George R.R. Martin’s Five Favorite Missing Characters

It’s no secret that Game of Thrones has left a number of characters from George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series on the cutting room floor. Paper is cheap and words cheaper. Having thousands of characters is easy enough when writing a book, but it’s difficult to hire as many extras as the show uses from episode to episode, let alone pay actors for lines of dialogue. Executive producers David Benioff and Dan Weiss were always going to have to make cuts somewhere.

For non booker readers, we have lots of book spoilers ahead–including a hint or two of what may come in The Winds of Winter.

BE WARNED!

Some of those cuts have been welcome, as many of the characters that were cut never actually appeared in the books anyway. (Anyone remember Willas Tyrell, who Sansa was going to marry in the books?) Likewise, some of those cuts have been easy for the audience to understand, like substituting Varys in for Illyrio at the beginning of this season. Some changes, however, have been less popular, like moving Sansa into the Jeyne Poole “Fake Arya” storyline. And some have become so unpopular that fans still hold out hope that somehow the title of this year’s finale, “Mother’s Mercy,” means that the long-missing Lady Stoneheart will once more seek vengeance in Westeros.

But which of the changes that the show has made are hardest for George R.R. Martin to endure? After all, he created these characters, and though he repeatedly stands behind all the changes the producers make in service of telling the story the best way they can in their medium, it must hurt to see some of them go. When Entertainment Weekly asked him about this, Martin admitted that it did.

So who does he miss? Among others, Martin mentioned one of my favorites, a characters who never made it to screen despite our hopes that might have been him last week: Strong Belwas.

“Strong Belwas, who was part of Dany’s entourage…I understand why he was cut, but I kind of miss him.” 

It also turns out that Martin wishes they’d kept Jeyne Poole:

“She’s a minor character in the first book, then vanishes and then—boom—there she is in the fifth book in a major way.”

He also mentioned that cutting down the Tyrell family hurt, and not just Sansa’s off screen beau who got merged into Loras.

“Loras is not the eldest son in the books…There are two older brothers, Willas and Garlan. I didn’t just put them in for hoots and giggles, they have roles to play in the last two books, and they don’t exist in the show.”

But the fifth character Martin misses is the one I think will really strike a cord with fans. Yes, readers, Martin misses the great Lady with the Heart of Stone, too. Moreover, he pushes back on the claims from the end of last season that her character wasn’t essential.

“Lady Stoneheart does have a role in the books…Whether it’s sufficient or interesting enough…I think it is, or I wouldn’t have put her in. One of the things I wanted to show with her is that the death she suffered changes you.”

But he says next is even more interesting. After all, to many people Lady Stoneheart is Catelyn Stark reborn. But Martin dismisses that.

“Lady Stoneheart is not Cateyln. I’ve tried to set it up beforehand with Beric Dondarrion and his repeated [resurrections]. There’s a brief appearance by Beric in Book One and he rides into the city and he’s this flamboyant Southern knight. That’s not that man we meet later on.” 

So according to Martin, although it’s Catelyn’s body and Catelyn’s revenge we think Lady Stoneheart is carrying out, the woman who wrecks havoc is not really Catelyn anymore. That’s true. Catelyn might have had mercy for her victims, or been persuaded by arguments. Stoneheart would probably not even stop for Arya or Sansa. It’s sad to think, but as Martin says, death does change a person, and probably not for the better.

• Published on 06/01/2015 at 9:30 AM CDT
• Last updated on 06/01/2015 at 9:30 AM CDT