1. Tyrion and Daenerys Finally Meet
In the show: The moment that the entirety of season 5 has been building to finally happened in The Gift, as Tyrion revealed himself to be what the title was really referring to, a gift from Jorah Mormont to Daenerys Targaryen, and the two finally met in one of Meereens fighting pits. After Jorah's decision to go into gladiator mode to impress Daenerys backfires, and hes about to be exiled all over again, Tyrion makes the big reveal - after being released from his chains by someone who may be the shows nod to Strong Belwas, if they sadly arent introducing the character properly - with the words: I am the gift. It is a pleasure to meet you, your grace. My name is Tyrion Lannister. Cue mic drop.
In the books: Tyrion is slowly but surely headed for a meeting with Daenerys, but it still hadnt happened by the end of A Dance With Dragons (although she does save him in the fighting pits, she is not aware of his identity). Its going to happen in The Winds Of Winter, but how it will play out is unclear.
Why the change? Because George R.R. Martin is taking so long with writing the sixth book, certain storylines have had to be accelerated, and this is the biggest example of this. As David Benioff explained to
Entertainment Weekly:
"Were really excited to see these two characters we love so much finally set eyes on each other. Creatively it made sense to us, because we wanted it to happen. Theyre two of the best characters of the show. To have them come so close together this season then have them not meet felt incredibly frustrating. Also, were on a relatively fast pace. We dont want to do a 10-year adaptation of the books, we dont want to do a nine-year adaptation. Were not going to spend four seasons in Meereen. Its time for these two to get together. Its hard to come up with a more eloquent explanation, but this just felt right. puts Tyrions mission out there and the mission ends in Meereen."
Theres a good chance that the whole reason the show killed off Barristan was to make room for Tyrion to fulfil his role from the books, running things in Meereen when Daenerys eventually flies off on Drogon, and he could be the man to get her on the path to Westeros.