‘Game of Thrones’ Made 2 Mistakes It Could Never Undo

Image via HBO Published Oct 14, 2026, 11:39 PM EDT Michael Hein has been covering entertainment, fandom news, and trending topics since 2016 on outlets including Rogues Portal, PopCulture.com, and ComicBook.com. He has provided live coverage of red carpet premieres, conventions, and up-fronts, and has interviewed major stars including Charles Dance, Patrick Stewart, and Chloe Sevigny. An avid fiction reader and writer, Michael has been diving deep into all the biggest book-to-screen adaptations of the last decade, from Game of Thrones to Foundation. Sign in to your Collider account HBO's Game of Thrones had a notoriously unsatisfying ending, but in the years since the finale, many fans have revised their estimations of when the series went off the rails. The fantasy series started out strong, not least of all because it stuck closely to its source material, A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin. It's an oversimplification to say that adaptations fail when they don't stick to the books, but for Game of Thrones it's more or less true. The show began to break away from Martin's plot in Season 4, then went wildly off-book in Season 5. Two of Season 5's story lines broke the narrative irretrievably: Sansa Stark's (Sophie Turner) marriage to Ramsay Bolton (Iwan Rheon) and Jaime Lannister's (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) adventure in Dorne. There are plenty of other places where Game of Thrones deviated from A Song of Ice and Fire — mostly for the worse. In many places, characters and side quests were completely omitted, but these two cases are different. In Martin's books, it's not Sansa but another character who married Ramsay, which had all kinds of ripple effects on the plot. Martin himself has written about the "butterfly effect" when adaptations make small changes, and this is a prime example. As for Jaime's time in Dorne, it pulled him away from a compelling part of the books without adding anything significant, breaking the pacing of his redemption arc. 'Game of Thrones' Hardly Adapted 'A Feast for Crows' and 'A Dance with Dragons' With some exceptions, the first four seasons of Game of Thrones are a pretty faithful adaptation of the first three books in A Song of Ice and Fire. After that, the show played it fast and loose with the material from the fourth book, A Feast for Crows and the fifth book, A Dance with Dragons. Sansa and Jaime's stories in Season 5 are the most emblematic of this issue. In the books, Sansa is actually still in the Vale, disguised as Littlefinger's (Aidan Gillen) daughter. The show made this look like a prison sentence for her, but in the books she spends this time learning quite a bit. She applies the lessons she took from King's Landing, analyzes Littlefinger's political machinations, and begins cultivating her own rapport with various allies. Meanwhile, in the books Ramsay announces to the world that he is marrying Arya Stark (Maisie Williams), not Sansa. However, he is actually marrying Jeyne Poole, the daughter of Winterfell's chief steward and a childhood friend of Sansa. This means Jeyne is able to pose as Arya convincingly, lending some legitimacy to House Bolton as they try to take over the North. It's not clear who knows Jeyne is an imposter and who is fooled, but Jon Snow (Kit Harrington) believes she is the real Arya, and he sends wildlings south to rescue her. Presumably, if the books have a confrontation similar to the "Battle of the Bastards," Sansa will be there in part to rescue either Arya or Jeyne. As for Jaime, in the books he doesn't even consider traveling to Dorne to rescue Myrcella (Nell Tiger Free). After their father's funeral, Cersei (Lena Headey) sends him to the Riverlands against his will. Ostensibly, she wants him to secure House Lannister's hold there and put down any remnants of the war with the North, but on a personal level she is angry with Jaime and wants to be away from him. She sees his lost hand as a failure, and even blames him for the deaths of their father and Joffrey (Jack Gleeson), as well as for Tyrion's (Peter Dinklage) escape. Cersei is also having affairs with several other people, and does not want Jaime to find out. Jaime is heartbroken by Cersei's dismissal, but he does his best to act with honor back in the Riverlands. It's an uphill battle considering his reputation, but he still manages to avert some fighting and broker compromises. It's worth noting that he does not have Bronn (Jerome Flynn) with him. In the books, Bronn has married a minor noble and retired to her estate in the country. Jaime gets a letter from Cersei begging him to rescue her from the Faith of the Seven, but he burns it and leaves her to her fate. The last we see of Jaime, he is running off with Brienne (Gwendolyn Christie) to see the reanimated Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley), now known as "Lady Stoneheart." 