Game Of Thrones: 11 Most Unforgivable Cuts From The Books

2. The House Of The Undying Sequence

Prophecies are tricky things in any medium, and A Song of Ice and Fire is full of them. While most characters have been touched by a prophecy in some manner or other, a majority of the predictions seem to revolve around Daenerys Targaryen and her quest for the Iron Throne. The words of Mirri Maz Duur and Quaithe have haunted her throughout the series; most fascinating of all are the secrets revealed to Dany at the House of the Undying in A Clash of Kings. The headquarters of the warlocks of Qarth has many mysteries hidden within, and Dany sees vision after inexplicable vision as she explores its depths. She looks in one door to find a tableau in which a man with a wolf's head presides over a feast of corpses. In another, she witnesses the first mention of the actual "song of ice and fire" as Rhaegar looks at the infant Aegon. She watches the Mad King order the burning of the capital. Rhaegar dies at the Trident with a woman's name on his lips. A blue rose grows out of a wall of ice. There are enough images of the past, present, and possible future to keep readers guessing and analysing for years. Dany's exploration of the House of the Undying is one of the sequences from A Song of Ice and Fire that would have been impossible to faithfully translate to television. Budget and spoiler issues aside, the lack of context from Daenerys' on-page visions would be more confusing than compelling on screen. The show provided a decent enough alternative to the text, showing Dany walking through an empty and snow-covered Red Keep. It even gives us a surprisingly emotional cameo from Jason Momoa as Khal Drogo. It's a good scene; the unabridged version, however, could have been amazing for readers.