Game Of Thrones: 8 Characters Who Didn't Meet Our Expectations

We're now on the other side of season 2 of HBO's Game of Thrones, 20 episodes, 20 hours, countless characters and an ever-increasing number of storylines, and generally speaking it's fair to say Game of Thrones has embedded itself in mainstream culture, wth many critics praising the high quality level of acting, writing and directing. Peter Dinklage, the man playing everyone's favourite dwarf Tyrion Lannister, won the Emmy for best supporting actor last year for the first season and almost certainly seems like a lock for next year's awards too. But let's be realistic - it ain't all good. There may be a high standard of acting within the show, and while actors may be doing a solid job of playing their roles within the TV show, there are several occasions where book fans in particular have had issues with some of the casting in the show. While these actors may not be bad actors themselves, there are noticeable discrepancies between book character and TV character. This is not a rant about the differences between the story of book versus TV show's narratives and storylines - this is focused specifically on the differences between key characters of the book versus those of the show. Note that if you haven't read the books you may feel a sting of fan rage boiling up inside of you, as this will mostly seem like unfair criticism - in fact even book readers are likely to find some of these submissions highly contentious, as at the end of the day, book interpretation is always subjective. So pick up your rock and get ready to hurl them as we count down the most miscast characters in Game of Thrones!

1. Syrio Forel

Before you hurl rocks, let me be clear - I like the Syrio Forel of the TV show. I enjoyed Miltos Yerolemou's performance a great deal - but it certainly surprised me. Syrio Forel, First Sword of Bravos, is described as bald, very slight and almost rigid in both his posture and personality. What Miltos brings to the table is a much more comic, happy-go-lucky version of the dancing master that often provides a few laughs for the audience. I can't criticise his performance at all, and it's certainly understandable that the writers would want to inject some much needed humour into the grim world of Ice and Fire, but part of will always be hunkering for what a more serious, true-to-the-books Syrio would have been like.