'Game of Thrones' Adds Nothing With These Changes Image via HBO We don't know where Martin is heading with either of these plots, and unless he publishes The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring, we may never know. What we can say is that the plots Game of Thrones' showrunners put in their places do nothing to enrich the series. Much has been written about Sansa's marriage to Ramsay — it is gratuitous, it leads nowhere, and many survivors find it to be an insulting depiction of abuse. By the end of the series, Sansa has processed the experience entirely off-screen, and seems only to have become more shallow and cruel because of it. Meanwhile, this storyline derails whatever sinister plans Littlefinger has for Sansa in the books, leaving him as a loose thread to be hastily tucked away in the Season 7 finale. Jaime's Dornish adventure is also rightfully critiqued as offensive for its flattened depiction of Dorne as a foreign land. The southernmost kingdom is reduced to a joke about promiscuity and spicy food, while Jaime's escape strains the bounds of believability. The whole point seems to have been a scene where Jaime and Myrcella speak frankly about their secret familial bond, but it goes nowhere as Myrcella dies immediately, and Jaime does nothing to foster closeness with his last remaining child. Collider Exclusive · Game of Thrones Personality Quiz Which Game of Thrones House Do You Belong To? Stark · Lannister · Targaryen · Baratheon · Tyrell Five great houses. Five completely different answers to the same question: how do you hold power in a world that will take it from you the moment you stop paying attention? Eight questions will determine where your loyalties — and your nature — truly lie. 🐺Stark 🦁Lannister 🐉Targaryen 🦌Baratheon 🌹Tyrell FIND YOUR HOUSE → 01 Someone powerful is acting dishonourably and everyone knows it. What do you do? In Westeros, the answer to this question has ended more than one great house. ACall it out, openly and on the record. If honour means anything, it has to mean something when it's costly. BUse it. Information about someone else's dishonour is leverage — and leverage is power. CAct decisively to correct it — with or without the approval of those around me. DChallenge them directly. Strength settles disputes more honestly than courtroom manoeuvring. ENavigate carefully — build alliances, apply quiet pressure, and create a situation where the right outcome becomes inevitable. NEXT QUESTION → 02 What is the source of your power? Every house endures because of something. What is it for yours? AThe loyalty of people who trust me — earned over generations, not bought with gold. BWealth, intelligence, and the willingness to use both without sentiment. CA legacy so fearsome and a vision so total that opposition becomes unthinkable. DPhysical strength, military force, and the respect that comes from being the kind of person nobody wants to fight. ECharm, connection, and the ability to make powerful people feel that my success is also theirs. NEXT QUESTION → 03 Who do you truly fight for? Strip away the banners and the words. The honest answer tells you everything. AMy family and my people — those who depend on me and have kept faith with me through everything. BMy family — the ones who share my blood, even when they exhaust me, even when they disappoint me. CMy cause — a vision larger than any single person, including me. DMyself, and those few who've proven themselves worth fighting beside. EMy house — its name, its future, the position I intend to leave it in when I'm gone. NEXT QUESTION → 04 How do you deal with your enemies? A house's method reveals its character as clearly as its words ever could. AHonestly — I face them directly, and I give quarter when it's warranted. BThoroughly — I don't leave loose ends, and I don't make the same enemy twice. CDecisively — fire answers questions that diplomacy only delays. DHead-on — I'd rather meet a threat on the battlefield than behind closed doors. EElegantly — I prefer to make former enemies into allies, or at least into people who owe me something. NEXT QUESTION → 05 What kind of ruler do you believe in? Westeros is full of answers to this question. Most of them end badly. AA just one — someone who serves the realm rather than using it, who leads by example rather than fear. BA capable one — someone smart enough to navigate the game, ruthless enough to win it, and realistic about what winning costs. CA transformative one — someone who doesn't just rule what exists but reshapes what's possible. DA strong one — someone whose authority is beyond question because the alternative is obviously worse. EA wise one — someone who understands that the realm is fed by more than armies, and that a full stomach keeps more peace than a sharp sword. NEXT QUESTION → 06 You suffer a devastating loss. How does your house respond? How a house handles defeat tells you more about it than how it handles victory. AWe grieve, properly and together — and then we endure, because endurance is what we do. BWe adapt. We reassess. And we ensure that whoever caused this loss comes to regret it completely. CWe burn hotter. Setbacks don't soften us — they clarify what needs to happen next. DWe hit back. Grief and revenge are the same motion in our house. EWe regroup quietly, rebuild our position, and return when we're ready — on our terms, not theirs. