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Lady Stoneheart vs Beric


Lord Robb

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I know Stoneheart is a very popular character, but I actually feel like Beric Dondarrion is cooler to have around, and I really like the show portrayal of him. So, what do you guys think, should the show have gone the Stoneheart route, or is keeping Beric Dondarrion an improvement?

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I much prefer the show version with Beric around, though I suspect not having LSH around screwed with Arya's storyline a bit as I believed that LSH would be the one to eliminate the Freys and that Arya would have a confrontation with LSH in which Arya learns how ugly, sad, and corrupting a life focused only on violence and vengeance is and thus begins Arya's transformation back to a character with a sense of empathy.

It'll be interesting to see if LSH had a big impact on Jaime and Brienne, though I doubt it (if she did then I think she would have been included on the show).

Beric though is cooler, more likable, and a more interesting connection with R'hllor's role versus the Others.

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Unfortunately, we just haven't seen much of LSH.  She appears in the SoS epilogue and a Brienne chapter in aFFC.  Aside from that, it's nothing but a few mentions from other POV's that indicate she's getting a reputation and other people are aware of her.  I suspect she'll end up in the "minor but extremely consequential" list of characters.  She's obviously going to impact Brienne and Jamie's story arcs in some way.

As much as I miss not having her around, I kinda like the show version of Beric.

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The show easily could have done both, with one minor change.

In the books: Thoros refuses to resurrect Cat, so Beric sacrifices his own unlife to do it.

So in the show: Thoros refuses to resurrect Cat, so Beric sacrifices his own unlife to do it—but it doesn't work. "Well, I still don't know what my purpose is, but I guess this isn't it. Still, we need Catelyn back." Thoros, convinced by Beric's seriousness (he was literally willing to die to bring Cat back, can't get much more serious than that), agrees to resurrect her, and it works.

The harder problem is figuring out what to do with LSH. GRRM may not have even worked out her story that far in the books—and, more important, they've simplified the Riverlands story to the point where most of what he's probably got wouldn't work anyway. Brienne is already gone from that part of the story. Robb's crown and will (and widow) don't matter. Splitting the BwB and confusing their mission isn't something they'd want to do on TV. Whatever's going on in the Riverlands with thousands of broken local and Northern soldiers, and dozens of lords who supported the Tullys but didn't die for them, that isn't happening. Edmure isn't being transported across those Riverlands with a triple-strength guard that Jaime is sure will be good enough.

All that's left is killing Freys. And, while it could be a nice way to show the horror of revenge in parallel with their attempted Dornish story showing the tragedy of revenge, that's not enough of a reason to spend the screen time and viewer attention that would be needed to give us LSH. She should mean more than that if she's going to appear.

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