5. Patchface
Ah, Patchface. He's not the most important character in the books, but he is one of the more mysterious ones. Most recognizable as the jester that accompanies Stannis Baratheon's daughter Shireen wherever she goes, Patchface has an unusual past. Orignally from Volantis, Patchface was bought by Stannis' father Lord Stefon Baratheon and taken back with him to Storm's End. The ship they are on ends up getting torn apart by a storm right before reaching the castle, and everyone is killed except for Patchface, who washes up ashore three days later. The trauma took his memories, bent his sanity, and made him into a more of a fool than he ever had been before. Although the castellan of Storm's End originally wanted to let Patchface die, he changed his mind, and now the fool spends most of his days with Shireen. What makes Patchface unique is that to most ears his poems and song are incoherent dribble, but on occasion these chants have predicted future events. He predicted the events of the Red Wedding, and other chants may also be prophetic. Although this may all be coincidence, Stannis' red priestess Melisandre told Jon Snow that she had seen Patchface in her visions, saying that, "sometimes there are skulls about him, and his lips are red with blood." With two books left in the series, it's possible that the fool of Storm's End plays a bigger role in the game of thrones than most of us expected. As for why he hasn't been included in the show, show writer Bryan Cogman says it's because they wanted to avoid character introduction overload, but it's possible he might pop up in the future. I understand the need to limit the introduction of characters in the TV show. Compared to the book, it's harder introducing too many characters at once because the audience might get confused. Still, I think leaving Patchface out was an unwise move. Last season there weren't that many scenes with Shireen, and most of her time was spent befriending Ser Davos. It couldn't have hurt to have Patchface appear a couple of times in the background dancing, and maybe even having him say a couple of lines foretelling future events. It would make for a cool Easter Egg for those re-watching the episodes at a later date.