8 Missing Characters From A Song Of Ice And Fire That Should Have Appeared In Game Of Thrones
You just never know, this lot might have even salvaged the final season.
It is hard to overstate the cultural impact of Game of Thrones.
HBO's adaptation of George RR Martin's fantasy epic was a global megahit, spawning eight wildly popular seasons that were a critical and commercial wildfire of success.
To say that the books upon which the show is based are long is a understatement. The shortest entry in the series is A Game of Thrones at a hefty 694 pages, while the latest installment, A Dance with Dragons, clocks in at a whopping 1,016.
With the colossal amount of source material, it is easy to see why the showrunners simply could not find space for several storylines and characters that feature prominently within the books.
With that being said, there are several characters who do not feature in HBO's Game of Thrones that possess such a rich back story or character arc ripe with potential that it is hard to see how their inclusion would have done anything but increase the already top tier quality of the phenomenal series.
The consensus botched ending of Game of Thrones was the showrunners' worst sin, but their omission of these characters is a very close second.
8. Lady Jeyne Westerling
The least egregious character omission from Game of Thrones; Jeyne Westerling, the wife of Robb Stark.
The writers of the show replaced her character with Lady Talisa, who the betrothed Stark takes as his wife. In the books, Robb finds comfort in Jeyne's arms after the reported death of his brothers at the hands of Theon Greyjoy; he subsequently marries her to protect her honor.
It's likely the showrunners wanted more of a love story in order to better resonate with audiences, which is why they chose to portray a more romantic narrative between Robb and new character Talisa. This development definitely makes it that little bit more devastating when both are mercilessly assassinated at the Red Wedding.
That being said, Jeyne's character arc in Martin's novels provides potential material for an explosive storyline; Jeyne survives the Red Wedding as her family are actually complicit in the plot to murder her husband. In a further tantalizing twist, Jeyne is rumored to be carrying Robb's son.
The political ramifications of a son born of the murdered King of the North would have provided a Shakespearean-level plot line to the show's story and would have made for compelling viewing. Who knows, there may have been room down the line for a little Inigo Montoya-style revenge for the young Stark.