ryamano

I also must add that there are more Summer Islanders characters later in the series. One has to wonder if they'll be written in the show. They aren't really that important, but they appear and make a difference.

1) Supposedly. We never know how many books it will actually take. The two most recent ones were supposed to be only one, for example. 2) The race of some characters seems to have changed, due to HBO's choices. The Dothraki were supposed to be all mongol, as should be the Lazareen (the lamb people the Dothraki rape in episode 9), but HBO made these groups multiracial. There were supposed to be two or three black people in King's Landing (in the series, they come from a place called Summer Islands), but I don't think their characters will make an appearance in the TV show, since they aren't that important (Jalabhar Xho, the exiled prince, and Chataya and Alayaya, the sacred whores). Still, HBO has changed Shae's race, for example. In the TV show she's supposed to be foreign and she's played by a Turkish-German actress (your mileage may vary if you consider Turks people of color or not). In the books she was just plain Westerosi. We still have to see what HBO will make of the Dornish, people who live in Westeros but much more to the South, in a desert like environment (I always imagined them like Arabs, but who knows?). Dornish characters appear more and more as the series go on. 3) George RR Martin seems to have a good relationship with the fans. He attends many conventions.

GRRM likes to make things look like history, but with different outcomes. One thing I thought as well is that Ned Stark is some kind of Richard III who failed. He was basically in the same situation, but took the opposite decisions. Both Richard III and Ned Stark are loved in the north of the kingdom and considered fair rulers there. Both are named protectors of the realm and regents after the deaths of a friend/relative. And both said that the dead king's sons were illegitimate. But while Richard III was kind of without scruples and made his nephews disappear (or at least took advantage of that) to become king, Ned Stark was outmanouvered politically and ended dying like a traitor. Dany is based on the Jacobite kings. Just as she's named "Queen across the water" in the appendix of ACOK and ASOS the jacobite kings were called "king accross the water". But while jacobitism failed, Dany is probably going to succeed.