Game Of Thrones: 10 Things From The TV Show That WON'T Be In The Winds Of Winter

2. Stannis Is Killed By... Brienne?

In The Show:

After a tumultuous time in the North in which he sacrifices his daughter, loses his wife to suicide, and is abandoned by his closest advisor, Stannis Baratheon ends season 5 feeling a little hard done by.

For despite everything that he’d gone through to get there, he ends up with his army decimated by the combined forces of desertion and the Boltons. As he lay bloodied in the wintry forests outside Winterfell, he must have been wondering how things could get any worse.

Enter Brienne of Tarth, who just so happens to be in the area set on rescuing Sansa Stark… but vengeance wins out over valour. Stannis is momentarily stunned when Brienne accuses him of the murder of his brother Renly by unholy means; you can forgive him for having to search his memory for this particular sin, amidst the more recent ones. Ever to the point, he relents and urges Brienne to do her duty - and she duly abides.

And so, it’s the death of Renly that ultimately comes back to bite Stannis, just as Brienne had vowed way back in season 2.

Why It WON’T Happen In Winds:

Having a character end up so simply executed by the most obvious candidate (read: someone who specifically promised to do so earlier on) is rarely how things play out in ASOIAF.

Crucially, we only need to look at where Stannis and Brienne are in the books to know that their paths are unlikely to intertwine anytime soon. A Dance With Dragons ends with Stannis and his dwindling army holed up on the edges of Winterfell, that much is accurate - but unlike in the show, Asha Greyjoy is his captive, while Theon and an Iron Bank representative also turn up to indicate that the situation is about to become even more complicated.

When we consider that Brienne is currently occupied apparently luring Jaime Lannister to Lady Stoneheart, it feels safe to say that she won’t be riding up North to avenge Renly just yet, if at all.