Additions, cuts and deviations

[Lord Varys]

Having Cat as Robb's emissary in Renly's camp will also build up tension. The audience can hope/speculate that the Starks are going to form an alliance with House Baratheon to crush the Lannister regime (or they may hope that this fails, if Tyrion is going to be a likable character - I'm not sure if he will be sympathetic when seen from outside).

The Starks are pretty on top of things at the beginning of ACoK.

This certainly should not be cut.

About Lorch: He should be in there. And if only for the sake of the bear scene. Arya needs to really hate this guy, and as he has to be the person from which Roose Bolton's takes away Harrenhal, it makes no sense to make him one of Gregor's men.

Yes, Dany has only few chapters, but her story is also somewhat unimportant until she visits the House of the Undying, and is joined by Barristan. It would be easily possible to reduce her character arc to two or three episodes; she could cross the Red Waste the whole time, and only meet the three seekers in Qarth. But I'd argue against that, as Dany is one of the core characters of the series, and the audience needs to see that. If they do not, they will be irritated, as it makes much less sense to follow the fate of character at the far end of the world if the screen time signals that he is unimportant.

[Padraig]

About Lorch: He should be in there. And if only for the sake of the bear scene. Arya needs to really hate this guy, and as he has to be the person from which Roose Bolton's takes away Harrenhal, it makes no sense to make him one of Gregor's men.

They could introduce Lorch later on. But if one wants to drop a significant bit of Arya's story, the most obvious element is to combine Lorch's attack with Gregor's. If they keep both, great. But dropping things like the Goldcloaks is only a small thing.

I'd agree with everything else. Could always move forward aSoS Dany chapter also if they were stuck.

[Werthead]

My thoughts on the remaining characters to be cast:

Maege Mormont: Probably too small fry. Will either not be present, or will be an extra in the background. It’s possible that she (plus Dacey) might turn up in Season 2 (there wasn’t time for Maege to link up with Robb so she followed him down). Arguably can be cut altogether, depending on the importance of her mission to the Reeds in Book 3 to the overall storyline. I liked Dacey and Maege’s discussions with Cat in Book 3 and their contrast with Brienne. It would be a shame to lose them, but not a calamity.

Roose Bolton: You definitely need him in the series and it would be nice to set him in up in S1 before his major role in S2, but arguably you can have him turn up in S2 instead. Robb can simply say, “Give these orders to Lord Bolton,” to explain he’s in command of the Green Fork army and never have him appear on-screen. Not totally satisfying, but doable. If, like the Blackfish, this is the price we need to pay to get a really good actor for him in S2 (when they’re not paying Bean and Addy’s salaries any more), that’s a fair compromise.

Walder Frey: I see no reason why they wouldn’t have Frey in S1, unless they’ve decided to ditch the Red Wedding (which would be a retarded decision) later on. You need to establish him early and you need to set up his deal with Robb. He’s in exactly three scenes in the entire book series, so he shouldn’t be expensive either. To be honest,

you arguably don’t even need a major actor to play him. Pushing Frey back to S2 is only really possible if they’re holding back on the entire Robb-fighting-the-Lannister storyline until S2, which they presumably aren’t if they’ve cast Tywin and Shae (who don’t appear until that battle is about to start).

Alternate plan for Walder Frey: have Cat ride off to meet him, but we don’t see it. She then rides back to Robb saying, “He’s agreed to let you pass and this is the price.” Then have the actual meeting between Cat and Walder as a special bit of extra content on the HBO website (like what they are doing at the moment for TRUE BLOOD), possibly to be reintegrated into the episode on DVD.

Rickard Karstark: Can definitely wait until Season 2, but I think he needs to be there. One area where ACoK/Season 2 can be fleshed out is the whole thing in Riverrun with Jaime in captivity, Tyrion’s failed rescue mission (which is unsatisfyingly resolved in the book, as we don’t see it) and Jaime killing Karstark’s sons which sets up events in Book 3. You could delete the entire storyline and push out the Karstarks, but again it’s a nice subplot and tells us a lot about Robb.

Greatjon Umber: The Greatjon has two crowning moments of awesome in Book 1 alone (the scene with Grey Wind and the “KING IN THE NORTH!”), and losing either would be painful. Also Robb needs somebody in his army to talk to. If we’re pushing back Maege, Rickard and Roose, that doesn’t actually leave any other Northern lords in his army to chat with. I’m hoping against hope that the Greatjon is still in it and just hasn’t been announced yet.

