1. Almost Everything That Happens In The City Of Qarth
In The Books Following Khal Drogos death at the end of the first book, Daenerys and the people still loyal to her become stranded in the Red Waste, an Essos desert that claims the life of Doreah, one of her handmaidens. As a last resort, she sends her three bloodriders out with the groups last remaining horses, and one returns with emissaries from the city of Qarth. The city is a magnificent one, and Daenerys finds herself welcomed because of her three newly-hatched dragons, which are marvelled at by the upper echelons of the citys population. These individuals predominantly belong to three guilds, the Thirteen, the Tourmaline Brotherhood and the Ancient Guild Of Spicers, all of whom have a say in the citys governance and political manoeuvring. She finds a host and an ally in the form of Xaro Xhoan Daxos, one of many people whose resources and support she seeks to facilitate an invasion of Westeros, where she wishes to claim the Iron Throne that she believes to be rightfully hers. It soon becomes clear that the only thing that the people of the city want to claim is her dragons, Xaro (who has proposed marriage) included. This makes her turn to warlock Pyat Pree as a last resort, against the advice of her bloodriders and Ser Jorah Mormont, her loyal knight. Visiting the stronghold of his ilk, the House Of The Undying, she is shown a series of visions and prophecies concerning the past, present and future before being attacked by her hosts, who also covet her dragons. One of the beasts, however, comes to Daenerys aid, burning down the House Of The Undying in the process, an action that makes her persona non grata with the rest of the city, including Xaro, who nevertheless remains cordial. She heads to the docks, where an attempt on her life is thwarted by Strong Belwas and Arstan Whitebeard, two men in the employ of Magister Ilyrio, an ally of hers from Pentos, who have arrived with a fleet of three ships.
In The Series Much like in the book, Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) and her people are rescued from the desert by emissaries of Qarth, who are condensed into a single faction called the Thirteen. Their membership includes Xaro (Nonso Anozie), who vouches for Daenerys and her people, making them guests in his home. Xaro proposes marriage to Daenerys; though she turns him down to unsuccessfully seek support from the factions other members. Returning to Xaro, she discovers that her dragons have been taken and her two handmaidens Irri (Amrita Acharia) and Doreah (Roxanne McKee) are dead and missing respectively, despite the former still being alive as of the fifth book and the latter dying in the pre-Qarth sections of the second book. A meeting of the Thirteen is convened as a result, in which the warlock Pyat Pree (Ian Hanmore) claims responsibility and murders everybody present apart from Xaro, who seeks to use their death to claim absolute power over the city. With Jorah (Iain Glen) and Kovarro (Steven Cole) at her side, Daenerys heads to the House Of The Undying in search of her dragons, predicting and indeed falling victim to a trap, becoming separated from her companions. She bears witness to a selection of visions, including one in which she is reunited with the deceased Drogo (Jason Momoa) and their unborn son, before the illusion is broken and she is revealed to be being held captive by Pyat Pree, who seeks to use her and the dragons to enhance his own magical ability. Drogon comes to the rescue, burning the warlock alive and facilitating Daenerys escape. She returns to confront Xaro over his involvement in the matter, finding him in bed with Doreah (despite it being implied in the books that he was gay) and condemning the pair of them to death by locking them in a vault. She then salvages enough from the mans valuables to purchase a ship, and neither Belwas nor Arstan are seen.
Reaction It is fair to say that the Qarth chapters in A Clash Of Kings were reasonably weak in comparison to the rest of the book and that a change was needed in order to make them more engaging to a screen audience. Pyat Prees theft of the dragons is therefore an interesting twist, even if his motivations are sketchy and his death could cause problems later on. More nonsensical is the involvement of Xaro in the matter (why would he propose marriage if he intended to turn Daenerys over anyway?), as well as Doreahs betrayal. The death of Irri also means that Daenerys has no female companions left on the show, though it seems likely that the writers will adapt the character of Missandei (a child in the books but to be played by adult Nathalie Emmanuel in season three) to fill this void. Most criminal, however, is the writers decision to omit almost every scene from The House Of Undying in the show, as several of the visions shown in the book (which I wont spoil, in case they do eventually get around to it), as well as the prophecies of a character named Quaithe (which are similarly omitted despite the character being included) are extremely important to the future and the mythology of the series. Whilst the reunion with Drogo was heartfelt and emotional, its inclusion was questionable at best. And there we have it, four things, for better or worse, that have been featured in Game Of Thrones but not in its literary counterparts. You may realise that Ive avoided talking about the events in Winterfell seen in Season 2, despite the fact that they vastly different from the books. This is because the casting for season three seems to hint that some developments have merely been delayed, rather than replaced altogether. That aside, feel free to leave your comments below.