7 Important Game of Thrones Universe Characters Not in The Show (Spoilers)
Published in Entertainment at April 19th, 2017 at 6:52 AM
Game Of Thrones is loved by many fans worldwide and is a TV-show hit. With everything from war too dragons, and everything in-between. We all have our favourite characters from the show, but not all of them from George R.R. Martin’s books got a big screen appearance. Here are 7 important Game of thrones universe characters not in the show that should have been (spoilers).
Intro
If you’ve clicked onto this video, then you’re probably well aware of how big a hit Game of Thrones has been for HBO. You are also probably aware that the series is based off George R.R. Martin’s book series ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ and no doubt know that when adapting a book to the screen, things can change and characters can be omitted. The TV series has of course left out some interesting and important characters from the books that we feel deserve some recognition. If you’re familiar with the books, then the characters on this list should at least refresh your memory. If you’re only familiar with the show, then this will hopefully enlighten you, giving you greater insight into the world of the show. It should go without saying, but there are both book and show spoilers ahead. You have been warned.
Quentyn Martell
The Martells; they are the major house in the kingdom of Dorne and they play a very important role in the books. In the show, their role might be about to get a lot bigger when season 7 kicks off, but for the most part, has been woefully little and taken a totally different path compared to the books.
The show gave us the tragedy of Prince Oberyn and but a terribly brief glimpse of Prince Doran Martell and his son Trystane and then the show’s writers decided do away with several books worth of plotting and character development and killed them off.
Prince Doran had an older son call Quentyn, and he was a man on a mission. Short, stocky and not especially handsome, Quentyn is sent on a mission by Doran to Meereen to win the heart of Daenerys and become a dragon rider. His quest is one of disguises as he and his loyal followers, Ser Gerris and Ser Archibald, make their way across the sea to Meereen.
Their journey sees them fight off pirates and pose as sellsword mercenaries before eventually tricking their way into Dany’s court. Quentyn gets to Meereen and explains to Dany that his father and uncle conceived of a secret pact that would have seen Dany’s brother Viserys marry Quentyn’s sister Arianne, and that with Viserys dead, offers to marry Dany instead. Daenerys rejects hims however, and undeterred, Quentyn attempts to steal one of her Dragons after Dany goes missing on her dragon Drogon. Quentyn and the Windblown mercenaries he convinced to aid him break into the dungeon where the dragons are kept to steal one,
but Quentyn is fatally burned by the dragon Rhaegal. He later dies while being treated for his wounds, and is so badly burned as to be unrecognisable. This however leads to some speculation about the circumstances of his death, with fan theories suggesting that Quentyn actually made it out alive, with his cunning friends putting another fatally burned person in his place. Some fans suggest that Quentyn is unknowingly playing a part in his father’s master plan, the likes of which would drive the conspiracy theorists of Westeros wild.
Marwyn
Way back in season 1, you will recall Mirri Maz Durr, the healer and witch who Daenerys saves from the Dothraki, only to supposedly betray Danny with blood magic leading to the death of her unborn son and the comatose state of her husband. In the books, it's explained that Mirri is so well taught in the art of healing and can speak the common tongue,
because of time she spent studying under the Archmaester Marwyn. Given Samwell Tarly arrived at the Citadel at the end of season 6, Marwyn may be about to make an appearance in the show, and is what is known about him from the books is anything to go by, this could be a pretty big deal. Marywn is an Archmaester of the Citadel, specialising in magic.
Maesters you no doubt know from the show are the wisemen who study the world and advise lords based on their knowledge, and as hinted at in the show, are actually rather dismissive of magic. Marwyn however is the one exception, and his knowledge of magic and his questionable lifestyle have earned him a bit of a reputation amongst the Maesters.
Theories about Marwyn suggest he may have been using a magical artifact called a glass candle to contact Daenerys in her dreams with the assistance of Sarella Sand, one of Prince Oberyn’s bastard daughters not featured on the show. In the books, Marwyn seems to be off to advise Dany on dragons and magic as her Maester after hearing of the goings on north of The Wall from Sam.
Vargo Hoat
Back in season 3, a particularly spiteful character called Locke was introduced; he cut of Jaime Lannister's sword hand and later died trying to kill Jon Snow and Bran Stark. Locke is actually a condensed and considerably nicer version of the book character Vargo Hoat.
The leader of a sellsword company called the ‘Brave Companions’ from Esso, Vargo is a particular sadistic man with a penchant for dismemberment. Nicknamed the goat because of his banner and stylised helmet, he speaks with a slobbering lisp due to a swollen tongue,
he stands out as a character, riding a horse zebra hybrid called a ‘Zorse’ and wearing a necklace of coins from around the world. He is hired by Tywin Lannister to cause havoc in the Riverlands, sending his company out to pillage and cause immense suffering on its people in an effort to draw Robb Stark into battle. When Tywin leaves castle Harrenhal to fight Robb, Vargo is left in charge with Amory Lorch. The two don’t get along and Vargo betrays the castle to Roose Bolton, and has Amory thrown in a bear pit.
Roose gifts Vargo the castle, but being a foreigner, is not aware that Harrenhal is a cursed gift, nor is he aware of what befalls those who betray Tywin Lannister. During this time, Vargo tries to force himself on Brienne of Tarth, who having none of it, bites his ear off, but his spared his wrath due to the intervention of Jaime Lannister. Harrenhal is eventually retaken by the head smashing giant,
Ser Gregor ‘The Mountain’ Clegane, who gives Vargo a taste of his own foul flavoured medicine. The Mountain has Vargo slowly dismembered and then serves the chopped of pieces to his prisoners, including the dying Vargo himself, as ‘Roast Goat’.
