4. The Fates of Gendry Waters and Ser Barristan Selmy
One of the advantages of being in novel format rather than on TV is that the there is a greater ability to have a large cast of characters and one character can be a mystery to another and the audience, and all they need to do is change their name. The same cannot be said of television, where budgets limit cast size and once a character is introduced in one setting, it is much harder to give him an air of mystery in another, since the audience has already seen his face. Producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss handle the issue well, managing to cut the cast of thousands down to a still great, but much smaller number. In the books, it is Edric Storm, another of King Robert Baratheon's b**tard sons that Melisandre intends to sacrifice to the Lord of Light and Gendry Waters stays with the Brotherhood Without Banners. It is Edric who Ser Davos Seaworth saves from a death in the flames. In the show, they do away with Edric all together and instead have Gendry as the intended sacrifice, a much more farmiliar face by now. Not only does this make the whole sacrifice much more personal, but it also cuts down the cast and gives more significance to the characters that are already there, something that Game of Thrones is particularly good at. In this same vein, you can't hide the identity of Ser Barristan Selmy because the audience has already seen him. In the books, he disguises himself under the name Ser Arstan Whitebeard before eventually being forced to reveal himself to Dany. Cutting this out not only saved time, but also what would have ultimately been a lackluster reveal since the audience knew his identity the whole time. It gets the ball rolling faster and though it may lead to some complications down the road, it is certainly nothing that Benioff and Weiss won't be able to find a way around.