Quotes from GRRM about the how the show will be different from the [unwritten] final book;
--"I’ve been so slow with these books," Martin told Rolling Stone. "The major points of the ending will be things I told [Benioff and Weiss] five or six years ago. But there may also be changes, and there’ll be a lot added."
---And I’m writing. Winter is coming, I told you, long ago… and so it is. THE WINDS OF WINTER is very late, I know, I know, but it will be done. I won’t say when, I’ve tried that before, only to burn you all and jinx myself… but I will finish it, and then will come A DREAM OF SPRING.
How will it all end? I hear people asking. The same ending as the show? Different?
Well… yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes.
I am working in a very different medium than David and Dan, never forget. They had six hours for this final season. I expect these last two books of mine will fill 3000 manuscript pages between them before I’m done… and if more pages and chapters and scenes are needed, I’ll add them. And of course the butterfly effect will be at work as well; those of you who follow this Not A Blog will know that I’ve been talking about that since season one. There are characters who never made it onto the screen at all, and others who died in the show but still live in the books… so if nothing else, the readers will learn what happened to Jeyne Poole, Lady Stoneheart, Penny and her pig, Skahaz Shavepate, Arianne Martell, Darkstar, Victarion Greyjoy, Ser Garlan the Gallant, Aegon VI, and a myriad of other characters both great and small that viewers of the show never had the chance to meet. And yes, there will be unicorns… of a sort…
Book or show, which will be the “real” ending? It’s a silly question. How many children did Scarlett O’Hara have?
How about this? I’ll write it. You read it. Then everyone can make up their own mind, and argue about it on the internet.
So yeah, he says that they made some of the characters have the same ending as what he had in mind 5 or 6 years ago. and that's all. Everyone on this thread who is falling for the ULTRA STUPIDITY of what D&D gave us---well I feel very sorry for you, and I am sorry that you have so little faith in GRRM. To even suggest that his masterpiece will end the same way those 2-bit hacks showed us on HBO is appalling. But of course, all Dany-Haters will love the HBO ending (despite most of them complaining about how stupid the show is these past 8 years) and Dany-Fans will hate it. I am seeing a clear divided line on these HBO threads, with most book-forum Dany-Haters coming here to say they think this is how it will end. So the show is "stupid, plot-less, bad writing, ridiculous, larry carol, deadpans, Pomade Jesus", etc. right up until Dany starts killing innocents--then all of a sudden it's "Exactly accurate" and "this is the ending" well fucking LMAO to that. D&D are dumbass terrible writer/directors and if hating Dany makes you suddenly disagree with that that's on you. I prefer to be consistent.
Edit: and if you think that nothing could possibly change over the past 6 years then I will refer you back to GRRM's original 1993 outline for the books....... it has changed so much it would be impossible for anyone except him to keep up with it.