Patchface
For those of you who follow the show alone, cast your mind back to Shireen Baratheon, if your hearts can still handle it. She was Stannis Baratheon’s grayscale marked adorable daughter who was a bundle of innocence and hope... before Weiss and Benioff rewrote Stannis into Macbeth and she, along with the Baratheon plotline, went up in flames. Some of you will be happy to know that Shireen is still alive in the books for the time being,
and that she even has some cheerful company in the form of the jester Patchface. Or maybe you won’t, as there is something at least a little bit sinister about Patchface. His face is tattooed in a patchwork of red and green, as he was a slave in the city of Volantis. Bought from slavery by Steffon Baratheon, Stannis’s father, because of his wit, juggling and performances of magic, Patchface was the only survivor of the shipwreck that killed Steffon and all on board.
When he was rescued from the wreck, he was clammy cold and appeared to be dead. Since then, he has not been one hundred percent: twitching, walking funny and talking in what appear to be oddly prophetic rhymes. One of his rhymes almost certainly predicts the Red Wedding, with the rest have book fans speculating and guessing as best they can.
Jeyne Westerling
In the show, Robb Stark married the battlefield nurse and low-key noblewoman Talisa Maegyr and it was very much a romantic affair that led to the marriage and consequently, the Red Wedding. Oona Chaplin who plays Talisa was originally billed as playing a character called ‘Jeyne’,
who has been confirmed by the showrunners and G.R.R. Martin himself as having been the character Jeyne Westerling from the books. Rewrites saw Oona’s character become the almost entirely new Talisa on Martin’s advice.
Jeyne Westerling in the books was Robb Stark’s wife as Talisa was on the shows, but with some very important differences. For one, Jeyne Westerling is still alive in the books and at last check was being used as a Lannister bargaining chip at the siege of Riverrun. The circumstances of the marriage to Robb are also quite different. Robb is wounded laying siege to the Westerling castle ‘The Crag’, but is still victorious. The Westerlings are quick to embrace their conquerors as friends, sending their eldest daughter Jeyne to nurse Robb.
Robb then learns of the death of his younger brothers at the hands of Theon Greyjoy and overcome with grief finds comfort in the young Jeyne. Having deflowered the maiden Jeyne, Robb decides to do the honourable thing and marries her and the two fall in love. Robb not wanting to insult the Frey’s, whose marriage pact he broke, does not take her with him to the wedding at The Twins, so she does not die at the Red Wedding, leaving many book readers to wonder what will become of her in future books.
It is also implied that she is descended from Maggy the Frog, the crone who appears briefly in the show revealing a damning prophecy to a young Cersei Lannister.
Strong Belwas
In the books, Daenerys Targaryen has much larger and much more colourful entourage than she does in the show. The most colourful member of said entourage is perhaps Strong Belwas, former slave and pit fighter, is now a bodyguard and champion of Dany’s. Belwas is described as being a colossus of a man: tanned, bald, and a scar covered eunuch.
In battle, he always lets his opponent get at least one cut on him before he defeats them, keeping the scars as a tally of those he has slain. In the books, he initially serves as part of a decoy to get the Ben Kenobi like Ser Barristan Selmy to Dany, with Selmy posing as Belwas’s squire.
The battle of champions at the gates of Meereen in the show is a quick affair thanks to Dany’s champion Daario. In the books, it is Strong Belwas who is Dany’s champion, and he makes it a nastier ordeal. After enduring an hour of taunting by the Meereenese Champion and its people,
Dany sends the former Belwas forward as her champion, partially as an insult to the slave trading city. Belwas avoids the charges of the opposing champion several times before allowing his opponent a cut on him; Belwas then beheads his opponent with a single blow.
In the show, the victorious Daario urinates in the general direction of the city to add insult to injury. In the show, the victorious Belwas takes this a step further, defecating in the city’s general direction.
Arianne Martell
That's right, another Martell; we started with Quentyn, and now we’re ending with his older sister, Arianne. Arianne Martell is proof of just how much better the Dorne plotline in the show could have been had the show-runners opted to stay closer to the books;
her father Prince Doran might as well be on this list too for similar reasons since it's almost like he wasn't in the show at all. Show Dorne bitterness aside,
Arianne Martell is a very important character in the books in her own right, and puts a whole new twist on the Princess in the Tower trope. Arianne was always a Daddy’s girl until when she was 14 when she discovered a letter that made out her father wanted Quentyn as his heir to Dorne.
This of course upset her, as in Dorne, gender is not an issue for inheritance. Feeling slighted by her father, she became a bit of a rebel, especially, as her father would make little reaction to her wild behaviour and presented her to elderly suitors.
It is only later that she finds that her father did not intend her to be his heir because he had instead intended to make her the Queen of all Seven Kingdoms with a secret marriage pact to Viserys Targaryen.
When Cersei’s daughter Myrcella ends up a ward in Dorne while Arianne is still in the dark about her father’s intentions, partially as an act of rebellion and partially to avenge her uncle Oberyn, she embarks on a daring plan. Adrianne effectively kidnaps Myrcella with the intention of crowning her the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms based on Dornish law.
She attempts this with the help of Myrcella’s bodyguard Aerys Oakheart, who Arianne has seduced and is having an affair with. The closest the show came to Arianne Martell was turning Ellaria Sand into a half-baked vengeance machine, whereas Arianne is much more the scheming seductress with great ambition, and a resilient, adaptable personality. Arianne Martell and her involvement with her father’s plotting, as well has her own, make the Dorne plotline in the books all the more enticing.