Thoros and Beric: Almost certainly delayed until S3. I suspect how it will go now is that Loras will come to see Ned in his quarters about the mission to go after Gregor, Ned will rebuff him and then send orders to Thoros and Beric by letter. This saves HBO the cost of hiring those actors until Season 3.

Timmett and Chella: We’ve heard vaguely about Shagga being cast, but nothing on the others. This seems an area ripe for pruning: turn the mountain men into one big clan led by Shagga with the others as extras at best (some woman in the background with an ear-necklace, maybe someone at the Lannister strategy meeting saying, “What’s that around her neck? Urgh!”). You lose a couple of good lines from Chella, but nothing too bad. Having Shagga around is far more important than losing those two IMO.

Kevan Lannister: Easily disposable until Season 2 or even 3. Have Kevan as the commander of the reserve Lannister army that Robb smashes at Oxcross. Kevan escapes and hooks up with Tywin later, maybe not until Season 3. That saves the cost of casting him. Alternately, have Kevan in the frame in Season 2 commanding the Lannister forces in the West fighting Robb and beef up his role beyond what is in the books. Kevan’s only real contribution in GoT is to be Tywin’s sounding board in the

strategy meetings and those roles can be transferred to minor lordlings, to Tyrion himself or simply have Tywin speak for himself (although I hope Tywin’s deathly silence followed by “They have my son!” remains).

I can certainly see them being tempted to expand on Robb and Jaime in Season 2, having Robb in the field with him and the Blackfish in bigger roles (maybe fighting against Kevan Lannister whilst Tywin is holed up in Harrenhal) and Jaime back at Riverrun plotting to escape and eventually almost succeeding thanks to Tyrion's ruse. I think that certainly the jailbreak and Jaime killing the Karstark sons should be shown to better set up Robb's execution of Rickard Karstark later on.

The problem is that whilst those are good ideas, they are drawing story time away from the Night's Watch mission, Stannis, Tyrion-in-King's Landing, Bran-in-Winterfell, Theon in the Islands, Arya-in-Harrenhal and Dany. With ACoK already being 100 pages longer than AGoT and likely having to omit more stuff to fit into 10 episodes, adding substantial new storylines may not be possible.

[Padraig]

That's a very good analysis. I'd like to see Walder Frey and the Greatjon also. Given they both appear in the latter half of the book, there should still be time to cast them.

I could see Rickard Karstark been left out till S3. He could be introduced raging against Catelyn for releasing Jaime. Although seeing him in S2 would make that thread even smoother. And Kevan is only really needed in S3. And enters his own with that one scene in aFfC.

[The hairy bear]

I like the idea of Jaime killing Karstark's sons not in the Whispering Woods but during his attempt to escape. That way you don't need Rickard in Season 1.

[Padraig]

That's a very interesting idea. Makes the transition to a very angry Rickard in S3 a lot easier to follow, rather than having a sizeable gap between the sons dieing in S1 and revenge in S3. In the books it isn't a problem because they can mention his anger every so often.

Or they could have 1 son dieing in S1 and another in S2.

[Blackfish Blues]

']Maege Mormont: Probably too small fry. Will either not be present, or will be an extra in the background. It's possible that she (plus Dacey) might turn up in Season 2 (there wasn't time for Maege to link up with Robb so she followed him down). Arguably can be cut altogether, depending on the importance of her mission to the Reeds in Book 3 to the overall storyline. I liked Dacey and Maege's discussions with Cat in Book 3 and their contrast with Brienne. It would be a shame to lose them, but not a calamity.

As I think I wrote over at WiC too (don't ask me to keep track, I'm a dumb Tully) I would love for the Mormonts to feature in the series, maybe not prominently, but to be there. The reason? They are a nice counterpoint to Brienne, as you say, Wert. Brienne establishes her identity as a "knight", asexual apart for her feelings for Renly and later for Jaime. But the Mormonts are unapologetically female, and going into the thick of battle, swinging battle maces or morningstars, to the point that we see poor Dacey die at the Red Wedding.

They might be secondary characters, but if The Powers That Be decide to show us the diversity of Westeros, it would be vastly cool to show the Bear Island women, used to fighting as women, compared to Brienne, coming from a noble family but trying to make her way in the world as a knight.

Too much wishful thinking?

[Loras]

As I think I wrote over at WiC too (don't ask me to keep track, I'm a dumb Tully) I would love for the Mormonts to feature in the series, maybe not prominently, but to be there. The reason? They are a nice counterpoint to Brienne, as you say, Wert. Brienne establishes her identity as a "knight", asexual apart for her feelings for Renly and later for Jaime. But the Mormonts are unapologetically female, and going into the thick of battle, swinging battle maces or morningstars, to the point that we see poor Dacey die at the Red Wedding.

