Game Of Thrones: 10 Times Fans Totally Overreacted To Book Changes

Most fans are familiar with the fact that Game of Thrones is constantly changing things from the book series. Like with any adaptation, this frequently gets hardcore book fans up in arms, annoyed that some of their favorite aspects of the novels have been altered or left out entirely.

Sometimes, they're right to be annoyed. There have been times the show has completely butchered moments that were cool in the novels, like when they totally de-emphasised Stannis' arrival at the Battle of the Wall, for example. The writers often leave out favorite characters like Coldhands and Strong Belwas, too. Readers will hype themselves up to see these exciting moments and characters depicted on screen, and so when they're left out, it's natural to be disappointed. 

But then there are changes where there's no reason whatsoever to get upset, and yet the Internet still becomes outraged. Fans have flipped out about the most minor of changes, like when the showrunners slightly rewrite a line to be less confusing for viewers, add in a new subplot, or even remove a scene where a character eats a peach. 

From the past five seasons of Game of Thrones, here are 10 book changes that fans really overreacted to. 

Littlefinger’s murder of Lysa Arryn was a pretty iconic moment. Lysa is freaking out and threatening to throw Sansa out the moon door when Littlefinger steps in to calm her down. “I have only loved one woman, only one my entire life,” he assures her. “Your sister,” he finishes, pushing her out the door to her death.

Hell yes! What a great scene, right? Well, when this episode aired, book fans immediately freaked out over changes the showrunners made here. In the book, right before killing Lysa, instead of saying “Your sister,” Littlefinger says “Only Cat.”

Isn’t that pretty much the same? Basically, yes, but “Only Cat” became kind of an iconic line among readers and served as code for this amazing scene, and so when it was changed, they got pretty annoyed. But really, this was such a pointless thing to get upset about.

In fact, the change actually makes a lot of sense. In a show where viewers already have a difficult time keeping track of characters, and Catelyn Stark was rarely called by her nickname “Cat,” the original line would just be confusing. The reaction among non-readers wouldn’t be shock, but instead, “wait, Littlefinger only loves cats? Huh?”

If the showrunners omitted the scene entirely, that would be worth complaining about. But here, they still did the moment justice, simply tweaking one line to avoid confusion.