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Which of these truths about Westeros do you most believe? Every house has a philosophy. This is yours. AThe lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. Nothing matters more than the people you protect. BA Lannister always pays their debts — in gold or in kind. Reputation is built on consistency. CI am the blood of the dragon. Some destinies are written before the person who carries them is born. DOurs is the fury. When we move, we move completely — and we don't stop until it's done. EGrowing strong means knowing when to bloom and when to wait. Patience is its own kind of power. NEXT QUESTION → 08 The Iron Throne is within reach. What do you do? The answer reveals not just your ambition — but your character. AClaim it only if the realm needs me to — and rule in a way that makes it worth having. BEnsure someone who owes us sits in it. The power behind the throne is safer than the throne itself. CTake it. It was always meant to be mine — I feel that in my bones and in my blood. DSeize it — with both hands, without hesitation. Opportunity in Westeros does not wait to be asked. EPosition my house to be indispensable to whoever sits there — influence outlasts any single reign. REVEAL MY HOUSE → The Maester Has Spoken Your House Is…Your answers point to the great house whose words, values, and way of surviving in Westeros match your own. Bend the knee — or don't. That's very much up to you. 🐺 House StarkWinter is Coming — and you have always known it. You prepare not out of fear but out of duty, because the people who depend on you deserve someone who takes the long view. You lead with honour even when it costs you, because you understand that a reputation built on integrity is the only one worth having. Your loyalty to family and people runs deep — not as sentiment but as a code that doesn't bend when things get difficult. The North endures because Starks endure — not by being the cleverest players in the game, but by being the kind of people others are willing to follow into the cold. You are that kind of person. The pack survives. The lone wolf dies. You already know which one you are. 🦁 House LannisterYou understand the game — its rules, its exceptions, and exactly when the rules become the exception. You play it without illusions and without apology. You are sharper than most people realise, and you have learned to use that gap to your advantage. A Lannister always pays their debts — and you always keep your word, because your word is an instrument of power, and instruments must be kept in working order. You love your family with a ferocity that sometimes blinds you, and you know it, and you do it anyway. The lion doesn't concern itself with the opinion of sheep. Neither, in the end, do you. 🐉 House TargaryenYou carry a sense of destiny that is difficult to explain and impossible to ignore — the feeling that you are not simply participating in the world but meant to reshape it. You are capable of extraordinary things, and you know it, and that knowledge is both your greatest strength and your most dangerous quality. Fire and blood are not just words to you — they are a philosophy about what change requires and what it costs. The Targaryens at their best were transformative rulers who broke chains and defied the limits of what anyone thought possible. At your best, so are you. The dragon has three heads. You are one of them. 🦌 House BaratheonYou are a force — direct, powerful, and difficult to ignore when you enter a room or a conflict. You do not negotiate with challenges. You meet them. Ours is the fury — and yours is a kind of intensity that commands attention, respect, and occasionally fear from those who underestimate what's behind it. You value strength and straight dealing. You'd rather know where you stand in a fight than navigate a web of courtly whispers. The Baratheons built their house on the back of one of the greatest military victories in Westerosi history — and then struggled with what came after. The lesson of your house is that winning is not the end of the story. Governing is. You are learning that too. 🌹 House TyrellYou understand that power does not always announce itself — that sometimes it arrives with flowers, good wine, and a smile that doesn't quite reach the eyes. Growing strong is your house's motto, and you live it: patiently, strategically, always investing in the relationships and resources that will matter most when it counts. You are charming by choice and calculating by nature — a combination that makes you one of the most effective players in any room you enter. The Tyrells fed King's Landing and shaped its politics without ever sitting on the Iron Throne — and they were arguably more powerful for it. You know that the person who controls the food controls the kingdom. And you always know where the food is. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons spend a lot of time in Dorne on completely unrelated subplots, which can't be described succinctly here. The books do leave Myrcella alive as a bargaining chip, and they loop Dorne into several other conspiracies spanning around the world. It's debatable whether these are heading anywhere important in the books' version of events, but if the show had nothing better to do, it should have stuck to the source material in this case. The post-mortem on Game of Thrones may never end — especially if Martin does not finish his novels. The series started so strong and fell so flat, despite being a global sensation with a functionally unlimited budget from HBO. Hopefully one day the series will be finished properly in some form, but in the meantime Game of Thrones is streaming on HBO Max, and A Song of Ice and Fire is available in print, digital, and audiobook formats. Release Date 2011 - 2019-00-00 Showrunner David Benioff, D.B. Weiss Directors David Nutter, Alan Taylor, D.B. Weiss, David Benioff Nine noble families fight for control over the lands of Westeros while an ancient enemy returns after being dormant for millennia.