As much as I like the Bear Island women, I think that Asha Greyjoy is a better counterpoint for Brienne and a much more important character. As you say Brienne does identify herself as a knight and I think that is probably due to her backstory and her treatment by men. Also I think it is quite important that Pod calls her "ser", it reminds the audience that she does identify herself as such. But I would say Asha more than the Mormonts uses her womanly charms as a weapon as well as the dagger.

I'd like to think that the Mormonts would be established as the second or third major house of the North in the series, due to the fact that they are the only house that have key members of their family that are present in the 3 main storylines of the series. I think that Dacey particularly could become a charming minor character that the viewers would love.

I like the idea of Jaime killing Karstark's sons not in the Whispering Woods but during his attempt to escape. That way you don't need Rickard in Season 1.

Thats a really good idea, I don't think that there will be time in the first season to establish the Karstark family. Yet Rickard Karstark's downfall is a really important moment in Robb's development and he would be a good secondary character interacting with Jaime, Robb, Catelyn etc. I would kill them both at the same time though.

I agree that Umber and Frey are the only two essential bannermen introduced in the first season, however it would be nice if Bolton was present too.

[Padraig]

Yes, given we haven't got a confirmed Greatjon, it's probably too early to start hoping for Lady Mormont. There are actually a number of female warriors in the North (Osha, Asha, Ygritte), so I don't think we are short of those. And the latter 3 should all appear.

The easiest way to deal with the female Mormonts is to introduce them in S3, at least Dacey. She doesn't do anything much in the first 2 books but this way we get to like a few more of Robb's people before so many are killed. And the production doesn't have to worry about casting more people across multiple seasons.

[FilliamHMuffman]

- Characters the production is confirmed to be casting for season one that have not been officially cast are Rickon, Tommen, Myrcella, Gendry, Shagga, Walder Frey, and Ilyn Payne. I think we can assume at this point that other characters have either been cut, pushed back to future seasons, or are non-speaking extras in the series. It would not surprise me if Rickon, Tommen, and Myrcella will be played by extras in season one and recast later, which is possibly why we haven't gotten any casting information on them.

- It is confirmed that the plan is to introduce Brynden and Edmure Tully in season two. Other AGoT characters that are likely to appear in the series in prominent roles, but be pushed back to future seasons, are Podrick Payne, Kevan Lannister, Beric Dondarrion, Thoros of Myr, Aerys Oakheart, Mandon Moore, Donal Noye, Roose Bolton, and Rickard Karstark.

- Donal Noye's absence in season one means Jeor Mormont will need to step in and tell Jon to stop being an ass. I still think he will appear in later seasons because someone will need to be left in charge as Lord Commander during the great ranging.

- The bannermen will be extras, except for ones that are particularly important to the plot, like Walder Frey and Roose Bolton, maybe Howland Reed in the future if the series runs that long. Robb needs to have at least one right-hand man though, and it appears Rodrik will be filling that role in season one. But he has to go north in season two, so Brynden Tully will fill that role in season two and season three.

- Other characters going the extras route will be Tyrion's mountain men (excepting Shagga), the blood riders, and Walder Frey's heirs.

- Other characters not accounted for are probably cut.

[adamsputnik]

Where are you getting that info from? Good stuff to know if all true.

[Padraig]

- Other characters not accounted for are probably cut.

I'm not sure that is true. Most of the names that are accounted for (but uncast) were mentioned by GRRM right? I don't think he meant it to be an exhaustive list. There probably isn't a lot of additional names but one or two may creep in.

I'd agree that people like Rickon, Tommen and Myrcella may just be extras in S1 though.

Robb needs to have at least one right-hand man though, and it appears Rodrik will be filling that role in season one. But he has to go north in season two, so Brynden Tully will fill that role in season two and season three.

This is the main thing I don't agree with. Rodrik isn't around when Robb calls his bannermen. And I think he needs to have some interaction with them anyhow or Robb's whole story will be reduced considerably. And we'll need somebody to call Robb King in the North.

I think one will see at least one of everything. One from Robb's bannerman, one from the Mountain Men, one bloodrider etc.

[Blackfish Blues]

As much as I like the Bear Island women, I think that Asha Greyjoy is a better counterpoint for Brienne and a much more important character. As you say Brienne does identify herself as a knight and I think that is probably due to her backstory and her treatment by men. Also I think it is quite important that Pod calls her "ser", it reminds the audience that she does identify herself as such. But I would say Asha more than the Mormonts uses her womanly charms as a weapon as well as the dagger.

