joffrey for her sake.
While the relationship still exists in the show, it doesn't feel as earned as it does in the book because there is no longer a basis for mutual trust to form. When Sandor told Sansa about his brother, he made himself vulnerable, and she rewarded that with kindness and the promise to keep his secret. Without that, he has no reason to see her as different from any other lady of the court, and she has no reason to trust him at all.
Brynden Tully
While nearly every significant character from A Game of Thrones was adapted to screen in the first season, Brynden Tully is an odd outlier. He doesn't show up in the series until season 3, despite first appearing halfway through the first book, a decision which makes the Tully family as a whole seem far less developed than it is in the books.
Brynden, known as the Blackfish, is Catelyn's uncle, estranged from the family due to conflict with his brother, Lord Hoster Tully. At the start of the book, he serves House Arryn as Knight of the Gate, which is how he gets drawn back into the Stark-Lannister conflict. When Catelyn brings Tyrion to the Vale, Brynden serves as a confidant for her and ultimately chooses to side with her and the Starks rather than participating in the neutrality Lysa demanded.
While Brynden is most notable to the plot for his assistance with Rob's war efforts, he is also an important figure in fleshing out Catelyn and her family. Through him, we know that Lysa's actions are truly irrational, and not just the result of viewing them as a biased outsider. We learn more about Catelyn's father Hoster Tully, who was so stubborn he carried on a nearly lifelong grudge against his brother for disobeying orders. And we see someone who isn't from the North support the idea of Robb continuing to rebel.
Brynden's absence from the show's first two seasons is partially because of a shift in focus, as Robb is more of a POV character than Catelyn, despite never getting a chapter of his own in the books. Without seeing Brynden's counsel, Robb seems like a more impressive leader. But viewers lose an interesting character who balances honor and loyalty with pragmatism as he tries to do what is right.
Jon fights for Sam in the Night's Watch
Perhaps the most important scene cut from the first season of Game of Thrones was when Jon fought for Sam, because it solidified their friendship, showed off his values, and convinced Commander Mormont to train him for leadership. In the show, Jon's cohort of recruits just become members of the Night's Watch. But the book version is much more complex, because Sam didn't originally make the cut. This was a huge deal because Jon and his friends had been protecting him, and if he was left at training without them, there was a good chance he was going to die.
To keep that from happening, Jon goes to Maester Aemon in the middle of the night to beg that Sam be allowed to join the Knight's Watch. While another man says that Sam is useless to them, Jon argues "the Night’s Watch needs all sorts," suggesting that he be made a steward. In addition to arguing that Sam would die if he didn't advance, Jon highlights how Sam's skills (like reading and writing) would be of real value.
It's a critical scene because it shows Jon stepping up as a leader. He's compassionate towards the weakest of their brothers, but he also sees Sam's true value. He was willing to go to one of the most powerful people at the Wall, fight back against all disagreement, and prove his point. I would go so far as to say that it's Jon's best moment in the entire book.
Without this scene, the show loses some of the brutality of the Night's Watch, as well as a strong opportunity to show off Jon's best traits. It's this display of loyalty that makes his relationship with Sam so deep, and the boldness of his request makes him stand out as a possible successor for the Lord Commander. In both versions, Jon will go on to throw a hissy fit over being named a steward himself, but this scene is precisely why he was given the role.
Cersei tries to seduce Ned
Of all Ned Stark's mistakes, there is likely none more deadly than telling Cersei that he knew the truth about her children's paternity. It's no surprise, then, that the majority of the scene where he does so was adapted word-for-word from page to screen. But there was a major element of the conversation that was left out of the television version.
In the book, after Ned confronts Cersei with the truth and she tells him why she hates Robert, he tells her that he knows what he must do. She responds to that by touching him, telling him "If friends can turn to enemies, enemies can become friends. Your wife is a thousand leagues away, and my
brother has fled. Be kind to me, Ned. I swear to you, you shall never regret it." He soundly rejects her, which is when he tells her to flee and she delivers the iconic line about "play[ing] the game of thrones."
It's a tiny section to cut, but it is significant. In the next book, Cersei tells Sansa that sexuality is a woman's weapon, so her attempt to seduce Ned was part of a battle plan. But it also gave him another chance to save himself. Perhaps she would have killed him anyway, but there was a possibility that Ned would say yes, and they could have avoided the War of the Five Kings altogether. When she mentions that he could have claimed the throne during Robert's Rebellion, she is implicitly telling him that he has another chance if he accepts her offer.
Without that exchange, two things change for the show. First, there is no world where Ned makes it out of King's Landing. With this one choice, he has doomed himself and (at least in the short term) his family. But perhaps more significantly, this scene is a loss for Cersei. It's the first time we see her try to manipulate a man through sex where it doesn't work, and while she wins a physical victory over Ned, he wins the moral victory. Losing this small scene reinforces the idea that honorable men can never win, rather than allowing the complexity that both of them won and both of them lost.
There is always going to be more richness in a book than in its adaptation, simply due to time constraints. The audiobook version of A Game of Thrones takes 34 hours to get through, and the show only had 10. Frankly, the sheer amount that they were able to cover is remarkable. But the first season succeeded by primarily focusing on the conflict between the Starks and Lannisters, which meant losing scenes and characters that improved the world more tangentially.
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