Game Of Thrones: 7 Storylines Season 5 Decided To Skip

2. A Ghost In Winterfell

Oh Theon. Is three seasons of torture really necessary? Luckily for him, Season 5 saw Theon beginning to come back to himself when he rescued Sansa from... Wait, Sansa? It might surprise show fans (or it might not considering how stupid it is) to learn that Sansa is not at Winterfell. She's in the Vale with Littlefinger. The girl who marries Ramsay Bolton is one of her childhood friends, Jeyne Poole, who is forced to masquerade as Arya. Complicated, eh?

But what about this Ghost? Well, it's not clear who it is €“ all we know is that someone is murdering people in Winterfell to create animosity between different Houses. It could be Ramsay, it could be Theon himself, or it could even be Mance Rayder, the King-Beyond-the-Wall. In the show he might be dead, but he is most definitely alive in the books. Saved from the fire by Melisandre (in fact swapped with another Wildling, and their appearances changed by magic), Jon sends him and six Wilding women on a mission to rescue Arya from Winterfell. Some time later, a bard calling himself Abel (and six female followers) arrive in Winterfell. Coincidence? I think not.

So much of Mance Rayder's character was cut from the show that it almost makes sense to kill him off. It's still a shame, as his subterfuge helps Theon and fake-Arya to escape Winterfell. Unless they pull a dramatic reveal, it doesn't look like we're going to see the return of Mance Rayder.