I'd like to think that the Mormonts would be established as the second or third major house of the North in the series, due to the fact that they are the only house that have key members of their family that are present in the 3 main storylines of the series. I think that Dacey particularly could become a charming minor character that the viewers would love.

So that their hearts can be broken when the Red Wedding happens. ;) Seriously, I agree.

Yes, given we haven't got a confirmed Greatjon, it's probably too early to start hoping for Lady Mormont. There are actually a number of female warriors in the North (Osha, Asha, Ygritte), so I don't think we are short of those. And the latter 3 should all appear.

I wasn't thinking about Osha, Asha and Ygritte, merely because they are sort of outsiders. I was thinking about all the illustrious and manly lords gathered around Robb, for example in the King in the North scene, and smack in the middle this madwoman banging her mace on the table.

Which I realize is not exactly a great show of femininity, but I always think about Maege, with her half dozen daughters, lady of her island, as rather hot, despite being tubby and grey-haired. Hot in a Greatjon way. :D

However, of course, it seems that most of the illustrious lords will be cut. Jason Mallister, for example, I don't remember ever hearing his name during the casting process. So a Maege Mormont beside the Greatjon and Bolton and some Frey and nobody else would not particularly stand out.

OTOH, she might be important when we get to meet Howland Reed... but that's so much in the future that probably isn't relevant for casting Maege now.

[Padraig]

OTOH, she might be important when we get to meet Howland Reed... but that's so much in the future that probably isn't relevant for casting Maege now.

Fair enough. Or they could just delay casting her in S1 like the Blackfish.

[Gertrude]

But I would say Asha more than the Mormonts uses her womanly charms as a weapon as well as the dagger.

The point is that the Mormonts don't wield their femininity, they just are. They are comfortable in their skin (which Brienne isn't) and are accepted as competent warriors who just happen to be female (Asha isn't accepted - specifically the succession). They neither flaunt nor hide their femininity because they don't need to prove anything to anyone.

I think that Dacey particularly could become a charming minor character that the viewers would love.

As has been said, it would be heart-breaking to get to know and like her before the Red Wedding. It gives that little extra punch in the gut. I like it. :)

[Blackfish Blues]

The point is that the Mormonts don't wield their femininity, they just are. They are comfortable in their skin (which Brienne isn't) and are accepted as competent warriors who just happen to be female (Asha isn't accepted - specifically the succession). They neither flaunt nor hide their femininity because they don't need to prove anything to anyone.

Yes, that's what I was trying to say. And to think that GRRM made us visualize so clearly and love these characters with just what? A dozen lines of appearance.

I truly hope HBO does the same - maybe a tiny scene with the Mormonts, but make it unforgettable.

[Radio Changes]

I think an interesting, yet not totally outlandish choice might be to cut Tyrion's trip to the Wall, and have him go back with everyone to KL. There he might interact with major people he has interactions with in ACoK, and such. I feel like the saddle scene isn't of desperate importance. Once south, he could be sent somewhere on a pretense(I dont know the reason) and along the way is kidnapped.

I feel like a lot of Winterfell things might get cut, especially some Bran stuff, and the show might focus on the political aspects more.

I could be totally wrong about Tyrion, though.

[Padraig]

I think an interesting, yet not totally outlandish choice might be to cut Tyrion's trip to the Wall, and have him go back with everyone to KL. There he might interact with major people he has interactions with in ACoK, and such. I feel like the saddle scene isn't of desperate importance. Once south, he could be sent somewhere on a pretense(I dont know the reason) and along the way is kidnapped.

GRRM has mentioned that the adaptation of aGoT is faithful. Although, at the same time, a few changes like that wouldn't be hugely major. (Jon's friendship with Tyrion might be important though). IIRC though, the actor that is playing Rast mentioned something about filming with Tyrion recently. So that would mean that he is heading to the Wall.

And not sure how Tyrion's interaction with Catelyn could work without him going to the Wall.

I think Winterfell will have a significant role also. They have cast Osha, which suggests they are going to have that whole plot element there.

[1000 days Anne]

A thing for the third season.

Someone at the boards suggested that it would be odd if a 16-years-old Robb were virgin and marries Jeyne Poole (sp?) because he'd taken her virginity.

I think she could be pregnant - the main reason he marries her in the books is because he doesn't want to father a bastard. She could have a miscarriage, so all the other facts would remain the same.

[Padraig]

Someone at the boards suggested that it would be odd if a 16-years-old Robb were virgin and marries Jeyne Poole (sp?) because he'd taken her virginity.

They could get away with just Jeyne been a virgin, never mind Robb. He just has to be in love. :P