Game of Thrones - Mid-season Comparison of the Series to the Books

We're halfway through the first and altogether too short season of HBO's Game of Thrones, so I thought I'd share my opinion of the series compared to the books. Three MAJOR changes stand out to me and While I understand some of the changes, others I don't understand, but they all affect the overall story in some way...


Story Structure:
The first major and necessary change is the story structure itself. In the book A Game of Thrones, every chapter is seen through the eyes of one specific 'point of view' character and that POV role changes for each chapter. There are only 8 POV characters (excluding the prologue and epilogue): Eddard Stark, Catelyn Stark, Sansa Stark, Arya Stark, Bran Stark, Jon Snow, Tyrion Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen. Any scene in the series that doesn't involve one of those eight is a new scene either created completely by the writers or expanded from a reference in the books.

This needed to be done to let the story flow more naturally and also to give other characters more weight and context. Some of the more effective scenes in the series were created by the writers so I am glad they took that approach. Imagine not having a Littlefinger/Varys confrontation, no Renly/Loras medieval manscaping, no Jaime/Cersei encounters, and no Robert/Cersei dialogs either. The series would be worse for it without a doubt.


Direwolves:
The second major change from the books is how the series deals with the Direwolves. In the book the wolves are basically in every scene the stark kids are. We get to see aspects of the kids through the interactions with their wolf pups. We get to feel their connection to the wolves and that connection is important in later books. It's been greatly ignored, but if the dogs were too difficult to work with it is understandable to some degree. In my mind if the dogs are too difficult to put into active scenes, they should at least be in the background trailing behind the Starks or sitting near their feet just being there.

It's important to realize that each of the Direwolves is a representation of its master. A few examples... Sansa's pup Lady is the most trusting, most well behaved, most docile and pretty of all the wolves. Sound like anyone we know? Arya's wolf Nymeria is smart and can learn anything in short order, but she is stubborn and doesn't always follow her mistress's orders. Most important of the wolves in AGOT is Jon's albino wolf Ghost. He is always there when Jon is around. If Ghost is not mentioned in a Jon scene, he is conspicuous by his absence... That's how much he's around Jon. We learn that the little white fur ball is unafraid even when engaged by much larger adult dogs. He simply stands over his bone, silently glares with his red eyes at the large dog and shows his inner strength until the large dog skulks away defeated by silence.

The Direwolves are a reflection of the Starks, the North and the kids themselves. As Sansa travels to King's Landing to learn to be a lady before her marriage to Joffrey, Lady is killed. Sansa was leaving the North and the Starks and her wolf is the first to be killed... Coincidence? A punishment for being too trusting? A warning that docile, naive ladies do not last long in the Seven Kingdoms? So much story context is missed without the wolves and their interaction with the Starks.

Time Perspective:
GRRM is not always good about giving dates or lengths of time in his books, but with so much more material and story in the book, you have a greater "feel" for the timeline.

The ammount of time that takes place between scenes and between episodes is too hard to determine in the series. Is it an hour? A day? A week? It's been all of those and every amount in between.

I will try to add a little scale of time to the series thus far. Did you know the duration of the first 5 episodes is more than 5 months? I used my research and 2 different timelines online, but some of the dates are approximations... The majority are are directly taken for GRRM's words and others gleaned from references GRRM uses in the book.

Episode 1:
- The Prologue happens
- Jon Arryn dies
- Cat gets raven from Lysa in King's Landing saying Robert is coming, Jon Arryn is dead
- About 2-3 weeks later Robert arrives in Winterfell
- A day or two after Robert arrives is the welcoming feast
- The next day Ned accepts the job offer from Robert to be The Hand
- Within a few days Bran "falls"

Episode 2:
- The King's party and the Night's Watch leave Winterfell
- Catelyn sits at Bran's side for 2 weeks until the assassination attempt
- 8 days after everyone leaves the assassination attempt on Bran occurs
- 4 days after the assassination attempt Catelyn leaves Winterfell to warn Ned
- 18 days after leaving Winterfell Jon and Tyrion have the "A mind needs books" chat
- About a month out of Winterfell Nymeria attacks Joffrey
- 4 days after the wolf attack Arya is found - Lady killed by Ned

Episode 3:
- About a week later Jon arrives at the wall
- 3 days after Jon arrives Benjen Stark leaves to patrol outside the wall
- 4 days after Jon arrives Gren, Pyp and Toad attack Jon
- More than a week after arriving at the wall Tyrion leaves the Wall
- About 7 or 8 weeks after leaving Winterfell Catelyn and Rodrik arrive in King's Landing
- 5 days after Catelyn arrives Ned arrives in King's Landing (about 9 weeks after leaving Winterfell)
- A week or two later after Ned arrives in KL, Catelyn leaves King's Landing

Episode 4:
- About 3 weeks after leaving the Wall Tyrion arrives at Winterfell
- Sam arrives at The Wall
- 8 days after leaving King's Landing Catelyn kidnaps Tyrion at the Crossrods Inn
- About 3 to 4 weeks after Ned arrives in King's Landing The Hand's Tournament happens

Episode 5:
- 5 days after the kidnap Catelyn's group is ambushed by hill tribesman
- Less than a week after the ambush Catelyn arrives at The Eyrie
- Day two of the tournament and the tournament ends
- A few days after the tournament Ned quits being The Hand
- That night Jaime attacks Ned outside the brothel

Episode 6:
- Within a week of arriving at The Eyrie Tyrion requests trial by combat
- 6 days and 7 nights after the Lannister attack Ned wakes up
- Robert goes hunting the next day after telling Ned he is still The Hand
- A few days after leaves to hunt Ned sends Dondarrion after Gregor
- The next day Sansa and Arya are told they are returning to Winterfell

So non-readers, let me know how this changes your perceptions of the series. Readers, feel free to correct any errors or just give opinions related to my themes or not. Sound off... even little people can have a big mouth - just look at Tyrion!