A Storm of Swords, the third book in George R. R. Martin's epic A Song of Ice and Fire series of novels, would make for a challenge to adapt to the screen for Game of Thrones. Despite the length and density of the first two books, A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings, book 3 proved to be even longer and denser. Additionally, the book's most important sequence, the infamous Red Wedding, takes place towards the middle of the story, making it hard to fit the typical ten episode structure of a Game of Thrones season, which places its climax in the ninth episode,
The Game of Thrones creative team cleverly solved this problem by splitting A Storm of Swords into two seasons. Season 3 roughly covered the first half of the book, leading up to the Red Wedding in Episode 9, and season 4 told the story of the second half of the book, centering on the aftermath of the Red Wedding, the subsequent death of King Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) and the resulting trial of his uncle Tyrion (Peter Dinklage), and the Battle at Castle Black between the Night's Watch and the forces of the Free Folk.
This results in two of the strongest seasons in all of Game of Thrones, even if they expand upon the series' trend of deviating from the source material. Reshuffling the story also leads to some major changes, including one subtle tweak that completely transforms the journey of one of the franchise's most important characters.
Jaime's journey in A Storm of Swords
A Storm of Swords marks the first time Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) acts as a point-of-view character. Previously, Jaime came across as a one note villain, designed for fans to love to hate, so this extra focus and perspective gave the character much more depth, transforming him into one of the best and most complex figures in the entire series.
At the end of A Game of Thrones, Jaime finds himself captured by Robb Stark (Richard Madden), and he spends A Clash of Kings in chains. However, Lady Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley), believing her sons to be dead, releases Jaime, handing him over to the care of Brienne of Tarth (Gwendoline Christie) in hopes to exchange him for her hostage daughters, Arya (Maisie Williams) and Sansa (Sophie Turner).
Most of Jaime's chapters in A Storm of Swords follow his travels with Brienne to King's Landing. On his way, he loses his hand, courtesy of Vargo Hoat of the Brave Companions. He also gains a begrudging respect for Brienne, going out of his way to save her from the clutches of a deadly bear. While he does eventually return to King's Landing, he arrives too late to save his king and secret son Joffrey, who died at his own wedding.
Jaime comes home a little earlier in the show
Because the story is told in a slightly different order on screen, Jaime's arrival at King's Landing takes place in the Season 3 finale, "Mhysa," in Game of Thrones. This frames his reunion with Cersei (Lena Heady) as the conclusion to his arc throughout the first season in which he plays a protagonist role.
However, as a result of this change, Jaime is able to attend Joffrey's wedding. Therefore, unlike in the books, where he simply hears about the event after his arrival in the capital, he watches his nephew/son die in person.
In every version of the story, Jaime starts questioning his worth as a member of the Kingsguard due to allowing Joffrey to die. However, this affects Jaime differently whether he was present for Joffrey's death or not. In the books, Jaime blames himself for not arriving to King's Landing sooner, in hopes that he could have saved Joffrey if he had been there. In the show, both Jaime and the audience know that his presence wouldn't have made a difference, and Joffrey was doomed to die regardless.
Shortly before Joffrey's death, Game of Thrones features a scene in which the vicious king taunts Jaime, comparing his ultimately lackluster page in the Kingsguard's book of brothers to the likes of legendary knights, including Ser Barristan Selmy (Ian McElhinney) and Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey). Having lost his hand, Jaime is unlikely to match their great deeds, and his loss of combat prowess combined with his failure to protect his king results in show Jaime's growing feelings of impotence as a member of the Kingsguard. As such, book Jaime feels like a failure by his own measure, while show Jaime feels like a failure by the metrics of others, including the king he vowed to keep safe and couldn't.
For more from the world of Westeros, make sure to stream Season 1 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms on HBO Max. Or get in on a rewatch of the original series to celebrate its 15th anniversary, and come along with us on our month long journey looking back on the series. Whatever course you choose for your next trip to Seven Kingdoms, we've got you covered.