5. Mance Is Dead...?
In the show: After Stannis arrives at The Wall and defeats the wildling army, he condemns The King Beyond The Wall to death. He is seen burning on a funeral pyre, until Jon Snow puts him out of his misery with an arrow to the heart. In the books: Much the same, except it isn't really Mance on that funeral pyre. Melisandre has used her magic to glamour everyone into seeing Mance, when it is actually the wildling Rattleshirt. The real Mance, it is revealed, is very much alive. When word is received that Arya Stark is headed to Winterfell, to marry Ramsay Bolton, Mance rides South (to the North...) with six spearwives in order to bring Arya to Jon. He performs as a singer throughout the wedding, while his spearwives murder Northmen and receive assistance from Theon/Reek in helping 'Arya' escape. Jon receives a letter from Ramsay Bolton, informing him that Mance has been jailed, and is using the sewn-together skins of his flayed companions for warmth. What it means: It looks increasingly unlikely that the show is going to follow the books in pulling the ol' Mance/Rattleshirt switcheroo, and instead that the leader of the Free Folk is definitely dead (although don't rule it out completely just yet). It means that either Theon will be the rescuer all by himself, or that the Northmen and women who have already shown themselves loyal will help as well. Or, indeed, it plays out totally different, because it's a different Stark girl getting married in the show.
James Hunt
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NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far.
A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.
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